WHEREAS, On October 30, 2000, former President Clinton signed into law H.R. 2883, The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 that created a new law, Public Law 106-395 that amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to permit foreign– born children, including adopted children, to acquire citizenship automatically if they meet certain requirements on February 27, 2001; and
WHEREAS, On February 27, 2001, more than 75,000 children adopted from abroad and living in this country automatically became US Citizens, whereby this is the largest group in US history to become nationalized at one time; and
WHEREAS, About 20,000 international adoptions occur every year – about 15 percent of all adoptions in the United States – and where prior to the Act, the average wait for citizenship processing by the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been two years and including a costly and cumbersome process; and
WHEREAS, Thousands of orphaned children in developing countries live in impoverished conditions due to AIDS, war, famine, political corruptness, economic sanctions and embargoes, and other causes; denying these children access to educational, social, economic and civil rights; and
WHEREAS, Many American citizens for a variety of reasons have opened their homes to these children to provide an opportunity for them to have a safe and sound childhood that is free of violence, full of love and filled with the provision of basic needs; and
WHEREAS, Through this Act, the United States and the City of Philadelphia in particular, has demonstrated its continuing legacy of our forefathers as being a safe haven for people escaping deplorable conditions in their own homelands; and
WHEREAS, The diversity integrated into our City through the inclusion of international children makes us a more tolerable City and expands our ability to attract international visitors and possibly build trade relationships with their home countries; now therefore
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby honor the hundreds of foreign born and internationally adopted children who became American citizens on February 27, 2001 as part of the Child Citizen Act of 2000.
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