Stopping the Spin on Bac Lieu 16 UPDATED
Another day, another article about the Bac Lieu 16.
KC couple’s Vietnamese adoption stuck in limbo
[The Kansas City Star 6/19/11 By Matt Campbell]
The blockage of these cases is 100% on the Vietnamese side.
From this recent Daily Mail article ,“Alison Dilworth, adoptions division head at the U.S. Office of Children’s Issues, said Washington has pressed Vietnam’s government to release the children, but officials there have refused to provide information on why they rejected the cases.”
People need to ask why Vietnam is not compromising on these children. It may not be the individual kids’ cases but because of the US adoption agency that had questionable activities in this province and with some of their other adoptions when Vietnam was still open.
This Kansas City Star article says “And while bureaucrats in both Vietnam and the United States are doing their bureaucratic things, the Sailors say Claire is growing up undernourished in southern Vietnam in a moldy orphanage that used to be a prison. It even has bars on the windows.”
No, we are not talking about bureaucracy here. What we are talking about is the documented activities of child finding in some provinces aka human trafficking. This is the backdrop in which these cases are playing out. Yet again a suspect adoption industry is not seen as the root of these problems and as a result the blame is shifted away from the true culprits. The agency in question set up and approved these referrals. These children are referred children, not adopted children. These families have no legal claim to them. It is a shame that they are not being helped locally, but it is not the job of the US Department of State to act as an adoption agency. They approve or disapprove documents and attempt to investigate when documents do not look legitimate. That is all. They attempted investigations in orphanages in other provinces in the past and orphanages were not cooperative or were downright threatening.
See the Schuster Institute website for more information here and here.
As for the conditions of the orphanage, what happened to the orphanage fees that the prospective parents paid? Where did the money go? Why hasn’t this agency spearheaded a program to ensure that any donations would actually make it to the orphanage itself?
The Kansas City Star article says “Compounding their frustration, the Sailors have been to Vietnam nine times and have spent a total of five months bonding with the girl. They are attached to her and she to them.”
It does not sound like the adoption is final if the child remains in the orphanage, so why were these parents allowed to have contact with a child that is not legally theirs? Why did their adoption agency and orphanage officials allow this to happen?
The Kansas City Star article says “The Sailors thought their arrangements would be grandfathered.” Again we have to push back and say Where is the agency in all of this? Was this what the agency was saying to the PAPs and if so, why were they being led to believe that their case would be grandfathered? There is no guarantee of any adoption being completed once a country has shut down.
The Kansas City Star article quotes the lawyer of this couple as “She also thinks the U.S. could act more forcefully on behalf of the U.S. couples.
“In very simplistic terms, I think that if the State Department were to tell the Vietnamese everything is OK, these cases would be closed out tomorrow,”
Seriously? She advocates for a rubberstamping. Or potential trafficking. Furthermore, if the paperwork is bogus and these are trafficked children, then she is aiding and abetting a federal crime, namely visa fraud.
Well at least she is being honest, I guess. The State Department hasn’t seen the specific case information because Vietnamese officials won’t let them, just like they wouldn’t let them investigate at the orphanage level in other provinces.
And now a petition is being circulated to free the Bac Lieu 16. Many will sign it not understanding what this is all about. Open your eyes, people! Go after the real villains here: The Vietnamese traffickers and the US agencies that turned a blind eye to the mess they helped make in the first place.
Update 7/17/11: An NBC 4 video report can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRv5krMlJmM&feature=youtu.be . This and other information we have learned over the past few weeks shows that these children have not had their G & R ceremonies meaning that they have not gone through the adoption process on the Vietnamese side. This video’s last 30 seconds sums up the “sticking point” of this case and that is that these children’s cases must adhere to the Hague rules. The specific rule is that these children must be offered to local families first. One of Rally’s comments below (11th down) touches on this point. It has become crystal clear now that is not about the “adoptability” but WHO should be offered the children. Of course, the American PAPs believe that they have that right. From the children’s long-term point of view, they should be offered the opportunity to be with local families. Several of the Guatemalan children in the pipeline have indeed been placed with local Guatemalan families. You can see the hissy fit that the CCAI released in late May about those re-directed placements and how locals also want to adopt young children just like foreign PAPs.
