Childhood photos of Buttons are displayed along with a picture of her father, a WWII Air Force veteran, at left, and additional family photos, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. "My dad died thinking, 'I raised my daughter. I did my part,' but not knowing it put me on a path of instability and fear," she said. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi sits for a portrait behind her baby picture from before she was adopted from South Korea to a family in America, Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi, right, talks with Buttons, at Alessi's home Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. They started the Adoptee Rights Campaign after their adoption as children from abroad by American parents left them without citizenship by loopholes in American law. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi, right, shows off her Korean passport while traveling to dinner with fellow adoptees, Sunday June 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons sits obstructed by a chandelier with a laminated newspaper clipping of her as a child and her adopted parents in Wisconsin, as she visits a friend, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Buttons fears being deported back to Iran, so carries around the newspaper clipping, stacks of adoption files and court records as proof she's supposed to be here. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons, left, looks on as Joy Alessi, right, and Leah Elmquist talk following a dinner, Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Las Vegas. While Alessi and Elmquist have since become citizens, Buttons is technically living here illegally, and eligible for deportation. She fears that deportation to Iran would be "a death sentence." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Leah Elmquist, sits for a portrait as her Navy uniform hangs in her home, Wednesday, June 26, 2024, in Las Vegas. Elmquist was among thousands of adoptees left without citizenship by loopholes in American law. She excelled in the military, but wasn't eligible for certain security clearances. She left after a decade, then laid low, fearing deportation. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi, left, and fellow adoptee Buttons, get in a car as they leave Alessi's home Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Alessi anointed her friend Buttons "an honorary Korean." This problem they have both endured was born there, in Alessi's motherland, and to her it represents the most glaring example of the neglectful system that brought them here. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons sits in her friend's home while visiting Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Every time she turns on the news, she hears former President Donald Trump, in his bid for reelection, promising to round up immigrants living illegally in the U.S. Now she lays awake at night, wondering what it would be like to be sent back to Iran. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi, left, and Leah Elmquist toast during a dinner with fellow adoptees Sunday, June 23, 2024, in Las Vegas. Alessi and Elmquist have found strength in the community of adoptees who only learned as adults they were never citizens. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mike Davis, 61, an adoptee brought to America as a boy and deported to Ethiopia as an adult, is photographed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. Davis is one of thousands of children adopted from abroad by American parents, many of them military service members, who were left without citizenship by loopholes in American law that Congress has been aware of for decades, yet remains unwilling to fix. (AP Photo)

Buttons lets out her friend's dog, while visiting her home in Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Buttons' parents brought her to the United States on a tourist visa, which in the eyes of the government she soon overstayed as a toddler, and that is an offense that cannot be rectified. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

In this photo provided by Mike Davis, right, he stands with his wife, Laura Lynn Davis, and their son, Solomon, in Augusta, Ga, on Feb. 13, 1997. Mike was adopted as a boy an American soldier stationed in Ethiopia who brought him to the U.S. He was deported to Ethiopia two decades ago, and now lives in a room with a mud floor and running water only once a month and even when the tap works, it isn't safe to drink. (Courtesy Mike Davis via AP)

Mike Davis, 61, looks at a photo of him as a teenager, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Davis has five grandchildren he's never met. His youngest son, Adam, 26 now, recently moved into his first apartment, and thought how nice it would be to have his father there to see it. (AP Photo)

Leah Elmquist stands with the outfit she traveled in when she was adopted from Korea at five months old to a family in America, Monday, June 24, 2024, at her home in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi is reflected in a laptop displaying a photo of her at her naturalization ceremony Monday, June 24, 2024, at home in Henderson, Nev. For most of her life, Alessi was a proud patriot, who got teary-eyed when Garth Brooks sang about America. But patriotism is confusing for her now, as it is for many of the adoptees who've found themselves in this predicament. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Joy Alessi walks her dog, Phoenix, through her neighborhood Tuesday, June 25, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Alessi is one of thousands of children adopted from abroad by American parents, many of them military service members, who were left without citizenship by loopholes in American law that Congress has been aware of for decades, yet remains unwilling to fix. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Navy veteran Leah Elmquist holds her U.S. passport in her home, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. She was naturalized in 2022, the day before her 40th birthday and used her new passport for the first time to travel to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Mike Davis, 61, is photographed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. One day in 2003, he closed his pizza shop and went to bed, someone banged on their door at 5 a.m. "My kids were sleeping," he said, "When they woke up, their dad was gone." Davis was being deported back to Ethiopia. (AP Photo)

An image of a veterans support gathering Leah Elmquist attended is displayed on the television as she sits in her home, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. "That's why I joined the military. I felt so lucky to be an American, ironically. I wanted to thank this country for raising me," she said. "I didn't think about citizenship because I felt I was being more American than most Americans." (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons walks down a Las Vegas street Wednesday, June 26, 2024. "Adoption tells you: you're an American, this is your home. But the United States doesn't see me as an American," said Buttons who feels she lives in the shadows because of her immigration status. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons, an adoptee from Iran who grew up to find out she was never naturalized, drives through Las Vegas, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. She had hope. She's lost that now. For a decade, legislation has been introduced year after year, it dies, and nothing happens. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Navy veteran Leah Elmquist shows a childhood photo of her growing up in Nebraska while sifting through mementos in her home, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. She grew up in a white family in a Nebraska town with two stop lights. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Buttons, who the Associated Press is referring to only by her childhood nickname because of her legal status, sits for a portrait behind her baby photo taken before she was adopted from Iran to a family in America, Monday, June 24, 2024, in Henderson, Nev. Buttons is one of thousands of children adopted from abroad by American parents, many of them military service members, who were left without citizenship by loopholes in American law that Congress has been aware of for decades, yet remains unwilling to fix. (AP Photo/David Goldman)