Deported Dad Begs North Carolina To Give Him Back His Children UPDATED

On February 21, 2012, a set of US citizen children, with a deported dad but US citizen mother,will be placed up for adoption. The infant has been separated from the older two children.

“In late 2010, Montes was deported to Mexico after nine years in the United States—cuffed and loaded into a van by federal immigration officials who drove him from his hometown of Sparta in the rural North Carolina mountains to an immigration detention center.

With Felipe Montes gone, his wife Marie Montes fell on hard times. She was pregnant with their third child and was surviving on disability payments that she received each month due to illness. Without Felipe’s income and support she could not keep her family afloat. Less than two months after their baby was born, just two weeks after Felipe was loaded onto a plane and deported to Mexico, the Allegheny County child welfare department took the children from Marie and put them in foster care.
Allegheny County has already convinced a judge to end family reunification efforts with Marie Montes. She wants the children to be placed with their father. “If they can’t be with me, I want them to be with him,” she said. “Nobody is a better father than he is.”

Removal from biological US citizen mother has suspect timing

“Before the children were removed, the Department of Social Services had intermittent contact with the Montes family. In times when the family needed help paying bills, Marie asked for financial assistance from the county. Once, the daycare reported to the child welfare department that one of their children had arrived in the morning with an unchanged diaper, but neglect allegations were fully cleared, according to Montes, and the children were never removed from their parent’s custody.

The day after Montes was detained, Marie says a child welfare caseworker came knocking on the door of their trailer to check on the children. “They knew he was deported,” said Marie, “and it was like they were ready to take the kids right away.”
First Foster Home Abusive

“The court reports note that the children are all healthy, but the two older boys had to be removed from their first foster care home, according to one of the documents, “due to repeated concerns of corporal punishment being used in the home.” Marie was beside herself when she found out. “We struggled, but I never hit my kids,” she said.”
Humble home in Mexico

“According to Marie’s aunt, who is close to the family, Montes was the children’s primary caretaker. “He took care of her and the children, made sure they were clean, cared for and dressed. He did everything for those children”

Indeed, even the child welfare department, which now wants to take Montes’s children from him permanently, does not base its arguments for terminating parental rights on his character or history as a father.

After his deportation, Montes travelled to his uncle’s home in a small town in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It’s to this simple five-room house that Montes wants to bring his kids. With the support of his uncle and aunt and in the company of three young cousins, he says his children would be cared for and loved.

“I will give all that I have to my kids,” Montes said. “I married and tried to start a family. I did not imagine coming back here, but I would never abandon my kids and I want them to be with me.”

Allegheny County officials feel differently. “[The county] did not approve the father’s home for placement because water is hauled in, there is a concrete roof and cement floor,” reads a court document provided to Colorlines.com by Montes’s lawyer. The document is the county’s response to a “home study” conducted of Montes’s uncle’s home in Tamaulipas by the Mexican government. The Mexican consulate in North Carolina sent it to the Allegheny County child welfare department last June. The home study notes that the conditions in the home are “good” and states clearly that Montes’s “uncles would help care for [the children] and they would lend him a room inside the house to live in.”

Montes insists the house is a perfectly safe place for his kids.

“The problem they say with the house is that there is no water. But,” Montes explains, “there is clean water that we bring in to clean, drink, cook. We drink it everyday.”

Montes’s attorney, Donna Shumate, who was appointed to represent him when the children were removed from their mother’s custody, says that she thinks the department has a kneejerk reaction against placing U.S.-citizen children in Mexico.

“It’s not really subtle at all,” says Shumate. “They’ve pretty much said that they won’t place American kids there. He is a good father and the fact that he may be living in different standards now because he’s in Mexico should not prevent children from reunifying with their father.”

For the rest of the story see Deported Dad Begs North Carolina To Give Him Back His Children
[Color Lines 2/14/12 by Seth Freed Wessler]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Unable to renew his license, Montes said he tried to avoid driving. But he had to get to work.
Soon, the town’s seven-person police force knew him by sight.

“They would stop me simply because they knew me, they knew my face and knew that I didn’t have a license,” Montes said.

Police Chief Bob Lane confirmed that his officers sometimes pulled Montes solely because they recognized him. In little more than two years, court records show Montes was cited more than two dozen times for driving with an expired license, an expired registration and without insurance.

In September 2009, a judge sentenced Montes to probation. A year later, he was detained by immigration agents after reporting for a probation meeting. A month after that, he was put on a plane to Mexico.

“They took me away and didn’t let me say goodbye to my wife or to my kids,” Montes said. “They didn’t give me the opportunity to say anything or make any arrangements.”

Federal authorities can release people for humanitarian reasons that include being the primary caregiver of minors. In Montes’ case, ICE knew he had children and assumed his wife could care for them. The agency said it didn’t communicate with Child Protective Services about him.

ICE officials said it’s not their job to call child welfare officials every time they detain a parent. They don’t have a formal policy for dealing with child welfare agencies, but they work with them as needed.