As stated above in the original post, there is no excuse for the children to not be taken care of properly. That responsibility rests on the orphanage personnel. Like so many orphanages throughout the world including those that your hosts adopted from, these children are not in good environmental conditions and do not receive adequate medical assistance. This is wholly separate from the children’s rights to have the possibility of growing up in their native country. Those children’s rights should not be supplanted by prospective parents’ wishes as unfair as it seems for the time spent by those prospective parents.
Update 2/August 29, 2011: The Orphan March that was scheduled for Friday August 26, 2011 in DC was cancelled due to the hurricance preparation. But some propaganda leaked out in a Florida article this weekend with the patently false title that these are adopted kids. They are NOT adopted. The children have been matched on paper to prospective parents.
The story refers to the prospective parents :”They’ve never met the baby they adopted three years ago.”
It also discusses FTIA’s Keith Wallace’s actions in Vietnam. (He is a key member of the JCICS adoption lobbying group as well and his name is on many memos that are part of Schuster Insititute’s FOIA documents that we link to in the original post.) “To quash the allegations, Wallace searched Vietnam and found the birth mothers to confirm they voluntarily put their children up for adoption.
Some of the mothers, including Jake’s, have been interviewed multiple times and have provided DNA.”
So, neither the lawyer Ensslin nor the Vietnamese government tracked down original family members, but Keith Wallace did and SOME of the mothers have been interviewed and provided DNA. How many, Keith? How exactly did you contact them? What exactly was said to these families?Is that within the bounds of the law for an agency to make contact with original families? How can that NOT be considered coercion?
Ridiculous accusations that the US is holding up the adoptions continue in this article. The spin will continue…
Family desperate to bring home adopted son from Vietnam
[Pensacola News Journal 8/28/11 by Katie McFarland]
Update 3: Still spinning that the US is holding up these adoptions.CBS still muddies the status by stating first ” Authorities in Vietnam had approved the adoption” and only slightly clarifying later “To the hundreds of American families waiting for pending legal adoptions…” Most people would not understand this nuance…an importance nuance…that the child actually has not been adopted. She has been referred and identified. This article still does not explain why the children are being visited. That does not follow Hague process. Without a completion on the Vietnamese side, the US Embassy has no authority. Their job is to approve or disapprove paperwork presented AFTER adoption. Of course this article does not mention that the head of the adoption agency tracked down the birthparent for “consent”.
Vietnam will be opening up soon and we are sure that these cases will be processed…can’t have bad publicity hanging over the heads of anyone. Just like the Nepal cases were pushed through as the DOS lamented that 90% of children were trafficked. It is all just a business. Gotta get these kids through and THEN they can focus on family preservation yadda yadda…what a bad joke.
Foreign adoption rules place lives on hold
[CBS News 11/24/11 by Wyatt Andrews]
Update 4: After Ambassador David Shear visited the Bac Lieu Province on November 29 (according to the US Embassy in Hanoi), and CCAI members have continued to lead the push to just get these referred-but-not-yet-adopted kids home (forget about the agency tracking the birthparents down and “gaining consent”), six children of the sixteen have made it to US soil. Details remain fuzzy on the type of visa that they entered the US on. Rumors abounded with the use of the Humanitarian Parole visa at one point.
The reporters are clueless to the terminology and meaning of each step of the legal adoption process, they did not ask any of the important questions about why these PAPs were in this situation in the first place and they didn’t even mention anything about corruption or the meaning of the Hague treaty and the possibility of being placed locally being removed as an option for these children. They allowed the “starving” myth to perpetuate in this piece as well. The reporters just took as gospel that “Washington” stopped adoptions. Two children, of the LeRoys and Laystroms, had their adoptions “go through” on Christmas day and returned to their home state of Indiana on Wednesday, December 28, 2011. The Cowleys are said to be home shortly. Richard Lugar, a member of CCAI, was said to have been instrumental in getting the adoptions “through”. According to the FOX 59 news video, supposedly they had their adoption “granted” in November yet they also say that the adoption was finalized on December 25.
Families bring Vietnamese orphans home following three year fight
[Fox 59 12/28/11 by Angela Ganote]
Update 5: Angie McDonald of Florida goes to the media with her completed adoption from Bac Lieu story. It appears that not all of the Bac Lieu 16 have been granted adoptions at this time.
As you read this part of the puff piece below “”It was just little cribs lined up, no mattresses, no pillows,” McDonald recalled. “But the nannies were amazing. These kids were loved.”, keep the following two things in mind:
Reformatina says, “First agencies tout the dire need to get kids out of horrible institutions, then they tell their paying clients what wonderful care the children receive, then if a family has problems the situation for the child becomes dire, and once home the AP’s gush about the wonderful care again.”
