by MARY L. LANDRIEU AND RYAN HANLON , FORMER U.S. SENATOR FROM LOUISIANA; PRESIDENT AND CEO OF NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ADOPTION
Twenty-three years ago, former President Bill Clinton signed the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000, following the Senate‘s ratification of the international treaty on adoption, the Hague Convention on Adoption. After this bill was signed into law, regulations were promulgated, adoption agencies were accredited, and the U.S. Department of State began their role as the designated “central authority” partnering with the Department of Justice‘s Immigration and Naturalization Services (now transitioned to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) as required by the new law. Prior to the United States joining the Hague Convention, international adoption was regulated by a patchwork of state laws, immigration regulations, and foreign countries’ policies. By formalizing federal oversight, Congress hoped to create stronger partnerships with other countries to reduce corruption and enhance services to children in need of families. Though well-intentioned, the goal of helping more orphaned children find permanent families did not materialize. Instead, the total number of international adoptions fell from over 20,000 in 2004 to less than 2,000 today and the intercountry adoption process has become significantly longer and more expensive.
Other countries also experienced a decline in intercountry adoptions, though with the U.S. receiving about half of all intercountry adoptions globally, the decline in our country has an oversized impact on orphaned children. There remain hundreds of thousands of children around the world in need of a family—and many thousands of qualified parents in the U.S. and other countries who are willing to adopt them—yet bureaucratic policies delay or prevent this from happening. These delays also impact relative adoptions. For U.S. citizens who want to adopt their niece, nephew, or grandchild in another country following the death of the child’s parents, the process that used to take weeks or months now often takes many years and costs exponentially more.
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