Two weeks after Montes’ deportation, social workers took the children after his wife’s electricity and heat were cut off. The older boys were sent to live with one foster family, the newborn with another.

John Blevins, director of Alleghany County Department of Social Services, said in a written statement that his agency’s chief mission is to protect children from abuse, but reuniting families is also a priority.

But the agency balked at sending the Montes children to live in Mexico, where Montes works at a walnut farm and shares a house with his uncle, aunt and three nieces.

A home study by Mexican social services authorities shows the Montes family’s cement block house in Mexico has a refrigerator, satellite television, microwave and plenty of space for children to play. There’s a school a few minutes away.

But North Carolina officials are concerned it doesn’t have running water. Officials also said Montes missed some scheduled calls with his children at their day care, or called on the wrong days. Montes has a cell phone, but service can be spotty in rural Mexico.

“I will argue to the judge that some of the things they’ve asked him to do are legally impossible,” said Donna Shumate, Montes’ court-appointed lawyer in Sparta. She recounted a conversation with a lawyer for Alleghany County who questioned why authorities would ever “exile” children to a foreign country when they can stay.

Efforts have shifted to terminating his parental rights _ the main barrier to reunification with the children being Montes’ current residence in another country, according to court documents. Legal experts say that once U.S.-born children of immigrants are in the child welfare system, the agencies often refuse to send them to live with deported parents in other countries.

The foster couple caring for the older boys has expressed an interest in adopting them, Shumate said.
She’s working to obtain dual citizenship for the children, in case they’re allowed to join their father in Mexico. Marie’s lawyer said the mother also supports sending the kids to their father, and she hopes to join them and reunite with her husband.

A family court hearing is set for April 5.

“I don’t know what the judge will decide, but I’m hoping for the best,” Felipe Montes said. “I hope I can have my children back.”

Update 2: “Montes, who had lived in the U.S. illegally for almost 10 years, was sent back to Mexico in 2010 after having been sentenced to probation following an arrest for driving with an expired license, an expired registration and no automobile insurance. He was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at one of his probation meetings.

Under normal circumstances, Montes’ children would have been put in the care of a relative. But because there was no relative capable of caring for them, social workers took his boys, all younger than 7, and separated them into different foster families. Now the state of North Carolina won’t let Montes claim his children just because he’s in Mexico.

According to an Associated Press report, ICE officials said they didn’t communicate with North Carolina’s Child Protective Services about Montes because it’s not their job to call child welfare officials every time a parent is detained, and noted that they don’t have a formal policy for dealing with child welfare agencies.”

The whole thing is ridiculous. There are people all over the world who don’t have the luxury of running water, but our government doesn’t usually take an active role in scattering their families. And think about this: How much is it costing North Carolina taxpayers for Montes’ past four hearings on the matter—at least two more are expected—which have required multiple social workers and judges? Plus, the cost to keep three kids in foster care is easily $20,000-$30,000 for each child annually.

And for what? The man was deported after he’d been convicted of traffic violations.

“There’s no evidence he ever used drugs, no evidence of drunkenness or DUI. The state has no witnesses to claim there was abuse or neglect,” Donna Shumate, Montes’ court-appointed lawyer, told me. “Basically they’re saying that the act of being deported is in itself a crime—which it is not—and that he’s unfit because he’s living in Mexico.”ICE officials told me very clearly, “For parents who are ordered removed, it is their decision whether or not to relocate their children with them,” reiterating long-standing legal precedent on the rights of parents, regardless of their immigration status.

Obviously, brains reflexively turn to mush anytime illegal immigration comes into play. But let’s hope someone in North Carolina has the sense to stop this cruel, expensive craziness and respect the rights of U.S.-citizen children to be with their parents, wherever they may be.” LOL

Update 4: This story indicates that the adoption has gone through. Judge postpones decision to November.Felipe has to return to Mexico on October 29.

“Judge Michael Duncan has said that in November he will have to give further  study to the case of a deported Mexican who returned with a special permit to  North Carolina in order to fight for the custody of his three children.

The magistrate said the court will have to be in session two more days in  November to reach a decision on whether to restore custody to the father, even  as time runs out for the Mexican Felipe Bautista Montes to remain in the country  legally.

“I’m desperate, I want to go back to Mexico with my boys before Oct. 29, the  date when I have to leave the country. I’ve fought for them so much, but the  procedure has been going on for a long time. I’m still optimistic though,”  Montes, whom the court allows to continue unsupervised visits with the children,  told Efe.

For the second time since he returned last July to the western North Carolina  town of Sparta, Bautista Montes, 32, appeared in court to keep from losing  custody of Isaias, 4, Adrian, 2, and Angel, 1.

This father’s fight to regain custody of his boys began in December 2010 when  he was deported after being nabbed for traffic violations in Sparta, where he  had lived for nine years with his wife Marie.

After the deportation, Marie lost custody of the children due to economic  difficulties, mental problems and drug addiction, and the youngsters were placed  in temporary foster homes to be put up for adoption.

