December 2014

December 18, 2014. A Salute to Whitney Reitz. For the last five years Whitney Reitz, first as a high ranking official at USCIS and then, more recently, in her position as a senior policy advisor to Senator Mary Landrieu, has been in the forefront in the battle to help orphans and vulnerable children. Whitney was a major player in the effort to remove an onerous and medically unnecessary burden of TB testing for adopted children and in her role at USCIS was able to work on both the macro and micro levels to make international adoption processing better serve potential adoptive children and their families. The 1100 children from Haiti who were able to come to the United States and join their families in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, to a significant degree, owe their rescue to Whitney, who also spearheaded the government effort to give these children the legal protection they needed in order to have full and final adoptions and be able to become citizens through the Help Haiti Act. Most recently Whitney was the lead drafter and point person for the Children in Families First Act, a bill which aimed to assist OVC through USAID's National Action Plan for Children, in-country adoption and international adoption. We know that Whitney leaves government service this month; we also know that Whitney will never stop fighting for the rights of unparented and uncared for children. Thank you Whitney.

December 17, 2014. U.S. Officials Visit Nepal. A delegation from the Department of State and USCIS visited Nepal last month to discuss international adoption issues with Nepalese officials. The U.S. government suspended adoption processing from Nepal in August 2010. The U.S. delegation met with officials from the Nepalese Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), the Intercountry Adoption Management Development Board (ICAB) and selected ICAB members, the Central Child Welfare Board (CCWB), and representatives from local District Child Welfare Boards. US representatives also met with representatives from foreign governments as well as officials from UNICEF and Terre de Hommes. According to the Department of State: "The delegation was encouraged by the Government of Nepal's interest in partnering with the international community to further reform Nepal's child welfare and adoption systems. Safeguards under consideration include the establishment of reasonable limits and accountability for adoption fees and services, and meaningful monitoring and oversight of children's homes. The Department of State and USCIS are exploring next steps, including procedures to document and trace the origin of children in institutional care and how the international community might support the Government of Nepal's efforts to strengthen its child welfare system." More Information.

December 16, 2014. South Korea to Digitize International Adoption Documents. Kim Moon-Jung, of Korean Adoption Services, announced that a government agency will digitize 35,000 documents relating to international adoption between the 1950s and the present. These documents will be house at this government agency indefinitely. Making adoption documents easily accessible will be a boon to the 165,000 Koreans who were adopted internationally in the last six decades. More Information.

December 11, 2014. China Changes Rules for Potential Adoptive Parents. The China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), China's adoption authority has altered the rules for prospective adoptive parents. In general, these rules make it easier for PAPs to adopt from China. The rule changes, which affect families with dossiers logged in after January 1, 2015, include allowing single women to adopt special needs children (those with minor issues) as well as special focus children (children with more serious medical issues), singles and couples over the age of fifty can adopt as long as the child they are adopting is no more than 50 years younger than the younger adopting parent, families with more than five children in the home may now adopt both special needs and special focus children. More Information.

December 9, 2014. Attorney General Promises Federal Action on ICWA. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced "a new initiative to promote compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act." Among other things, the Department of Justice will actively seek to identify state-court cases where it can file briefs "opposing the unnecessary and illegal removal of Indian children from their families and tribal communities." DOJ, together with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Interior "will make sure that all the tools available to the federal government are used to promote compliance with this important law." While we salute Attorney General Holder's determination to uphold federal law, we hope these efforts will not have a chilling effect on the ability of the birth mothers and fathers to place their children with adoptive parents of their choice, while fully complying with ICWA. More Information.

December 8, 2014. Senator Mary Landrieu Loses Election Runoff. With sadness and regret, we post today about the electoral defeat on Saturday of Senator Mary Landrieu (D.La). For 18 years Senator Landrieu has led the fight for children in the United State Senate. She has been the most outspoken supporter of adoption programs and foster care programs in the U.S. government. We in the adoption community have lost a great friend and ally in Washington and we are all poorer for it.

December 4, 2014. Information on U.S. Adoption Agencies With Programs in Ethiopia from U.S. Documents. The Schuster Institute for Investigation at Brandeis University has published a series of articles on international adoption. As part of its background research, the Institute obtained numerous federal documents through Freedom of Information Act requests. Now the Schuster Institute has posted on its website an "Index of Mentions of U.S. Adoption Agencies, Orphanages & Associations operating in Ethiopia and found in these government documents, which are also available on the Shuster Institute's website. More Information.

December 3, 2014. American Couple Finally Allowed to Leave Qatar. Matthew and Grace Huang, whose convictions resulting from the death of their adopted daughter in Qatar were overturned on Sunday, finally obtained travel approval to leave that country today. U.S. Ambassador Dana Shell Smith posted on her Twitter account that "Matt and Grace Huang are wheels up from Qatar," The Huangs were arrested and charged with murder in January 2013 and found guilty of lesser charges. Part of their peril arose from the inability of Qatari authorities to believe that an Asian-American couple would adopt an African child. More Information.