Decades after being adopted, MD woman deported back to Brazil

Key Takeaways:

Maria Pires was adopted from Brazil at age 11 but was never granted U.S. citizenship.

She endured years of abuse by her adoptive father before entering foster care.

Her criminal past complicated her legal status and led to deportation under Trump’s policies.

Now in Brazil, she struggles to rebuild her life and seeks a path back to the U.S.

It sounded like freedom, like a world of possibility beyond the orphanage walls.

Maria Pires was getting adopted. At 11 years old, she saw herself escaping the chaos and violence of the Sao Paulo orphanage, where she’d been sexually assaulted by a staff member. She saw herself leaving Brazil for America, trading abandonment for belonging.

A single man in his 40s, Floyd Sykes III, came to Sao Paulo to meet her. He signed some pap