“The kids know I’m their dad and they treat me that way. I can give them a  future in Mexico, but the adoptive parents are fighting to keep them,” the  Mexican told Efe.

The father said that if the judge, whom he considers “very fair,” should rule  in his favor, he plans to offer a decent life for the little ones in the state  of Nuevo Leon, where he will work in walnut production.

The Mexican’s case gained notoriety in early 2012 when the American  organizations Presente.org and the Applied Research Center, or ARC, with  headquarters in New York, launched a campaign to avoid breaking up the  family.

The assigned consul, Cinthya Prida, told Efe on Saturday that the immigration  attorney employed by authorities of the Mexican Consulate in Raleigh, is working  on an extension of their citizen’s humanitarian permit to stay in the country,  which expires in 17 days.

“If that can’t be arranged, we will continue offering all kinds of technical  and logistic support so that Montes can speak in court via Skype (a telephone  service on the Internet),” Prida said.

The immigrant’s attorney, Donna Shumate, said Saturday that “the state is  delaying” the process to keep the Mexican from testifying in person, though it’s  “a good sign” that the judge has allowed the visits between father and sons to  continue.

Montes’s situation is not an isolated case, according to the Applied Research  report “Shattered Families,” which shows that more than 5,000 children of  deported or detained immigrant parents are currently in foster homes.

Last month a Missouri judge scratched the parental rights of Guatemalan  migrant Encarnacion Bail Romero, detained in 2007 during an immigration raid at  a chicken-processing plant, and ordered her son put up for adoption.

Montes wants his children to live with him in the modest house in the  northern state of Tamaulipas that he shares with aunts, uncles and cousins.

However, the North Carolina DSS has argued that the children, who are U.S.  citizens, would be better off in this country in the custody of other people.  ”

Court still undecided on custody of deported Mexican’s kids
[Fox News Latino 10/13/12]

Update 5: “Felipe Montes, an immigrant father who lost his three children to foster care when he was deported two years ago, was provisionally reunited with his three young children today in a North Carolina court.

“The court cannot find that the father is unfit,” County Judge Michael Duncan said from the bench in the Alleghany County courtroom shortly after noon. “The permanent plan is reunification with the father.”

The decision marks a major victory for Felipe Montes who faced permanent separation from his kids after local child welfare authorities and the children’s appointed Guardian Ad Litem recommended initially that the kids be adopted by foster families.

Montes is not yet free to take his three U.S. citizen sons, now 2, 3, and 5, to Mexico. After the ruling in court, the judge told the attorneys in chambers that the reunification would be a “trial placement” in Alleghany County, said Donna Shumate, Montes’s attorney. From December 7th until February 19th, the children are scheduled to live with their father in a local hotel.

It’s the same local hotel where Montes and his kids have visited with their father since August when he returned to the country on a rare humanitarian parole from federal immigration authorities. The parole, which was granted after a long application process so that Montes could attend his parental rights hearings, currently expires on December 23rd. Ann Robertson, an immigration attorney hired by the Mexican Consulate to represent Montes, said today she will apply for an extension so that he can remain in the country until the 19th of February.

Colorlines.com broke the Montes story in February. Soon after, the Latino advocacy group Presente.org gathered 20,000 signatures on a petition demanding Alleghany County reunify the boys with their father. In recent weeks, the Alleghany County Department of Social Services reversed it’s position and began recommending the children be returned to their father.

If all goes well for Montes during the trial placement, the Judge will close the child welfare case and grant Montes full rights over his children. The father plans to bring his children with him in Tamaulipas, Mexico, where he’s lived since he was deported for driving violations in 2010.

“I am happy, but I am waiting,” Montes said just after the hearing. “I have learned to be patient.”

Since his return, Felipe Montes has attended regular parenting classes and shared parenting responsibilities with the kid’s foster care providers.

Montes’s children were removed from the custody of his U.S. citizen wife Marie Montes shortly after he was deported.  Mrs. Montes, who is now pregnant, is currently incarcerated for parole violations related to driving violations. She has long struggled with drug addiction and mental health issues and could not continue taking care of their children, including a newborn baby, after her husband was deported.  The county child welfare department initially refused to place the boys with their father in Mexico, instead, arguing that they should be adopted by foster parents.

The foster parents, Brian and Marcie Galyean, who have cared for the two older boys Isaiah and Adrian, and Bob and Patricia Westlund, who have raised Angel since the baby was born, sat quietly in the second row of benches as the judge spoke. Mrs. Galyean and Mrs. Westlund began to cry when the judge ordered the boys move toward reunification. They have previously declined to speak with Colorlines.com and left the court room quickly after the hearing today.

In February, if the judge rules as expected to restore Montes’s parental rights and close the child welfare case, the children’s attorney advocate could appeal the decision.”

Felipe Montes Reunited With His Children, On Trial Basis

[Colorlines 11/28/12 by Seth Freed Wessler]