Why can the American partner just adopt the foreign partner?
Unfortunately, adoption, for the purpose of immigration, doesn’t work this way. The U.S. government has placed strict age-limits on an adoptee. These limits would make such an arrangement impractical for most couples. Furthermore, given the current climate around immigration in the U.S., any same-sex couple attempting to use adoption for immigration purposes would likely be investigated for immigration fraud. On a more practical level, an adoption cannot be dissolved as easily as a marriage or a domestic partnership can. This means that such an adoption can have unexpected, long-term consequences for a couple after their relationship ends.
