Adoptee Deportation: Susan’s Story

“A series of traffic stops that, for the average person, might have resulted in a suspended license and community service, ended with one Richmond mother being expelled from the country and separated from her baby.

It all stems from some paperwork her adopted parents forgot about when she was just a little girl.

Five siblings had been picked out of an adoption magazine in the late-1980s by a Virginia couple from an orphanage in Medillin, Colombia.

The kids had been abandoned, left to fend for themselves. Jacob and Lina, the two oldest, cared for their three sisters.

Life was supposed to take a turn for the better once they were adopted by a family in Charlottesville. Sadly, it did not work out that way.

Now adults, the two say growing up in Virginia was far from the American dream.

Of the five children, their middle sister Susan has taken the brunt of the adoption mishap that has forever changed her life.

Now 32, Susan is sitting in a holding cell in an immigration facility in Houston, Texas, as she awaits deportation to Colombia for a second time.

Her brother couldn’t understand why it happened.

“The day they signed the adoption in ’95, it gave automatic citizenship to the four of us,” said Jacob Hill, Susan’s big brother.

The catch is, there are five siblings, not four.

The adoption paperwork filed in Albemarle County in 1995 lists only four children who were given American names.

It lists Mary Ellen, Jacob, Rosemary and Adriana, but no Susan.

As a young adult – Susan got into trouble, receiving a series of traffic related arrests and a marijuana possession conviction.

But it was a traffic stop in Richmond that placed her in the crosshairs of the Department of Immigration and Naturalization.

She had many unpaid tickets and no license.  When the arresting officer asked her name, she gave her little sister’s.  It was identity theft.

As her case moved through the courts, Susan learned she wasn’t an American citizen, which left her dumbfounded, along with her brother.

Their adoptive parents never filed the correct paperwork to get them citizenship.

She was put on a plane back to Colombia – and forced to leave her son behind.

Jacob Hill said reality didn’t match what they’d always been told.

“They were always telling us, ‘you’re an American citizen,'” he remarked. “Fill out an application as you’re an American citizen, and not until I learned that my sister was being deported did I start looking into my situation, and started saying, ‘Wait, hold on, I’m actually NOT a citizen?'”

Richmond adoption attorney Colleen Quinn believes that mistakes made in these adoptions back in 1995, are nothing short of bad parenting.

“It’s extremely unfortunate that a family would have four out of the five children go through the legalities and leave one out,” Quinn said. “I mean – who doesn’t count their children?”

The siblings adoptive mother declined an on-camera interview but did answer questions over the phone, saying the Colombian children were just five of 11 kids they adopted, along with their four biological children.

Looking back, she now knows it was too much.

As for the adoption mistakes, Caren said, “It just fell through the cracks.”

“With that many kids, every day was a struggle,” she explained. “I could make excuses about it, but I won’t. I should have made sure they got their citizenship but, honestly, we were so overwhelmed, it just wasn’t a priority for us at the time.”

Video from a story produced by a television network in Colombia, and obtained by NBC12  shows Susan being reunited with her biological mother, who was in jail at the time the 5 kids were given up.

Although she eventually acclimated to life in Colombia, Susan was desperate to see her son again.

In December of last year, she attempted to sneak back into the country through Mexico but was captured near Weslaco, Texas.

“December 1, I got caught coming across the Border in the woods,” Susan said in an interview. “I’ve been in the deportation center in Houston for four months.”

Susan was scheduled to fly back to Colombia this week but is now facing possible mitigating circumstances.

A law firm is working to keep her here in the United States.

She fears that if she’s forced to return to Colombia, her life will be miserable.

“I don’t really have any support there, Susan said.  “I was working when I got there, but with me being gone, I don’t have my job.  So, it’ll be kinda difficult.”

As of now, her deportation has been put on indefinite hold.”

Adoption mistake tears VA mom away from child [NBC 12 4/29/16 by Curt Autry]

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