Wednesday, September 24, 2025

The self-loathing Log Cabin Republicans remain a joke all these decades later

Daniel Villareal has an article at LGBT NATION that I recommend.  Before I excerpt though, Yasmin Williams is a musician and she was apparently targeted by the Chump administration.  From WIKIPEDIA, this is the story Daniel's reporting on:


In April 2025, Williams emailed Richard Grenell, interim executive director of the Kennedy Center, expressing concern about DEI rollbacks and other changes made by President Donald Trump. She stated, "These events have caused a major negative reaction in my musical community to playing at the Kennedy Center, with lots of individuals I know ultimately canceling their shows there". In his reply, Grennell stated, "Every single person who cancelled a show did so because they couldn’t be in the presence of Republicans," and "I cut the DEI bullshit because we can’t afford to pay people for fringe and niche programming that the public won’t support".[15] In September 2025, Grenell's office reserved seats for a group of Log Cabin Republicans who organized a disruption of Williams' performance at the center.[16][17]


That is so wrong and it's very important.    But I also thought this section Daniel wrote was important -- where he details what a traitor the useless Log Cabin Republicans are and wat fake asses they are:

LCR has long touted itself as the “nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies.” Despite this, LCR has increasingly endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ political candidates and policies that seek to ban LGBTQ+ content in schools and gender-affirming care for trans minors.

The LCR has defended Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill by comparing its opponents to pedophiles who have “wet dreams of gender fluid, indoctrinated, and groomed children.” The group’s former president, Charles Moran, has written op-eds opposing transgender civil rights and also the Equality Act, legislation seeking LGBTQ+ nondiscrimination protections. In 2023, the group named a racist homophobe as one of its ambassadors.

The group’s executive director, Jerri Ann Henry, called President Donald Trump’s numerous anti-LGBTQ+ policies “hiccups.” The organization endorsed 14 anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans during the 2018 midterm elections and 12 anti-LGBTQ+ extremists in 2020, including Trump, Mike Pence, and a woman who thinks pedophiles are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

More recently, Texas LCR members joined armed extremists to protest a drag show. The national organization continues to praise Trump and never condemned his incitement of the January 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. Other LCR chapters have compared President Joe Biden to Adolf Hitler and called for Biden’s death.

Despite Moran’s claim in 2024 that “the national GOP platform has been stripped of all anti-LGBT language!” the GOP platform promised to ban LGBTQ+ content from schools and roll back legal protections for transgender people of all ages. The platform also promised “religious liberty” protections for Christians who discriminate against queer people.


They are not helping anyone.  They're self-loathing asses who go out of their way to attack those in the LGBTQ+ community who work to make a different and they do that because they're jealous and hateful.

Also go read Stan's "Rachel Maddow and Kamala Harris."

Go read the community post:


Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"


Wednesday, September 24, 2025.  The Epstein Files scandal takes the duchess, a statue of Chump and Epstein goes up to celebrate the sicko bros, Donald explodes at the UN, The Tom Homan Files scandal joins The Epstein Files scandal in demonstrating just how corrupt Chump is, leave it to Chump to allow two lovers to work together in the same office and conduct their affair far from the prying eyes of their spouses, ICE continues to hide their actions because their actions are illegal, and much more.


Yesterday, Convicted Felon Donald Chump spoke to the United Nations.  Andrew Feinberg,Oliver O'Connell and Joe Sommerlad (INDEPENDENT) report:


President Donald Trump has addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City at a contentious moment for international relations after France joined the U.K., Canada, Australia and Portugal in moving to recognize a Palestinian state in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, is back at the U.N. for the first time since the beginning of his second term in January.

His speech was among the most anticipated as America’s allies and adversaries wait to see what the president will say about ongoing efforts to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

And guess what he told them?  He lied and told them grocery prices were down in the US -- no, they are higher than they were this time last year.  And he told them that  "your countries are going to hell." 

Did anyone connect it with Tuesday being The Day of Trumpets and all the crazies in the US -- Chump supporters, most of them -- had taken to the internet in the last week to explain that yesterday all the goodly would be raised from the earth to heaven?

Yes, there were fools around the world convinced they were 'ascending' yesterday but, in the US, it was mainly the same fools who support Chump -- the easily conned, the marks, the fools.


