The American adoptees who fear deportation to a country they can't remember

[Ms. Toad]

2. Here's the case that started it all, from the town I worked in at the time

Last edited Sat Nov 1, 2025, 12:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Joao Herbert, the adopted son of a Wadsworth couple who was brought to the United States from a South American orphanage as a child, then deported at 22 on a drug charge, was found shot to death Tuesday in his native Brazil.

He was 26.

. . .

Although Nancy Saunders and Jim Herbert adopted the youngster from a Brazilian orphanage as an 8-year-old, American citizenship was not automatic -- a law that has since changed.

https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2014/05/27/may-27-2004-deported-man/10599084007/

Unfortunately, the law was changed going forward, not retroactively - leaving many of those adopted as children from our time in Vietnam and Korea at risk