NBC News:

A woman who describes her upbringing on a Midwestern farm as “wholesome” and “all-American” is now facing deportation to Iran, a country with which the U.S. has no diplomatic relations and is now at war, a country she does not even remember. 

The woman, who has asked NBC 7 to conceal her identity because of her immigration status, was adopted from Iran at the age of 3. She has lived in the U.S. for 53 years.

Her father was an Air Force officer and a prisoner of war during World War II. He worked as a defense contractor in Iran. He and his wife decided to adopt the toddler in the 1970s.

The woman, whose attorney said she has no criminal record, received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year, saying she was subject to removal from the United States. It says she overstayed her visa back when she was 4 years old in the mid-1970s. 

“I do not have any memories [of Iran],” said the woman. “It just felt like a really foreign, faraway place and dangerous.” 

The adoptee was aware of a discrepancy over her citizenship status, which she discovered in 2008, at nearly 40 years old, when she went to obtain a passport. 

She was legally adopted, her birth certificate names her U.S. citizen parents, has a Real ID and a Social Security number, yet when she went to get her passport, she learned she lacked proof of citizenship. 

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