Adopted, Assaulted, and Deported: Jennifer Haynes Finally Gets Indian Passport UPDATED
“Deported from the US in 2008, India was an enigma for Jennifer Haynes. Now, having lived for over two years in a country where she knew nobody after having been adopted from Mumbai by US nationals way back in 1989, Haynes’s most prized possession is her Indian passport. After having received it on February 11 this year, Haynes acquired something she never had — a nationality. ” Her adoptive parents never completed the citizenship formalities.
She has a husband and two children in Michigan that she had to leave behind when she was deported. Her 2004 conviction for illegal possession of cocaine led to her deportation to India as she was of Indian origin after the Indian government accepted her repatriation through the Board of Immigrant Appeals in the US.
“With no documents to prove her identity, Haynes found it hard to get a job in Mumbai earlier, but for a few months now she has been working as the caretaker of an eight-year-old boy in Chembur and teaches children basic English to make enough money to survive. She has been staying at a shelter home for women since her arrival. ”
She unsuccessfully petitioned the Bombay High Court about Indian adoption policies and to deregister and ban Americans for International Aid and Adoptions (AIAA), the US adoption agency that processed her adoption. Her case is still pending in the Supreme Court.
Adopted from city & then deported, she finally gets a nationality
[Express India 4/11/11 by Mayura Janwalkar]
Jennifer was born in India in 1981 and adopted by Edward and Melissa Hancox, who flew her to the US in November 1989. They used AIAA agency, a COA-approved agency that is a member of JCICS.
“It was the beginning of a nightmare for her. “I was sexually abused by my first foster father. I changed nearly 50 foster homes, but everywhere the abuse continued. Nobody was willing to accept me.”
She Was Adopted, Assaulted and Deported
[Daily News and Analysis 1/15/09 by Mayura Janwalkar]
For more details about the plight of Jennifer Haynes, read the PoundPup Legacy Files.
Update: “An Indian orphan who was deported from the US in 2008 following her arrest on drug charges today wrote to External Affairs Minister SM Krishna asking him to help her get back to the US so that she can live with her two children – eight and nine year olds.”
““Until three years back I believed I was a citizen of the United States. Now I realize that I was a victim of child trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation,” Hayens said in an email sent to the minister through Anjali Pawar, of Sakhee, a Pune-based NGO.
“When I was just seven years old, I was adopted from an Indian orphanage by an American couple from Atlanta Georgia via American Aid for International Adoption,” she said.
“Unfortunately the adoption was a fraud and within a year of arriving in the United States I found myself placed with a foster family who later adopted me, where I was sexually abused and physically beaten. Thereafter for the next ten years I was shuffled from foster home to foster home,” she said.
“Never did I think that I was not an American citizen until I was arrested for a minor drug charge and send immediately for deportation.
“In 2008 I was separated from my husband and two children in the US and sent back to India, a country which I had forgotten and which had forgotten me,” Hayens said.
“I’m trying desperately to return home to my kids Kadafi, 9 and Kassana, 8 who are missing me a lot and need their mother,” she said adding that her case is also pending in the Supreme Court of India.
The petition before the Supreme Court, she noted, will “take years together for adjudication”.
“By then my children who are yet minor will be grown up. I request intervention by your office…” Haynes said in her email dated 28 May.
The copy of the email sent to Krishna was released in Washington today.”
Deported woman seeks MEA’s help
[First Post 5/28/12]
REFORM Puzzle Pieces
I am an adoption advocate. I do not agree with much that is posted here. I find it to be generally biased and sometimes poorly researched. But I am an adoption supporter with a brain. And this family’s blog is an affront to me: http://1blessing2another.blogspot.com/. In this piece, this family has gone “across the ocean” to meet with a 16 year old boy who claimed to “desperately” want a family. But when he met with THIS family, he said NO. In many countries, 16 is an age when they are released to be an adult. While I believe that a family situation is better for a child or young adult than no family – the fact remains that this child has said NO. Whether we agree with him or not, we must respect his right to choose. Now, this family – while claiming to want what this child wants – asks people to pray for them because they “so want” this child. No. THIS CHILD DOESN’T WANT YOU. Should he? Debatable (and I’m sure the people here would say “no”). However, he’s 16 and this is the country that he knows. He claims that he lived with his birth mother until just a few years prior.
I find it offensive that this family begs for prayer for a child who is saying no. Maybe he’d like to be adopted, but not by Americans, which is totally valid. Maybe he doesn’t want to be adopted at all. Either way, as they teach us in school, “NO means NO”. Even if he changed his mind…he would need a long while to adjust to the idea of going to the US with this family because he’s SIXTEEN.
I can’t help but wonder if this family would be equally angry because of the thousands they have “invested” in this adoption.
