Posted on 01/18/2010 6:12:14 PM PST by MarkAccord
The United States will temporarily allow entry to orphaned children from Haiti to receive needed care after the devastating earthquake in their country, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Monday.
"We are committed to doing everything we can to help reunite families in Haiti during this very difficult time," Napolitano said in a statement.
"While we remain focused on family reunification in Haiti, authorizing the use of humanitarian parole for orphans who are eligible for adoption in the United States will allow them to receive the care they need here," she said.
The "humanitarian parole policy" will be applied on a case-by-case basis to children legally confirmed as orphans eligible for adoption in another country by the Haitian government and who are being adopted by U.S. citizens.
Also eligible are children previously identified by an adoption service as eligible for inter-country adoption and who have been matched to prospective adoptive American parents, the Homeland Security Department said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Agreed.
You must have missed the memo from Dr. Pat Robertson that most of the Haitians still practice voodoo .
The are plenty of christians here who read their horoscope every day, toss salt over their shoulders, knock on wood, etc. Are they all heathens too?
btw - Pat Robertson is an @$$
I disagree. They practice Voodoo !! That is the national religion. Do you think those maniacs running around with machetes are Christ followers?
Wow, you posted my sentiments exactly. I have nothing more to add.
I’ll post what I posted on another thread about this article -
...this State Dept/DHS decision is in response to a specific situation of which I have personal knowledge.
At the orphanage that Fox News has been highlighting for several days are 135 orphan kids, 120 of which have already been LEGALLY ADOPTED by American families. This is only one orphanage among many in Haiti; in fact, in total throughout the US there are over 250 families who are in various stages of the long and cumbersome Haitian adoption process.
Friends of mine are the adoptive parents of one of those kids in that orphanage, Maison des Enfants de Dieu (supporting agency is For His Glory out of TX - http://www.forhisgloryoutreach.org/). My friends most recently visited their son last month around Christmas time - imagine their horror when they first heard about the earthquake.
Thankfully all of the kids survived (a nanny caregiver did die of injuries sustained by having part of the building fall on her) but of course they are desperate to get him out of there and home to them as soon as possible, so they and the other adoptive families have been petitioning the State Dept to expedite things. Considering that the kids are currently living outside and have little food, water and medical supplies and are dealing with looters, I’d say that request is a valid one.
It’s more like mid-late 90s and that’s just the way we like it! (many updates to functionality and backend have occurred along the way but the look and feel is still vintage John Robinson Hooray!
about their little guy who was waiting on the paperwork (14 months) to be finalized “
A friend’s grandaughter has been waiting over two years on the paperwork.What’s up with that?
Yes, I know several families who are in the adoption process and what they are trying to do now is get the process expedited.
I think the one bad thing about the software is that there is no chance to edit a message after you send it. I notice typos and other mistakes I would like to correct. sometimes just to delete a message if it doesn’t come out right. Obviously , with this software you can’t do anything like that. It even allows you to post without previewing the message, which is why you see so many typos and errors. My two cents.
Staying in Haiti is certain death. I just question the follow-up on this, that they will ever be returned to Haiti. If adopted and granted legal US citizenship, bless them.
If they stay illegally indefinately due to government ineptitude is my concern.
How many Americans have you adopted?
*shakes head* ... wow just wow
Some freepers said Obama would take advantage of the crisis to do this and they got some rather rude responses. I think some apologies are owed.
On another thread I think the number of orphans in Haiti was 150,000. Pre -quake. I image it could be twice that or more now.
In Hondurus, many of the kids in orphanages do have families. The family just doesn’t want them/ can’t support them. I wonder if that is true in Haiti?
Actually there are many white families who want to adopt children no matter what race they are.
But idiot social workers want to place black children with black families so they will have black “culture”. Not always but it is a bad obstacle.
It’s insanity.
Oops. Perhaps as many as 380,000 orphans - pre quake (from one source). Below is another source with slightly different numbers (unless 180,000 live in the streets or in foster-homes, could be)
QUICK FACTS
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere
95% of aid to Haiti has been reduced since the early 1990s
70% of Haitian people live in poverty-annual income of $400 per year
15% of all children in Haiti are orphaned or abandoned
200,000 orphaned Haitian children live in institutions (the rest are fostered, live with relatives, or are street children)
40% of the population is under the age of 15
A history of an extremely high maternal mortality rate contributes to the number of orphans
Child-headed households are becoming more common as potential guardians succumb to AIDS or other causes of death
(source UNICEF)
From the reporting I've seen, it seems that what DHS is talking about are the children that have already begun the adoption process with US parents, a process that has been interrupted by this earthquake. I can't imagine that the number of those children exceeds more than a a few thousand, if that.
Okay, thanks. From the excerpt above it sounded like all orphans. I have never understood the long delays in getting the papers final. Unless it has something to do with all of the middle guys getting their cut.
But then I don’t get the “temporary” part (at least in the title). Let the almost adopted kids in, off the plane to a clinic for a checkup for diesease and whatever shots they need, and then to their adoptive parents. Even if records were lost in Haiti, I’m sure there the adoptive parents have some records, and some at their local adoption agency or whatever that would prove that they really are who they say they are.
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