You know two Fridays ago when SUBWAY couldn't fulfill orders placed at their website because it kept going down and getting things wrong and even "Sammy" (their AI bot) couldn't get things right, I thought someone might report on that, some outlet.  No one did.  Or back in August that morning where a professional golfer was golfing live on THE GOLF CHANNEL and swore "F**K!" -- without any bleeping, it was live -- I thought some legacy news outlet might have covered that.  Or how THE GOLF CHANNEL keeps promoting Chump because it's so stupid -- the hosts refer to NEWSDAY as New York city's NEWSDAY.  It's not.  There is THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORK POST and THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS.  NEWSDAY, however, is out of Long Island -- hence their motto "NEWSDAY, your eye on LI" (LI being Long Island.) 

I guess it's going to fall to Mira Fox at THE FORWARD and Theo Burman (NEWSWEEK) to be the only ones in legacy/traditional/mass  media to cover the nut jobs (well, as Kamala Harris rightly pointed out to Rachel Maddow Monday night, NYC media thinks they are the center of the world).  But those nut jobs -- many of them Chump supporters -- have been all over YOUTUBE and TIKTOK in the last two weeks explaining how they will be leaving all the sinners behind and how they know this is true because they had dreams -- prophetic dreams.

Now I believe in dreams and use them all the time.  I'll go to bed thinking of a problem or something that I can't remember and I can zoom in on that in my dreams.  However, that's not being psychic or receiving messages from the dead.  (After Michael Ratner died, he did haunt me in my dreams -- that wasn't him -- that was our conversations regarding Julian Assange and my knowing he was no longer able to advocate for Julian so my guilty conscience was telling me to do it for Michael.  Again, I wasn't seriously being messaged from the great beyond by Michael Ratner.) 

But I wouldn't have a dream that I was me, an adult, and I was in classroom with children and teenagers and the teacher told us all to go to the board and write your ages on it and the teacher stepped out and some people were laughing about what age I would write and then I wrote my age and then say that this was proof that the rapture was a week out. I wouldn't do that. But one man did and shared it online and he was joined by many, many others.  

Credit to TABITHAS SPEAKS POLITICS, Coach D and other YOUTUBE outlets (new media) that did cover the crazies.


But maybe, convinced that the end was nigh, Chump saw himself needing to tell other countries that they were going to hell?

Where's Chump going?


 

I ask that mainly to recommend that you read Elaine's "Work for Chump and he'll pay you to cheat on your spouse too" and grasp that the party of family values and the Christians and 'Christians' supporting Chump aren't at all bothered that he's letting a couple work together -- a couple rumored to be sleeping together (that's been reported since 2023) despite the fact that they are both married to other people. 

How do the Christians and 'Christians' reconcile themselves to this daily sin, this violation of the 7th Commandment?  Chump and other loons want The 10 Commandments posted in schools despite the separation between Church and State but maybe the country would be better off it we just posted them in Kristi Noem's office?

Elaine notes this affair's been reported on forever:


The rumors of Corey and Kristi's affair predates the 2024 election.  Here's Emily Crane and Steven Nelson (NEW YORK POST) reporting on it in September of 2023 -- two years ago:

Married Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has engaged in a years-long affair with longtime Donald Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski, multiple sources told The Post Friday.

Though no images of the two getting frisky are known to exist, the pair have been less than discreet about their relationship, with one source recalling them making out at a hotel bar during the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Fla.

“I remember it was so absurdly blatant and public,” said the person, who recalled Noem and Lewandowski getting “handsy” at the bar of the Hyatt Regency Orlando with between 100 and 200 others around.

“It wasn’t like 2 a.m.,” the source said. “It isn’t like we caught them at some dive bar miles away. It’s a lobby bar where everyone is staying and so there’s a bajillion political operatives and journalists and electeds around. I remember I saw it with my own eyes and a couple other people saw it and the blatantness was absurd.”
“This has been a known, open thing and we’ve all been waiting for it to blow up at some point,” the person added.

The liaison emerged one week after Noem, a 51-year-old mom of three, formally endorsed Trump, 77, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raising the pitch of speculation that the 45th president would pick her as his running mate.

