Rebecca Trimble received a rare and long-awaited Christmas present this year. On December 15, the Senate unanimously passed a private bill for Trimble. The bill was introduced by the late Don Young and passed the House unanimously on June 7. President Joe Biden signed it into law today. The bill allows Trimble, who was inadvertently brought into the U.S. illegally by her adoptive parents when she was only days old, to remain in the country indefinitely.
Private bills, which benefit a specific individual or corporation, are extremely rare. Since 2008, 160 private relief bills have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Just 22 have passed the House, and only two have been signed into law. The last one signed into law before Trimble’s was in 2012. A private bill for Trimble passed the House during the last Congress but did not make it through the Senate, requiring the process to start over.
On February 10, 2020, Trimble received a letter from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) informing her she has 33 days to leave the country. At the time she was living in Bethel with her husband John, an Army dentist, and their two children.
Trimble, who was born in Mexico, was adopted by an American couple when she was a baby. She was raised in the Pacific Northwest and grew up believing she was an American citizen. But in 2012 when she tried to get a REAL ID, the nightmare started. The government said her adoption had not been performed legally, and because she had voted in 2008 she had broken the law.
The Landmine broke this story in March of 2020. Four months later, the New York Times did a featured story on Rebecca’s situation. This Landmine article explains the long and arduous process the Trimble family has faced over the last ten years.