*sigh*
I’m choosing to use the name that many of those affiliated with this site use when trolling pro-adoption blogs. May I just say that not every family who chooses international adoption is a complete moron, unaware of corruption, and otherwise an idiot. Yes, even if they fundraise. This is why I would recommend a more sophisticated vetting process before you spotlight a blog. Having said that, I suspect the blog I’ve supplied would certainly meet the criteria for complete and total negligence.
Good luck.
“Sadie”, first, I am not sure why you have chosen this post to say this. Are you saying that you AGREE with deporting Jennifer Haynes by posting that you disagree with what is posted here?
Of course this blog is “generally biased” EVERY blog, organization and PERSON has a bias. Bias is not bad. We too are adoption supporters with brains. Specifically what do you feel is poorly researched? Be specific. Linking to a blog is not research, by the way. It is AN EXAMPLE. We point out risks, corruption and many other things on this blog.See our REFORM puzzle.
Furthermore, No author on this blog posts on people’s personal blogs PERIOD. I know that we have readers who comment here who do so. We have been accused of being all kinds of different people and organizations. When one has a public blog, the whole world watches so remember to password protect if you don’t like people coming to your blog. I find it continually amusing that people who shake their finger at us believe that we are the only people on earth that have issues with specific blogs. This is not a conspiracy.It is called common sense.
I don’t know who has claimed that every family who chooses international adoption is a complete moron. We are adoptive parents on this blog.
Sophisticated vetting process? Now you want to help point things out and also tell us how to do so on our own blog? Tell you what-you do some sophisticated vetting process for whatever you want and go post that on your own blog. Otherwise stick to the blog post topic. Unless you say otherwise, my readers now think that you support the deportation of Jennifer Haynes. If you have a specific gripe about some link somewhere, then point it out where it is.
In my case, I have taken steps to avoid unwanted comments. Sadly, there are people – whether readers, writers, or observers – who go to incredible lengths to infiltrate situations to make themselves known.
“Unless you say otherwise, my readers now think that you support the deportation of Jennifer Haynes.” Really? Seriously? Based on a comment that is not a part of the original post? I’m simply using what is commonly done by…readers? writers? whoever? affiliated here to communicate. People who come here routinely (and I do mean routinely) post unrelated information about a blog’s topic in a way to further their agendas. In my case, it’s not necessarily about an agenda, but the truth is, I don’t disagree with some of the information the writers share here. I just resent being painted with the same broad brush used to paint so many affiliated with adoption. If you are all adoptive parents, then you have participated in the same corruption you rail against, which would make you just as much of an idiot as some of the parents you rail against in posts such as “face palms” – which by the way is what I mean about a more sophisticated vetting process. You search the blogosphere looking for blogs that disgust you, copy them verbatim, spout off – and then somehow insinuate that a comment of mine can be construed as supporting the deportation of a person. If your readers are truly that ignorant…well, hang on. That may say a lot.
You want to weed out corruption? You want to focus your “facepalms” on evil blogs? Then find the real evil ones. I’m only commenting on this post because it’s the most recent one – no differently than so very many of those “affiliated with” (we’ll use that umbrella term for anyone who writes, reads, regularly comments, etc) this site do on blogs, particularly those associated with Reece’s Rainbow.
Anyone, anywhere, who actually believes that this comment in any way supports or endorses the deportation of a person really, really, really should close their browser and start over. I’ve rarely heard something so ludicrious. In case there is even a hint of wonder or ambiguity – no. I don’t support her deportation. Dear Lord.
This is not the most recent post. This blog has over 1400 posts. There are a total of 3 (so far) out of 1400+ that are specific to blogs in our blog gag me. So since you did not choose the most recent post and your first comment sounded like you were tripping on LSD, I had to ask the question as people who care about what we do actually post on the relevant post. Again, I don’t have a clue what other people do on your blog nor do I care. If you hate what others do, why are you doing it here? It makes no sense. Your cause is not being furthered here.
Yes of course there was corruption in our adoptions. Why do you think we created a REFORM website? Do you think good, happy things need reform or bad things? Again, this is common sense that seems to elude you.
You are the one that keeps calling people idiots, not me. Do you think adopting 5 special needs children (unrelated) at once is a smart thing?Because that IS what people are doing. Agencies are allowing it, too. Again, is that “smart” or the opposite end of the spectrum? Is this good for the child? If you want to debate that, then fine, but you do not want to have an intelligent debate. You come here wringing your hands and whining.
If people who comment here are “affiliated with” us, then if they post on your blog, they are also “affiliated with” you. Again you make no sense. At least you answered one question about this post. Why do you think that your voice is more important than others that post on this blog? Say something relevant and maybe people will listen.