“He’s 100% banging her,” said a second person familiar with the relationship between Noem and Lewandowski, first reported by DailyMail.com.

The source added that they personally witnessed Noem “sitting on his [Lewandowski’s] lap” and “playing grab-ass” during an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in December 2020.

Elaine observes, "Well Chump didn't run as a fiscal conservative.  He also didn't run as a family values Republican.  So I guess the ongoing infidelity of two workers is no big deal -- even if they're allowed to work together.  I hope all of the Christians and 'Christians' who worship Chump are okay with two married people on the government payroll being paid to cheat on their spouses with each other."


In her article, Mira Fox notes:

Most of the people expecting a rapture seem to have a clear vision of what it will look like: people rising into the sky, as though they are being beamed up into an alien ship. (It seems likely that most of these ideas are based on popular media such as The Leftovers, an HBO show about those who remained after a rapture event.) Those left behind would then endure seven years of tribulations, after which Jesus would return to establish heaven on earth.

The idea of the rapture is a relatively new one in Christianity. While various lines in the New Testament refer to some sort of second coming of Jesus, also a raising of the dead, the idea that a rapture would come to save true Christians from the seven years of tribulations was only popularized by a British minister in the 1830s, John Nelson Darby. In the early 1900s, an American edition of the Bible called the Scofield Reference Bible further spread the idea of a rapture through its margin notes.

Pastors and historians online are desperately trying to calm those who are concerned about the rapture via videos discussing the recent history of the idea.

But for those readying themselves and their homes for the rapture, the details are irrelevant. The main thing to remember is not to look down.

Again, I believe she and THE FORWARD and NEWSWEEK were the only ones in legacy media  covering it.  Talk about avoidance.  


This morning at MEIDASTOUCH NEWS, Ben's covered Chump's trip to the UN and all the threats Chump and his minions made.



Ben also noted the new statue  New statue?  Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) reports:


A massive statue depicting Donald Trump and late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has appeared on the National Mall as the months-long Epstein Files saga continues to haunt the administration.

The 12-foot statue — a combination of foam, resin, wood and wire — shows Trump and Epstein standing on pedestals, holding hands and smiling at one another as they appear about to frolic through the park toward the Washington Monument in Washington, DC.

Below the statue, there are three plaques, two of which contain excerpts from the bawdy birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote Epstein for his 50th birthday. 

The whole world's talking as Chump, yet again, cannot escape his close and personal ties to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein or, for that matter, Ghislaine Maxwell.  NDTV notes, "The artwork, titled 'Best Friends Forever,' was created by an anonymous group called The Secret Handshake and will remain on display until the evening of September 28 under a permit granted by the National Park Service."


Sarah Ferguson can't escape her ties to Epstein either.  Monday in "Sarah Ferguson is a con-artist and a fake ass snake,"  Ann covered how Andrew's ex-wife said one thing publicly -- she wasn't against pedophiles -- but e-mailed Epstein to tell him that was just talk for public, she and Jeffery were tight and would remain tight. 


The revelations have not worked out well for Sarah -- nor should they have.

 

 


 


 

Meanwhile there are a million questions that Chump and his administration flunkies refuse to answer but that need to be answered as MTN points out.




On Epstein, let's note this from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's office:


Latest episode of Making the Case available now on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube

Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee, released the fourth episode of season two of his podcast, Making the Case.  In the new episode, Whitehouse is joined by Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA), who leads a bipartisan discharge petition in the House of Representatives calling on the Trump administration to release the full Jeffrey Epsteinfiles, with redactions to protect survivors.  

“Trump and his MAGA underlings at the Department of Justice and FBI are brazenly breaking promises and doing everything in their power to cover up what’s hidden in the Epstein files.  If not for the bipartisan work of the determined Rep. Khanna, the American people would still be in the dark on key documents from Epstein’s estate and other closely held secrets,” said Whitehouse.  “Rep. Khanna is a champion for justice and transparency in Washington, and I’m thrilled to have him on this next episode of Makingthe Case to break down the latest developments in the Epstein Files saga.”

The fourth episode of season two of Making the Case is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, and other podcast platforms.

