He lived in the United States for nearly four decades, only to be deported in 2016 because of criminal convictions, including assault and weapons charges, and because his adoptive parents never filed citizenship papers for him.
Today, Adam Crasper, 43, is living life in Korea in a land he barely knows and separated from his wife and children in the United States.
“It’s a daily struggle to survive and to continue to want to push forward and want some justice and want some accountability and want some answers,” Crapser told AP. “For everything to fall apart and for everything to happen the way it has, most people wouldn’t be alive here to talk.”
Crasper was abused as an adopted child and abandoned by two different sets of adoptive parents.
The Columbian reports that Crasper, adopted at age 3, has now sued the South Korean government and a private adoption agency.
The lawsuit outlines an adoption system propped up by military dictatorships. The suit contends children were shipped out with little oversight and much speed.
He says he’s suing to force the Holt Children’s Services and the government to face tough questions in court.
Holt’s president says the agency followed the laws at the time and that it’s up to the parents to obtain citizenship for the child.
Crasper is one of five adoptees who have been deported from the U.S. and now living in Korea, but activists believe the number is much higher, according to Newser.
Some 200,000 South Koreans are believed to have been adopted overseas during the past six decades.
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RE: Deported Korean American Adoptee Sues South Korea and Adoption Agency: We could say all we want about his so called “criminal” background while living in the USA. However, it is my (another adoptee from Korea) view that once adopted, the child should be granted the citizenship automatically. I wonder how other countries are handling the citizenship issue of adoptees?