Bluff, Ala., know firsthand the frustration of dealing with the federal agency. It wasn't something personal to them like it was to me. In a few isolated cases, many unnaturalized children face difficulties later in life, ranging from inconvenience to deportation. Many of those deported have been sent back to foreign lands to which they no longer have any ties. Even though he was born in Thailand, Mr. Gaul spoke no Thai, had no Thai relatives and had never been back to Thailand until the United States government deported him in 1999, when he was 25, as a criminal alien who had served jail time for car theft and writing bad checks.
Proponents say the new law ends any stigma attached to children adopted from abroad.
That recognition is long overdue. Mr. Delahunt knows from experience. He has an adopted daughter, Kara, now 26, who became a citizen several years ago after leaving Vietnam as a baby. Adoptive parents and their children said they were planning their own festivities for Tuesday. Now we can concentrate on our children.