Whitehouse has long been the Senate’s leading voice for improving transparency and accountability in politics and in Washington, delivering a series of speeches on the Senate floor about the special interest scheme to capture the judicial branch.  In August, Whitehouse wrote a letter to the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons demanding more information on the transfer of Ghislaine Maxwell to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.  Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and Jeffrey Epstein associate, was transferred without explanation to the cushy prison camp after an unusual visit by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Whitehouse and Khanna have previously teamed up to investigate corruption in the fossil fuel industry, and introduced legislation to crack down on profiteering by Big Oil and return the industry’s excessive gains to working people.



Of course, Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out on MSNBC last night, Chump has The Epstein Files scandal to deal with but he also now has the Tom Homan scandal to deal with.



Note the clip of Homan O'Donnell plays from Homan's chat with mannish Laura Ingraham.  How dare anyone question him!  He has sacrificed for 34 years!  


I'm so sorry, Tom, which years did you serve in the armed service?


None, right?


But he wants to maintain working for the US government has been a sacrifice -- and a sacrifice for multiple decades. 


Anyone familiar with criminal law is aware that those kind of self-aggrandizing statements are the justifications that criminals make for taking bribes or stealing money.


So file it under "How To Confess Wihtout Dirctly Saying I'm Guilty."

 
Yesterday on MSNBC's THE WEEKNIGHT, US House Rep Jasmine Crockett provided the walk through on what Homan is accused of and how to pursue it. 


Again, it is The Homan Files scandal and it's further corruption on display.

 

 


Joe Patrice (ABOVE THE LAW) writes:


Over the weekend, it came out that Tom Homan, one of the senior architects of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, allegedly took $50K from undercover FBI agents posing as business executives hoping to bribe their way into government contracts if Trump won. He’s said to have accepted the funds — which the FBI reportedly captured on video — in a Cava bag. If the fast food chain doesn’t immediately capitalize on this with some sort of marketing campaign, then I’ve lost all faith in them.
Homan, interestingly enough, put himself front-and-center of the move to drop the Eric Adams bribery case. Homan never came across as the proper spokesperson for the administration’s decision, highlighted when he seemed to confirm a quid pro quo for dropping the Adams case, but in retrospect, he might have had a vested interest in putting out the message that bribery isn’t anything to be ashamed of.



On the topic of ICE, Dave Levinthal (CJR) reports:

Since late December, J. Dale Shoemaker, a reporter for the Investigative Post, a nonprofit newsroom based in Buffalo, has filed seventeen Freedom of Information Act requests with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection to guide his deep dives into federal law enforcement activity, deportation actions, and ICE detention centers in upstate New York. In return, he says, he has gotten only documents that were redacted beyond comprehension, or nothing at all. “I have not received a satisfactory response to a single one of them,” Shoemaker said.

Ryanne Mena, of the Los Angeles Daily News, sent ICE a FOIA request on January 24 for all grievance forms filed by detainees at facilities in Adelanto, California, between 2016 and early 2025. Nearly eight months later, she said, she’s received nothing: ICE “has failed to provide me with an estimated date of production despite repeated requests.” 

Monica Eng, a reporter for Axios, filed a FOIA request with ICE in February, seeking data she hoped would inform stories about where and why agents were apprehending people in Illinois. At first, she said, ICE officials appeared willing to cooperate. But by March, ICE had denied Eng’s request in full, citing “ongoing law enforcement investigations.” Axios filed an administrative appeal with ICE, but hasn’t received a response. “I have filed a lot of FOIAs, and my requests to the Trump Department of Homeland Security have been some of the least successful and least transparent,” Eng said.

ICE and CBP have become centerpieces of President Donald Trump’s quest to deport millions of undocumented immigrants from US soil through aggressive law enforcement tactics and billions of dollars in new federal funding. But CJR spoke to nearly two dozen reporters, editors, and other people at news organizations and open-records watchdog groups across the country who have filed FOIA requests with the agencies, and who say that ICE and CBP officials routinely deny or ignore those requests. The agencies have never been particularly open with the press, but many reporters believe that their experience is part of an enhanced effort by the Trump administration to conceal immigration agency operations, even in possible violation of federal law. Some also described the agencies’ press offices as functionally useless, with media officials providing few, if any, answers to even their most basic of inquiries.

