Thursday, October 20, 2011

Adopting Out the Children of Illegal Immigrants II

I've posted before about this case (see herehere), but here's an article that gives a nice overview of the case of Encarnacion Bail, whose child was taken and adopted after she was jailed for immigration violations:
Tonight, in a modest brick row house in the sleepy city of Carthage, beyond the Ozark Mountains and the mines of southwest Missouri, past the poultry plants and churches along Interstate 44 and U.S. 71, down the block from the Jasper County courthouse and historic town square, a five-year-old boy is going to bed.

Chances are the boy is unaware of the battery of lawyers debating his future. He's probably oblivious to the national immigration debates he has stirred, the newspaper headlines he has generated, the two school-district employees whose firings are directly linked to his circumstances. He very likely has no idea that the Guatemalan Embassy in Washington, D.C., is in his corner, or that a lone circuit court judge will decide his fate this winter.

To some the boy is known as Carlos Bail; others call him Jamison Moser. The Carlos contingent contends he was unjustly taken from his mother; the Jamison gang argues that she abandoned him.
The only new-to-me information in the article was that Laura Davenport, the school district's "Parent Educator," who tried to bully Encarnacion into relinquishing parental rights while she was in jail, and then talked smack about her in court when she wouldn't relinquish, was FIRED by the school district.  So there's one bit of justice in this f*cked-up situation. . . .

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dont understand...why didnt the mother just send the child back to relatives while she was in jail? She was illegally here. Was her son too? If so, the authorities should have sent him back to the nearest relatives.
If the argument to that is, "why disrupt the child's life/life style?" Sorry, that argument should have been made before bringing him here.
I dont think the child should be adopted out just because the parent is in jail. With people who are not illegally here, their children go to foster care, or go to the nearest relative. Im sure this boy had a relative somewhere.

LilySea said...

Oh dear. Carthage, Missouri? There is no hope.

LilySea said...

Hye--anonymous--kids move all the time. Moving to a new place to live is a normal disruption. Being forced into a new family? Not so much.

Anonymous said...

Incredibly sad that this is still not resolved. It appears by the time anything is done the child will be an adult. The whole thing is a travesty.

Anon - she left the child who is a US citizen with her brother - who passed the child to her sister - who found a free babysitter who gave the child to friends who were infertile and wanted a baby...really not the way it should be done...read the entire article or previous articles...she couldn't send him back to Guatemala without a birth certificate even though he is a US citizen as he was born in the US.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the input theadoptedones. Sad that family is so lame sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Issues aside,

@lilysea, please don't pretend it was a story of simple "relocation" with a traditional family.

This child has/had no U.S. Passport because his mother was here illegally. He was passed around in large part due to that circumstance; a need to hide, deceive, flee...etc.

A circumstance and course directed by his Mother, through no fault of the child..nevertheless, pleaes don't expect us to believe the illusion this is a typical story of family relocating to be closer to a job opportunity or family.

Its much more.

Passed through 3 family members and finally a "sitter" who had the authority to place this child? Hmmm...very strange and how frightening for that child.

Sadly it would appear no truly happy outcome can come of this IMOP. Even reuinited with his mother, she will be sent back, where he will continue to live between 2 worlds and cultures.