Undocumented immigrant mother loses adoption battle

[alp227]

Source: CNN

A 5-year-old boy caught in a heart-wrenching custody battle will remain with his presumptive adoptive family after a judge ruled Wednesday that the biological mother had abandoned him.

It was a complex and delicate case that reached the Missouri Supreme Court and was unlikely to have a tidy ending.

Encarnacion Bail Romero was jailed after an immigration raid in 2007, after which her 6-month-old son was looked after by family and then other caretakers, arriving at the age of 2 in the home of Seth and Melinda Moser of Carthage, Missouri.

The Mosers raised the child and adopted him, giving him the name Jamison.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/us/missouri-immigrant-child/index.html

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The top-rated comment dropped the "anchor baby" slur, but the 2nd-highest comment was more sensible. Please upvote that (no registration required):

You guys are clueless to the injustice being committed by for profit detention centers. Immigrants are being denied access to communiting with relatives because they make it extremely difficult to contact someone on the outside because you have to have money to place in an account to make phone calls (they don't get a free phone call, they have to pay for it unless they dial an extension to a list of agencies that may or may not choose to assist). Calls to family members must be prepaid.

This child was entrusted to a friend, the friend gave it to the church people and the church people gave it to another couple and they decided to STEAL the baby by going through an illegal adoption.

This is just a tragic story of baby robbers, the boy belongs with his biological mother or family. It's not just ok that they played by the rules if the rules were followed with ill intentions. It sounds as if they think they are right because their Christians and giving the kid everything...that's not being Christian. A God fearing person would have immediately given up the boy to be with his rightful relatives!

I hope the Judge sees this and grants custody to his biological mother so this shuts all of you up about what you perceive to be right and you're just plain WRONG..

[Downwinder]

1. Not much different than Argentina, except the Mother survived.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. This is such a sad story.

This poor mother is being roasted for being 'illegal'. That means she's not a good parent??

[jtuck004]

3. So she was in jail when he was placed in what would be the adoptive home

Out in 2009 has been fighting since then to regain custody...


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/adoption-battle-year-boy-pits-missouri-couple-illegal/story?id=15484447#.UAcbWmFfGwe

... "I never gave my consent for the boy to be adopted by anyone," she said.

Still, the judge had ruled that Bail Romero had willfully abandoned her son and couldn't offer him a future. The Mosers, in contrast, were found to be fit parents who were ready to take care of a child.

Bail Romero's "lifestyle, that of smuggling herself into a country illegally and committing crimes in this country is not a lifestyle that can provide stability for a child," Circuit Court Judge David C. Dally wrote in his 2008 decision terminating her parental rights. "A child cannot be educated in this way, always in hiding or on the run."

Dally's judgment had held no mention of Seth Moser's own criminal background. According to court records, Moser, as a teenager, served almost a year in jail after pleading guilty to a felony count involving possession of stolen property. According to Bail Romero's court filings, Moser also has admitted to drug use....

...as of the summer of 2011 an estimated 5,100 children in 22 states were in foster care after their parents were either detained or deported. ...

[progressivebydesign]

4. This is so wrong. How could they relinquish her rights when he was two without her consent?

She did not abandon him. The little boy is not a dog! For some reason the fact that they renamed him as a toddler, "Jamison" is also a slap in the face.

And just because someone gets material things, does not make for a better life for a child. This is maddening. The judge could have given her kid back and deported them both, so at least they would be together.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

5. The child cannot be deported because he is a U.S. citizen

the child was born in the U.S. and thus a citizen. This was also part of the problem complicating this matter. The abandonment issue was what friends and I (some lawyers and some not) thought from the beginning would derail the mother's efforts - throughout her incarceration, she made no efforts to write a letter to her son or contact her son in any way, despite the availability of Spanish-speaking interpreters and personnel.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. How do you write a letter to a two-year-old?

Shouldn't the people taking care of her son brought him to visit?

Should anyone be detained for five years for immigration violations--unless there's a profit motive? Shouldn't they either be given a path to legalization or sent home, preferably with their minor children, within a month or two?

That being said, if you look at it from the boy's point of view, he most likely does not remember his mother, certainly does not speak Spanish, and would suffer trauma if suddenly transferred out of the only home he remembers.

The only JUST solution (since the adoption was clearly illegal) would be to arrange for a transition period in which the child is gradually transferred to his mother's custody.

[Igel]

7. The woman has three children.

This is one of them.

The other two, the article says, are over 9--having been left with the woman's sister years ago when she abandoned them to come to the US. (You can say "she left them behind in order to send money home," but unless the kids' father took care of them I'd say that any woman who left her kids in the care of a relative and left the country "abandoned" them. And if it was a single father who did the same thing, I'd say he abandoned his kis.)

I can only wonder why this one is the one she cares about and why she so fought being reunited with her other two kids. Or agreeing to a win-win situation: "Yes, I'll be deported, please return my son to me and I'll take him with me." Financially, not so great, of course.