Chioma Chukwu, the executive director of American Oversight, a nonprofit organization that advocates for public access to government records, said ICE and Border Protection have an “abysmal” track record of transparency. Of 137 requests her group has filed with ICE and CBP over the course of 2025, there has been a “substantive response” to just one—“and that took almost seven months,” Chukwu said. “ICE and CBP remain among the slowest and least transparent agencies we deal with, routinely flouting FOIA’s requirements and denying the public timely access to information about their operations.” 

This stonewalling comes at a time when ICE—and its parent organization, the Department of Homeland Security—has repeatedly cracked down on journalism about its operations. The department has described the video recording of ICE agents as “violence,” with a department spokesperson promising to prosecute those who “illegally harass ICE agents to the fullest extent of the law.” Multiple reporters have been arrested or injured while covering protests or anti-ICE rallies, including Salvadoran journalist Mario Guevaram, who was detained while covering a rally in Georgia in June, and Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi, who was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet as she reported on an anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles. In early September, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction ordering DHS to stop using “nonlethal” weapons against journalists. “Under the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protesters, legal observers, and journalists—as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable,” the judge wrote. “The First Amendment demands better.”

Some news outlets told CJR they believe that, in ICE’s and CBP’s handling of their FOIA requests, the agencies are themselves violating federal law by ignoring statutory deadlines or failing to respond altogether. By law, government agencies must determine within twenty business days whether to fulfill or deny a FOIA request and “immediately notify” the requester of their decision. Agencies may also extend this deadline because of “unusual circumstances.” If fulfilling a FOIA request requires significant time, agencies are required by law to offer requesters an “opportunity to arrange with the agency an alternative time frame for processing the request or a modified request.” Requesters have the right to appeal agencies’ FOIA determinations, and if all else fails, they may sue the government in federal court.

Now why would ICE have anything to hide?  Travis Gettys (RAW STORY) reports:

Federal agents caught and detained a 5-year-old girl to lure her immigrant father outside the family's home following a brief traffic pursuit, according to a report.

Video of the incident Tuesday in Leominster, Massachusetts, captures the family's anguished screams as Immigration and Customs Enforcement held the 5-year-old girl outside after chasing her father, Edward Hip, a Guatemalan man who has lived in the U.S. for 22 years, reported WBTS-CD.

"Is that your daughter? Come here so I can see those IDs," one of the agents said, according to the video.

The girl's mother tells the agents her daughter is on the autism spectrum and begs for her return, saying agents had grabbed the girl as she followed her father inside.

Wow, acting like the mafia by targeting someone's child.  File it under "Another proud moment for ICE."  In fact, John Ross Ferrara (KRON) has another proud moment to cover:


U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a man inside the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland following a pre-trial hearing on Sept. 15, according to a statement issued by Alameda County public defender Brendon Woods on Monday.

Two ICE agents in plain clothes allegedly detained the man in a courthouse hallway and took him out of the building to waiting, unmarked vehicles. Agents took him to an ICE detention facility, where he remains in federal custody, according to Woods.
“ICE raids at our courthouses must stop immediately,” Woods said in a statement. “People who follow a judge’s orders to attend court should not have to fear federal agents kidnapping them and dragging them away to detention centers. Our democracy cannot function if this continues.”
The ICE arrest was the first made in an Alameda County courthouse under the authority of President Donald Trump, according to Woods. 

“Everyone -- our clients, victims, witnesses, staff, lawyers -- deserves to participate without fear,” Woods said. “Our justice system loses legitimacy when people do not feel safe entering a courthouse. We cannot allow a racist, authoritarian regime to interfere with our local courts like this. It’s time to pick a side. Either you allow this to happen to members of our community or you take action to prevent it.”


Cowards not wearing uniforms or any kind of a badge.  Cowards.  Thugs.  Kidnappers.  Andrew Stanton (NEWSWEEK) reports:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are holding a man living in New York who has lawful permanent residence status and has been caring for his wife with cancer.

The arrest of Duwayne Baugh took place last month but was only reported on Monday by The City, a New York-based news publication.

His wife, Kaiisha Baugh, wrote in a statement to Newsweek, “My husband has been a lawful permanent resident for years. A routine check-in should not lead to this kind of torture and separation. It’s becoming unbearable and I just hope the Judge sees the cruelty and unfairness here and allows him to come home.”

