AFP

WASHINGTON — Three US sen­a­tors on Wednes­day unveiled a bill to clear away hur­dles to cit­i­zen­ship for roughly 1,000 Hait­ian orphans whose adop­tions by US par­ents were rushed because of a Jan­u­ary earthquake.

US and Hait­ian author­i­ties cleared the chil­dren to join their adop­tive par­ents after the dis­as­ter. But with­out the com­plete paper­work nec­es­sary to final­ize their adop­tions, a road­block has been raised to what would nor­mally be auto­matic US cit­i­zen­ship upon entry into the United States.

“The unprece­dented dev­as­ta­tion has turned the adop­tion process upside down, where it could take years before these chil­dren could have any legal sta­tus,” said Demo­c­ra­tic Sen­a­tor Kirsten Gillibrand.

“In this moment of great uncer­tainty, we must clear the grid­lock and ensure that these chil­dren have the legal pro­tec­tions that they deserve,” she added.

Gilli­brand was joined by fel­low Demo­c­ra­tic Sen­a­tor Mary Lan­drieu and Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor James Inhofe in unveil­ing the plan.

“This bill will alle­vi­ate the legal bur­den fac­ing the adop­tive par­ents of this group of orphans, and finally bring needed relief as these adop­tive fam­i­lies begin their lives together,” said Inhofe.

The chil­dren were allowed into the United States through human­i­tar­ian parole visas and for­mally deemed orphans by Hait­ian author­i­ties, but fail­ure to com­plete the adop­tion paper­work could result in a years-long wait before they can get legal res­i­dent status.

The leg­is­la­tion would enable US Home­land Secu­rity Sec­re­tary Janet Napoli­tano to allow par­ents who are US nation­als to apply imme­di­ately on their adopted children’s behalf to become legal per­ma­nent res­i­dents and ulti­mately qual­ify for citizenship.

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