Press Release of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
| For Immediate Release: September 1, 2009 | Contact: Washington D.C. Office (202) 224-3553 |
Boxer Leads Bipartisan Effort to Ensure Fair, Timely Guatemalan Adoptions
The text of the letter follows:
September 1, 2009
The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street, NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Clinton:
As members of the United States Congress, we represent hundreds of families who entered into adoptions of Guatemalan children in good faith and with the sole intent of providing a permanent, loving home to a child in need. Due to recent changes in the adoption laws in Guatemala, these adoptions have stagnated for over 18 months, forcing the children involved to remain in institutions or temporary care. Furthermore, many of these cases have been subjected to requests for new information and additional investigation.
We applaud Guatemala’s decision to require that all adoptions meet Hague standards and we share Guatemala’s goal to see that all children and their birth parents are protected from exploitation. We also appreciate the State Department’s efforts to assist the government of Guatemala in its transition to the Hague and promote a transparent and efficient adoption process.
However, we are concerned that extended and unexplained delays in the processing of these pending adoptions and the subsequent extension of the time these children are spending outside the care of a permanent family may have long-term physical and emotional consequences. In several cases, families have been left without the information they need and deserve to protect their rights under the law.
We believe it is in the best interest of these children for the U.S. government to play an active role in ensuring that their cases are completed in a fair and timely manner. As such, we respectfully request that you take the following steps.
• Direct the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs to meet personally with Guatemalan officials with the purpose of achieving consensus on a standard process for remaining U.S. cases.
• Direct a senior member of Consular Affairs to engage in regular conference calls and emails with families who have pending adoptions in Guatemala to update them on Embassy efforts to resolve these cases.
We sincerely hope that you will work to ensure that intercountry adoption reform in Guatemala is being carried out in a way that protects the interests of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents alike. We stand ready to assist you in achieving this goal.
Thank you for your consideration of these important requests.
Sincerely,
__________________________ __________________________
Barbara Boxer John F. Kerry
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Richard G. Lugar Mary L. Landrieu
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
George V. Voinovich Barbara A. Mikulski
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Carl Levin Richard Durbin
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Dianne Feinstein Chuck Grassley
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Robert P. Casey, Jr. Tim Johnson
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Sam Brownback John Thune
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Sherrod Brown Frank R. Lautenberg
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Benjamin L. Cardin Christopher S. Bond
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Robert Menendez Pat Roberts
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Roland W. Burris Debbie Stabenow
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Tom Harkin Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Russell D. Feingold Claire McCaskill
United States Senator United States Senator
__________________________ __________________________
Amy Klobuchar Kirsten E. Gillibrand
United States Senator United States Senator
___________________________ __________________________
Mike Thompson C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger
Member of Congress Member of Congress
_________________________ __________________________
Michele Bachmann Ben Chandler
Member of Congress Member of Congress
_____________________ __________________________
Jerry McNerney Jerry F. Costello
Member of Congress Member of Congress
_______________________ __________________________
Doris O. Matsui Peter Hoekstra
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Geoff Davis Tammy Baldwin
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Daniel Lipinski Jerry Moran
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Zachary T. Space Jane Harman
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Jerrold Nadler Tom Latham
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
John A. Yarmuth James P. Moran
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Christopher H. Smith Daniel E. Lungren
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Jack Kingston Dan Burton
Member of Congress Member of Congress
__________________________ __________________________
Bart Stupak Scott Murphy
Member of Congress Member of Congress