His attorney confirmed to Newsweek that he has lawful permanent residence status.

They're destroying lives.  And we're not going to let them forget it.  This will not be swept aside like the internments during WWII.  We, as a people and as a country will not spend the future pretending this was okay or alright.  Donald Chump's not the only one who is going to take the historical fall on this.  Crooks like Tom Homan and Kristis cheaty-cheaty bang-bang Noem and ICE agents and so many more.  We see you.  

ICE has so much to hide -- most crooks do. 
 

During the last Trump administration, California Democrats were so concerned about ICE making arrests at superior court buildings and potentially discouraging witnesses from testifying that they passed a law to forbid that kind of enforcement.

Picking people up at a courthouse can have a “potential chilling effect” on witnesses, victims and even suspects who are afraid to show up for court, California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said earlier this summer. 

“Making courthouses a focus of immigration enforcement hinders, rather than helps, the administration of justice by deterring witnesses and victims from coming forward and discouraging individuals from asserting their rights,” Guerrero said. 

But no one cares about 'state's rights' in what was once the Republican Party.  They don't care anymore.  They don't care about the law because The Crooked Court continues to break the law, to subvert the law and to reward the criminal behavior of Donald Chump.

I think we need serious Congressional oversight of the current Supreme Court.  I think they need to submit all financial records to the Congress so that we can find out exactly who's being paid off -- it's not just Thomas and Alito, it's much more than that.  For more on the failure that the Supreme Court has become, see Betty's "The Crooked Court" from last night.

But let's ponder something.  Chump's secret police?  They're getting bonuses.  Of $50,000.  How did they arrive at that figure?  Did Homan, acting director of ICE, brag in a meeting, "Hey, last fall I got a bonus of $50,000 when I took that bribe.  $50,000 all around!"? 

Now we're winding down with this from Senator Mazie Hirono's office:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and U.S. Representatives Adam Smith (D-WA) and Don Bacon (R-NE) introduced the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, legislation that would grant U.S. citizenship to international adoptees who were legally adopted in the U.S. as children but lack citizenship status due to a loophole in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000.

“Thousands of American families and their internationally-adopted children have been living in fear and uncertainty due to an oversight in the Child Citizenship Act, which is why I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing legislation that would provide a long overdue solution to address this issue,” said Senator Hirono. “The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act will help keep families together, and ensure that international adoptees are afforded the rights they deserve as U.S. citizens.”

Families who adopted children from abroad were previously required to complete a lengthy, expensive naturalization process for their adopted children, on top of the adoption process itself. In some cases, the paperwork was not completed in full, leaving adoptees unaware they were living in the U.S. without citizenship. The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) streamlined this process by granting automatic citizenship to foreign-born children under 18 adopted by U.S. citizens. However, the law only applied to adoptees under age 18 at the time the CCA took effect in February 2001. Adoptees who had already reached adulthood were excluded, leaving tens of thousands of people without citizenship despite being raised in American families.

The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act fixes this oversight by confirming U.S. citizenship for internationally adopted individuals, regardless of when they were adopted or their age. Specifically, the bill:

  • Provides automatic citizenship to foreign-born children lawfully adopted by U.S. families who turned 18 before February 27, 2001; and
  • Establishes a path to citizenship for adoptees living abroad who meet eligibility requirements but currently reside outside the U.S. This process includes background checks and the resolution of any outstanding legal matters before citizenship is granted.

This legislation will provide long-overdue certainty for adoptees who have faced barriers to higher education, employment, and financial services, and who in some cases have even faced deportation to countries where they have no family or community ties.

The bill has been endorsed by Adoptee Rights Campaign; Korean American Grassroots Conference; National Council For Adoption; Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; NAKASEC; Niskanen Center; Center for Adoption Policy; National Immigration Forum; National Asian Pacific American Bar Association; Adoptees for Justice; Family Coalition for Adoptee Citizenship; National Alliance for Adoptee Equality; and Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship.

