…by deporting people who clearly should not be here:
Allie Mulvihill may seem like your typical American teenager, but she has something weighing on her mind that most 15-year-olds do not: deportation.
U.S. immigration officials are questioning the legitimacy of the Guatemala native’s adoption by her parents, Lori and Scott Mulvihill, in 1994.
When the Mulvihills brought their then 2-year-old daughter to their home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, they believed she would be granted citizenship.
But U.S. immigration officials questioned whether the woman who gave Allie up for adoption in Guatemala was really her biological mother. Allie’s birth certificate was issued 10 months after she was born, which raised suspicions in U.S. officials’ minds that she was made available for adoption due to a baby trafficking scheme.
This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard in a long time. I don’t really care about the circumstances of her adoption, although it should definitely be investigated. This young girl is every bit as American as her friends. America is all she knows. Deporting her would be traumatic. She knows nothing of life in Guatemala. Even considering deportation is fucking heartless, and is just one more example of the uselessness of the Department of Homeland Security.
CNN contacted the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about Allie’s situation. Bill Wright, deputy press secretary of the USCIS, responded with a statement, saying, “Even in the most sympathetic of situations, such as this, we do not get to selectively dismiss our immigration laws. USCIS has been trying to work the Mulvihill family, and we continue to urge them to provide evidence that this minor is eligible for permanent residency.”
What a clusterfuck.
Wilfred
The whole thing may seem absurd but this part is critical to understanding the government’s position. In Brazil, such trafficking has been a problem for years. A friend of mind is the director of the regional adoption agency and she has told me some hair-raising stories about seemingly ideal couples coming from Europe, etc. Child advocacy doesn’t stop at the orphanage, however. In fact, we’re off to Rio tomorrow and have to carry a shitload of documentation proving our relationship with our daughter – marriage, birth certificate, etc. You cannot board an intercity bus with a child under 12 without proving the child is yours, including a judicial letter of approval from the other parent if he or she is not traveling. That should tell you the extent of the problem here. It’s a good rule.
I’m sure this will work out for this kid but sometimes obsessive controls actually serve a purpose.
Helena Montana
OT, but RIP Pony Blow.
jake
Jesus Christ, would they really deport her?
“Sorry kid, we don’t know where you’ll go or who you’ll stay with but we care about the children so much we’re releasing you back into your natural environment. Oops, I mean, home.”
Mark-NC
These are the same jackasses that cried the blues because Clinton sent Elian Gonzales back to his father in Cuba.
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
OT, also, re: St. Tony of the Snows. I’m subjecting myself to early morning CNN as the “Today” show is too horrific to contemplate. Let’s see, we have a Depression-sized S&L failure, with as yet untold effects on the national economy, and a CNN reporter snuck into Burma to find that cyclone victims have to sow rice over victims’ bodies still rotting in the fields because they can’t spare the time to bury them, lest they starve. What’s been the story all morning, with Russert-sized wailing? Tony Snow.
Once again, didn’t we have once Ye Olde Revolutione about this?
The Thinking Man's Mel Torme
AIEEEEEEEE!!!!!! The CNN web doofus actually just did a piece refuting Obama’s claim that ending the war in Iraq will free up money for domestic spending. His logic? “It’s not real money!” You see, since we’re “putting the war on the national credit card,” ending it won’t free up “real money right away” to spend on other things!!! Haw haw hawwww!!! He went on to say it will actually cost more to bring soldiers home, because of the added costs of transportation and demobilization!!! HAWW HAWWW HAWWWWWWWWWWW!!!1!!1!1!!one.
Hey, maybe if we stay longer, we’ll save even more!!!
Natch, no mention about how McC’s “winning in Iraq” would allow him to balance the budget in, like, 15 minutes.
Notorious P.A.T.
Sooooo, if the kerning on a birth certificate doesn’t line up perfectly, we need to destroy a family and ruin a girl’s life? To protect us from. . . something?
Halteclere
How does sending this girl back to Guatemala make a right out of a potential wrong that was committed 13 years ago? Baby trafficing is a terrible thing, and should be eliminated however possible. But don’t punish the victim! The evil act (if it is even true) has already been performed. Anything beyond leaving this kid alone is just perpetuating the wrong.
Redhand
As an immigration lawwyer I can tell you this just scratches the surface. Deporting the wives of US Iraqi war veterans is also a major Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priority.
Jay C
I love the locutions here:
Is this “working” them as in “working the rules”, or “working the room”? Or, as more likely: as in “working them over”? Just a nice friendly, family chat in a windowless room with harsh lights…
Or is there a missing word, as in “working with” them? Though given the Governments propensities, I’d say “working over” is still likelier…
Dennis - SGMM
Because in 1995 Guatemala, even if the child was born at home to poverty stricken parents in a rural location the Guatemalan government would magically issue a birth certificate within minutes of the birth.
jake
1. Fill out this mound of forms and enclose a check.
2. Oops, you didn’t dot the “i” on line 55 of Form 684-b. You’ll have to fill out another mound of forms and enclose an even LARGER check. Unless you want us to send your 15 year old daughter to a foreign land where who knows what she’ll have to do to survive…
Repeat until family is broke or child is 18 and can be treated as an adult.
Aaron
As an attorney, Ive seen this kind of ‘tightened enforcement’ before. Presumably if she looses her citizenship she can be sent to a country where she has no connections at all.
Dennis - SGMM
Make that “1994 Guatemala”. On the other hand, it’s good to see that every other aspect of immigration enforcement and border control has been so successfully dealt with that DHS can devote resources to cases like this one.
scarshapedstar
Who do you think is going to intervene here? One of the 2 or 3 non-brainwashed holdouts from the Clinton Administration?
