A man without a country

[peejay 327]

A man without a country

Adopted, but never made a citizen, a Texan finds himself ensnared by laws, deported

By ELIZABETH ZAVALA

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Jan. 3, 2010, 8:01AM

ALEDO — Lorrie Whiteley McMillan has spent another holiday season without her brother Robin Whiteley.

She is praying the family's immigration nightmare will end soon and that Whiteley can come home to Texas — the only home he knows.

McMillan, 43, was 8 when her parents brought home the baby they named Robin. Now, because of missteps the parents made in the complicated international adoption process — and bad decisions on his part — Whiteley, 35, has been deported to Mexico.

“He is not an undocumented immigrant,” McMillan said. “He did not falsify any documents. He didn't sneak over here. He is an American.”

Her brother is a man without a country.

In 1974, a midwife in El Paso placed a day-old baby in the arms of Lora and Royce Whiteley of Fort Worth. Six years later, while living in Woodville, they officially adopted Robin.

The Whiteleys moved to Lufkin in 1984.

Bad decisions

McMillan, who also was born in Mexico and was adopted as an infant by the Whiteleys, recalls her little brother as most big sisters would — a boy who bothered and teased her. But she looked after him.

“I always felt very protective of Robin,” McMillan said. “He was like my own baby doll. I took care of my little brother.”

As he grew up, Whiteley was athletic and into boxing in Lufkin, she said. “He was just your normal, crazy kid and a typical teen.”

But even Whiteley admits that he made bad decisions. State criminal records show that he had some misdemeanor convictions, and he went to state prison for a felony drug conviction.

When the time came for his release from prison in 2002, he fell down the immigration rabbit hole.

Neither the United States nor Mexico has a record of his birth, said his lawyer, Andres Lopez of McAllen. And his parents had pursued legal residency for him but not citizenship.

Lacking a birth certificate and naturalization papers, Whiteley, who doesn't speak Spanish, was deported to Mexico on the assumption that it was his country of origin, Lopez said. He now lives as an undocumented immigrant in an apartment in Reynosa, Mexico.

Back and forth

Since his deportation, Whiteley has illegally entered the U.S. twice to see his children, which has not helped his case.

“We have been back and forth with immigration over the adoption,” Lora Whiteley, 74, said by phone from Lufkin. Each time progress was made on getting proper documentation for Whiteley, the immigration laws changed, she said.

The laws on immigration and foreign adoptions are complicated, said Heidi Cox, executive vice president and general counsel for the Gladney Center in Fort Worth, which has provided foreign and domestic adoption services for more than 100 years.

“Your Texas adoption will establish that you are the parent, but not that the child is a citizen,” she said. “The adoption decree does not establish citizenship (but only) the legal parent-child relationship.”

Lopez said Whiteley's parents received bad advice and did not pursue citizenship for him.

“They did what they were told, but it wasn't what they needed,” said Lopez, who meets weekly with his client in Mexico. He is working on an appeal on Whiteley's behalf.

Whiteley spends his days in his one-room apartment in Reynosa, about 11 miles from McAllen, where he knew no one before he arrived. He has a bed, a television, a DVD player, a hot plate to warm food, and an American cell phone so he can talk to his family. He bathes with cold water out of a 5-gallon bucket, the same one he uses to hand-wash his clothes. He goes to a local store to use the restroom, he said. He can't work in Mexico because he doesn't have proper documents, and if caught working illegally, he would be deported.

Whiteley's wife and children have moved from Lufkin to Mission in the Rio Grande Valley to be close enough to cross over and visit their husband and father.

“I committed a crime. I deserved to go to jail at the time, and I believe I paid for that,” he said. “But I didn't deserve to be taken away from the only country I've ever known in my life” for a paperwork mistake.

McMillan and her mother have written to politicians. They hope that Congress will enact the Foreign Adopted Children's Equality Act, which would recognize that internationally adopted children of American citizens deserve to be treated as children of American citizens, not as immigrants.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/6795684.html

[sara..... 371]

if he was adopted in the USA a law went into effect about ten years or less ago that anyone adopted in the usa that is from another country is automatically a citizen........all he had to do was show is usa adoption papers and it would have ended the issue........how do i know? because this is how i received my citizenship i went to bed a legal alien and woke up a citizen........my parents took my adoption papers and id and i received my American passport.....we were going to wait until i was sixteen for me to take the oath for citizenship but this transpired before that date.......

sara

[peejay 327]

if he was adopted in the USA a law went into effect about ten years or less ago that anyone adopted in the usa that is from another country is automatically a citizen........all he had to do was show is usa adoption papers and it would have ended the issue........how do i know? because this is how i received my citizenship i went to bed a legal alien and woke up a citizen........my parents took my adoption papers and id and i received my American passport.....we were going to wait until i was sixteen for me to take the oath for citizenship but this transpired before that date.......

sara

As with most stories gleaned from newspapers, the entire story isn't always included. Likely there is more to this case than meets the eye.

[john & jean 37]

As with most stories gleaned from newspapers, the entire story isn't always included. Likely there is more to this case than meets the eye.

yes and being undocumented convicted on drug charges is a problem!!!

[sara..... 371]

one of the MANY things that strike me odd about this story is the fact there is no birth certificate.....how did he go to school.......how did he work? one of the things that is done when a child is adopted is new birth certificate is ordered..........in order to do a legal adoption there has to be a birth certificate from the natural parent or parents.....there are so many questions with this story......

sara

[scandal 951]

if he was adopted in the USA a law went into effect about ten years or less ago that anyone adopted in the usa that is from another country is automatically a citizen........all he had to do was show is usa adoption papers and it would have ended the issue........how do i know? because this is how i received my citizenship i went to bed a legal alien and woke up a citizen........my parents took my adoption papers and id and i received my American passport.....we were going to wait until i was sixteen for me to take the oath for citizenship but this transpired before that date.......

sara

Sara, you are correct that the relevant law went into effect in Feb 2001 - it was the Child Citizenship Act.

That law directly affected my family too - my own children derived their US Citizenship from that Act. They are not adopted, they are my biological children. But the Act affects biological children too who were born to USC parents but are not themselves born USCs (as is the case for adopted children).

In any event, the reason it does not apply in this case is that when it went into effect in 2001 it only applied to children 18 or younger. In the OP article, it states that he was born in 1974, making him 26 or 27 when the law was passed. It did not go back retroactively. He would have needed to establish his citizenship with the old procedure prior to the Child Citizenship Act prior to turning 18 (prior to about 1992 in his case). Otherwise, he could attempt to naturalize after he turned 18 from his legal residence status. But that's where his criminal record would interfere and become grounds for deportation.

[sara..... 371]

Sara, you are correct that the relevant law went into effect in Feb 2001 - it was the Child Citizenship Act.

That law directly affected my family too - my own children derived their US Citizenship from that Act. They are not adopted, they are my biological children. But the Act affects biological children too who were born to USC parents but are not themselves born USCs (as is the case for adopted children).

In any event, the reason it does not apply in this case is that when it went into effect in 2001 it only applied to children 18 or younger. In the OP article, it states that he was born in 1974, making him 26 or 27 when the law was passed. It did not go back retroactively. He would have needed to establish his citizenship with the old procedure prior to the Child Citizenship Act prior to turning 18 (prior to about 1992 in his case). Otherwise, he could attempt to naturalize after he turned 18 from his legal residence status. But that's where his criminal record would interfere and become grounds for deportation.

ok that makes sense but i would still question why there was not a birth certificate registered for him......how did he work how did he go to school........

sara