“As a national network in five states, the NAKASEC network strongly urges the immediate passage of this legislation. Birth parents, adoptive parents, and sending countries partnered with the United States with the understanding that adoptees would be full members of their families – with all the rights, protections, and opportunities afforded to them. It’s important to note that citizenship for adoptees is an issue only in the United States. No other receiving country failed to confer citizenship for the children in their care. It’s time for the United States to fulfill their promises and secure citizenship for all intercountry adoptees,” said Becky Belcore, Co-Director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC).

“We recognize the challenges faced by adoptees who, though raised in American families and contributing fully to our communities, continue to live without the protections of citizenship. We applaud the leadership of Rep. Smith, Rep. Bacon, Sen. Hirono, and Sen. Collins in introducing the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act, a bipartisan measure that offers long-overdue relief and recognition to those who are American in every way except on paper. With Korean American adoptees among the most affected, KAGC is committed to working with partners to ensure this vital legislation is enacted and justice is delivered to all impacted,” said Wonseok Song, Executive Director of the Korean American Grassroots Conference, the largest nationwide network of Korean American voters.

“NCFA supports the Protect Adoptees and American Families Act. Congress intended citizenship for children being internationally adopted by American citizens, but a complicated and confusing immigration and visa system resulted in some parents failing to complete the citizenship process on behalf of their minor children. The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act provides the citizenship that was initially intended for these individuals,” said Ryan Hanlon, National Council For Adoption.

“The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act fixes a 25-year loophole that has prevented internationally adopted Americans, raised by American families and fully integrated into American society, from achieving full United States citizenship. There is no excuse. Now is the time for Congress to get this commonsense bill over the finish line and provide a long-awaited solution for these families and for the betterment of our country,” said Kristie De Pena, Director of Immigration Policy at the Niskanen Center.

“We support this effort to strengthen American families by easing the citizenship process for international adoptees. The Protect Adoptees and American Families Act supports a core aspect of our national values, and we are glad to see Republicans and Democrats come together behind it. We look forward to seeing it passed and signed,” said the National Immigration Forum.

“Fundamental fairness demands that those children who were lawfully adopted and raised in the United States enjoy the full privileges and opportunities of American life.? Yet for thousands of international adoptees, so many of whom arrived from Asian countries and through no fault of their own, that basic promise has been denied due to inadvertent missing paperwork.? The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) commends the sponsors for introducing the Protect Adoptees and American Families (PAAF) Act, a pivotal step to ensure that those impacted within the Asian Pacific American community can finally enjoy stability and pursue a livelihood without fear of removal,” said Priya Purandare, Executive Director of NAPABA.

“Adoptees and their families across the country are living in fear, shock, and with a sense of betrayal – often learning they are not citizens when they are well into adulthood and after lifetimes as Americans. More and more adoptees are reaching out when they are approaching or in their senior years. Their stories underscore the urgent need for immediate legislative repair. The introduction of this bill shows that our country’s leaders recognize this profound injustice and are committed to adoptees and American families,” said Rachel Koelzer, Co-Founder of Adoptees For Justice.

“We’re thrilled at the introduction of this bill that will give aging adoptees the rights and protections that are rightfully theirs. Reintroducing this bill is an important step toward ensuring that no one is denied their rights or opportunities because of how they came to be a part of their families. This is the tenth year the bill has been introduced – let’s get it passed this session!” said Amanda Cho, Policy Manager with the Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship.

“To be adopted into a family is to be chosen, loved, and embraced as one of their own. Adoption is a bond that transcends borders, making you not just a citizen of a country, but a citizen of a family, forever. Somehow, we as adoptees have been forgotten. We were lost in the shuffle and are being held accountable for the responsibilities of adults that were ignorant of the process. Our adoptive parents were under the impression that we were citizens through the adoption process. Many of us were born in the 60s and grew up living as citizens because we were told we were. Why would we believe any different when we grew up being told we were citizens? We were given our social security numbers and our driver’s licenses with no questions asked. Why didn’t the government inform us then? If they did, we would have been able to right the wrong. Now years later, we are in limbo, many of us deported. How is this fair or humane? How is it fair to send someone to a country where they know no one, they don’t know the language, and have no means to make a living? This bill needs to be law for those innocent adoptees who are victims of a faulty system,” said H, an adoptee without citizenship.

The full text of the legislation is available here.

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