Crabbina says, “In this case, remember how all the kids were starving and about to die which is why they had to get adopted immediately even though the PAPs were sending $$$ all the time – where did it go? Up 
?
The adoption was completed on December 25, 2011, according to this article.
This story follows the adoption industry narrative that the children left in the orphanages will have horrendous attachment problems (which they often do) but NOW that they are “loved”, everything is A-Ok. This child has been legally adopted for less than one month so in the US less than one month at the time of the publication of this story yet “But during the few days she has been in Florida, she has transferred that affection to McDonald and her mother, Janice Moore of Atlanta, who has been helping with the transition.” and “”She has adjusted better than I ever dreamed,” said McDonald.” To say that a child has adjusted already(and McDonald is a psychology professor so she should know better) is just propaganda.The “transition” will be a lot longer than one month.
The commenters on the article are quite harsh and rip her for this “Now the work of mothering replaces the work of getting her child into this country. McDonald is checking out day-care centers and thinks she has found one close to her work at Palm Beach Atlantic University.”
Four-year struggle to adopt Vietnamese girl ends happily for West Palm Beach mom
[Palm Beach Post 1/22/12 by Lona O’Connor]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
You digust me – you do not know the backstory at all and there are children starving to death. Besides, these kids have been in an orphanage for more than 3 years! Adoption advocate, indeed!
Two of the bloggers here have been through the Vietnam adoption process so we are well aware of what goes on within that system. We are not so naive as to say things are just rosy in Vietnamese orphanages, however, the hypocrisy of the adoption community screaming about dying children gets to us. It seems time after time the adoption community cares only about those children who have been referred for adoption, not the children who are not legally available and living in institutions with poor conditions everyone is screaming about. It seems like an emotional plea to simply get what they want, a child, no matter how corrupt the system may have been that referred or acquired the child. We do indeed advocate for children in Vietnam: for better quality of life, for more family preservation, for honest and responsible referring of children who really are legal orphans to the very best and well suited families to adopt them.
Yes, the press seems to overlook that these are Vietnam's children. If Vietnam has decided not to make these children available for adoption, that's a sovereign right. I don't want my government fighting to get the children out from other countries.
You may be right in everything you say – but I still think these particular kids should come home. I believe that due diligance has been done in determing their orphan status (with DNA tests and meeting with birth parents to ensure their intent). If that is indeed the case – I sincerely hope they can be grandfathered in and this chapter closed.
I also hope that agencies will be held to much closer scrutiny if Vietnam ever re-opens. After all I have learned – I'm not sure that "ethical" and international adoption will ever go hand in hand. But I hope that changes can be made so legitimate orphans can find homes.
Yes, this has been an interesting case. I think that we, as a nation, have to decide what we want. We criticized Vietnam for allowing baby buying and now we are criticizing them for turning down these cases due to fraud. Do we want children at any cost, or do we only want them everything's on the up and up? You'll get plenty of strong opinions on both sides.
If a child is legitimately relinquished and legally available for adoption they should have an honest paper trail in place and available before referred for adoption.
I don't think by reading one story, you can cast a blanket judgement on these cases. Even if you have gone through an adoption yourself – each case is different.
The basic issue is that these children were supposed to be grandfathered under the existing process. They have not been processed in over 3 years. There are completed and clean dossiers with DNA on these cases – a requirement that is even more stringent than some Hague countries.
Vietnam is a sovereign country and can say that these children are better off living in an orphanage than with American parents. However, the proper role of the State Department is to ensure that the rights of US citizens are respected by foreign countries. That is not happening here.
This is Rally. First of all,we have not just "read one story". We have read years worth of information about Vietnam adoptions during the shutdown, participated in discussions during that time and afterward. Additionally, we have read the FOIA documents, other government sources and other Vietnam-specific sources and have been in discussion with Vietnam APs and others knowledgable about the process for years. Have you?
Secondly, NO children are EVER guaranteed grandfathering when a country closes. None. This is what adoption agencies tell clients. While it is true that a number of Vietnamese children did get grandfathered under the old process, that is irrelevant to these individual cases.
