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Adopted Teen Blanca Catt 'Stuck' in Immigration Limbo

by Ozumautli on August 17th, 2010, 9:07 am
Adopted Oregon Teen Has Lived in U.S. For 16 Years But Still Not a Citizen
By JOHN WETENHALL

Aug. 11, 2010—

An Oregon high school graduate who was adopted as a young girl has found that she is literally stuck because she entered the country illegally as a toddler and the agency who handled her adoption failed to conclude the paperwork that would have also made her a U.S. citizen.

Blanca Catt, 19, who lives in the Portland metropolitan area, can't get a driver's license, board a plane, train or bus, join the Navy, or get college financial aid because of her limbo legal status.

"My family's going to San Diego and I'm not allowed to come with them because they're flying," Blanca said.

"I graduated from a [high school] class of 23 students and I'm pretty much the only one that stayed home," she said. "It's hard to watch them leave and I'm still stuck."

Blanca was smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico when she was 3, but she ended up in foster care after her biological mother abused her. At age 8, she was adopted by Lisa Catt and her husband Darren, who are both U.S. citizens but are now divorced.

Blanca should have been granted legal residency at the time of her adoption, but Oregon's Department of Human Services failed to complete the necessary paperwork, Catt's lawyer claims.

"Had the agency told Blanca's adopted parents, 'this is what you…

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