Thirdly, these children have not been adopted according to all the sources we have contacted. The State Department has nothing to do with unadopted children.Nothing.Their role is to issue a visa or not after presented with paperwork AFTER the foreign procedures have been completed. Now, if you are saying that these children are the legal children of US citizens AND the US embassy has been given the documentation and immigration is being held up by the US Embassy, then that IS a different story than what the Press is saying. The Press is reporting what a lawyer hired by the prospective parents is saying. That is not anywhere near the same as legal parentage and application for visa.
US citizens do not have a right to foreign children.
It is ironic or just stupid that this group is trying to hold up an ambassadorship when having an ambassador present in Vietnam may help the situation.
You're right. It is much better for everyone that those children stay in the orphanage rather than join their American families.
Obviously this is a case where the adoption agency messed up . . . big time.
This is Rally.It sounds like the adoptions will be completed under Hague soon anyway so that is really what is amazing about people being so angry if there is disagreement on choices. Is this about the US PAP rights or the child’s long-term future, anyway?
To answer the poster about what is better:It is much better for the children to be in a loving biological family home than an American home-if the immediate family is not safe or cannot provide, then assistance should be given to the family or the child should be placed with kin or domestic family. I would hope that they change their child welfare system to include those provisions. If not, then they need to take care of the children’s basic needs in the orphanage and ready them to join their society as they are Vietnamese citizens if they don't meet IA criteria.
Let’s ponder that domestic placement-what if these kids had to wait 3 years during this shutdown to then be placed in a Vietnamese family. I guess that is equivalent to death by the logic applied here. (Many, many Romanian children and some Guatemalan children in the pipeline when they closed were subsequently placed in local homes.)
What is cruelty? I guess from the PAP-point of view, they have a “right” to the child and anything done to prevent their “right” should be fought to the death. These families chose to continue on in a closed country, visit frequently and force a bond in whatever way they felt to do, and now are making a federal case out of this, LITERALLY. They went to WDC, they lobbied Rubio to block the ambassadorship and they went to the Press where their story was printed in 100s of publications so millions can read about it.
But that is still not enough, is it? We ALL need to agree with the methods and the continuing choices that they have made.
I am not going to mince words. I say the following because I anticipate the same thing is going to happen in Ethiopia with families doing the same thing: What is cruelty to the child sitting in the orphanage? How about someone promising that they are their family when they are not? How about forcing a bond with a child when there is no knowledge of whether the child is going to join nonrelatives in a family? The children did not ask to be with these potential families. How do these children “know” that they are “part of an American family"? I guess they have been taught English and are continuing to speak English too, right? so they can voice that they are part of an American family? How do they know what being in an American family is since they have been in a Vietnamese orphanage all their lives?How about all the kids that are not eligible for adoption in that orphanage-I guess these pipeline kids can’t bond to them or enjoy any meaning in life? Who is giving the nonpipeline kids food by the way?
Besides the fact that the pipeline kids are not legally part of ANY American family, someone had to tell the children that they ARE part of an American family OVER and OVER and OVER again for them to lose any “bond”. If they haven't been told that they are part of an American family or had promises made to them, then there is NO "bond" lost at all on the part of the child–the person who should be focused on.If they do have a bond,who was responsible for that? I would guess it was a combination of the agency and the PAP. Maybe the orphanage, too. None of them are to blame though, right? Just everyone else is to blame.
Rally- Obviously when we speak of "bond," we're speaking of the American adoptive parents, not the kids. If there had been a credible agency and if Vietnam had correctly monitored the situation, the Americans would have not been able to spend time with these kids before the adoptions had final approval. Yes, it would have been better if someone had had an interest in keeping some of these kids in their original families, and it would have been better for the Vietnamese to find Vietnamese families for them. But the damage has been done, there was almost certainly a business element (based on many of the cases during the old agreement; I don't know these cases), and it's now better for everyone if the kids go to the American families. Unfortunately, these cases are sure to polarize the equally intransigent pro- and anti- adoption lobbies.
Sounds like these were pretty controversial cases in any event. The Christian pro-adoption lobby will want these kids in the U.S. like they want to "save" all 3rd world children. Too many extremists advocating for adoption.
This is Rally. Thanks for the additional comments. We have updated the post with a video that explains (at the end) the true sticking point–that these children will need to be offered to local families first under Hague rules and our commentary on that.
Seems like the efforts adoptive families are making in the press is more therapeutic for them. A catchy public interest story, so there will always be a reporter looking to fill space who writes a story with pictures of their empty children's room. I don't think any of this will speed up the cases, but it might help the families cope with a difficult situation.