Unlike Brazilians, we are governed by sadists who will gladly ruin a teenaged girl’s life because she can’t prove (to their satisfaction) which furriner’s vagina she came out of before she was adopted by Americans. After all, they’ve got nothing more important to do…
tballou
“Even in the most sympathetic of situations, such as this, we do not get to selectively dismiss our immigration laws.”
What a fucking crock of shit! These bastards can “selectively dismiss” FISA and grant retroactive immunity to the telecoms but they can’t do this?
John – this is yet another reason this whole FISA debacle is important.
Dennis - SGMM
One name: Luis Posada Carriles.
Michael D.
BTW, I don’t care if laws were broken. I understand that they may have been. But they were NOT broken by this innocent girl who is about to have her entire life ripped from her through no fault of her own.
Delia
Well, this is why the Department of Homeland Security was created, you see. To keep safe from terrorist threats. That is, from children adopted from abroad who parents may not have been able to fill out all the paperwork to the satisfaction of bureaucrats.
bago
Laws are for little people like girls and soldiers. Not for big companies like banks and telecoms.
Jay C
Really, Wilfred? Maybe you can share with us the grounds for your optimism on this count?
The generally benevolent nature of government regulation? The innate kindheartedness of bureaucrats – especially those in “security” services? The welcoming and inclusionary attitudes of American officialdom towards immigrants (those non-adults without advanced degrees in science/technology, that is)?
Myself, I really hope that you are right: but when it comes to having to rely on goodwill in one’s relationships with government, it’s a sad truism that goodwill will probably lose out more often than not. And I will be only too happy to admit I was wrong if things do work out OK for the Mulvihills. I only wish.
The Grand Panjandrum
Inertia.
Hey they got rules. But the only people who MUST follow the rules are those who don’t have the appropriate connections in the government.
The perfect example of why rules are only for people who are not connected to or able to “influence” the policymakers. Its all about be on the correct political side of the moment. Or, the size of the “campaign contribution” one can make.
bootlegger
Isn’t this a case of guilty until proven innocent? The government is telling this family that if they cannot prove she was not stolen she gets deported. Isn’t the burden of proof on the government?
Incertus
I think this case will work out because it’s the kind of feel-good story that some enterprising Congressperson or Senator will latch onto as an example of how they do right by their constituents. The story has made the news and gotten a few people riled up–that’s the hard part. It won’t solve the problem that puts people in that sort of situation, but this girl will probably get her situation taken care of.
Incertus
And while we’re on the subject of stupid government policy, it seems we have soulmates in Italy.
Wilfred
As usual, the SMQ (stupid motherfucker quotient) on this site exceeds expectations. I’m hopeful for one main reason: That an honest, hard-working white American couple like the Mulvihills would never stoop to the level of being willing participants in the child trafficking business.
I’m sure when they went to Guatemala it was through a reputable agency – they actually exist in countries where not everyone is white or speaks English as their first language. Aren’t you?
It may shock some of you to know that child trafficking is directly connected to the ghoulish trade in body parts, which was actually hinted at in the Brazilian film Central do Brasil, much to the consternation of the Brazilian government. Children from third world countries are routinely kidnapped and sold to buyers from around the world, sometimes for their own good and sometimes not.
I’m hardly agreeing with deportation in this case. But if this child was stolen from her biological mother and ‘sold’ to the American couple then something is seriously fucking wrong. Furthermore, assuming that a child from a third world country somehow automatically would not have a birth certificate is stupid, even more so when the country in question is Latin American. The questions asked here about the legitimacy of this adoption are legitimate themselves, and would not be asked if there were not already a long hx of trafficking.
Michael D.
Wilfred: I absolutely agree with you on this. For me, the best solution would be for the girl to take a DNA test and find her biological mother (if she wants to.) If she wants to reunite with her mother in Guatemala, then that should be her choice.
But even if she is technically here illegally, she should be given permanent residency. This is all she knows after all.
I feel so horrible for this young girl who, through absolutely no fault of her own, has been dragged into a situation that could have devastating effects on her life.
Katherine
That’s the thing about our immigration system: it manages to be so ineffective at preventing illegal immigration, and yet so amazing at totally screwing people over who don’t deserve it. The key word is ARBITRARY.
Sarcastro
This is like arresting the child involved in kiddie-porn for indecent exposure and ignoring the person who created the offending material in the first place.
Pasota
I have to pull the same quote as some others have here:
Beee Esss. Anyone who’s ever been in a position to enforce any law or prosecute anything or anybody, knows that you exercise discretion in the interest of justice and prioritize resources in the interest of reality every damn day.
Aggh, so sick of lies.
Barbara
Actually, there should be some period of time in which the U.S. has to contest foreign adoptions along this line or just let it lie because there is no way for them to go back and prove or disprove any of this 14 years down the line. You have to understand, the State Department is thoroughly involved in the international adoption process and there are lots of conventions, etc. You can’t wait 14 years to contest this.
D. Mason
This is a tragic situation but I have to agree with the above commenter. This will likely have a happy ending.
When a national news organization starts running the story the odds of a positive outcome skyrocket in a situation like this. That’s a rare encouraging thing that comes from our shit media.
Jay C
Gee, thanks, dude! Made my day! Now, – after I salute you with a nice big frosty mug of Go Fuck Yourself – let me clarify my comment: and FWIW, I actually agree with most of your points.
I am sure that the Mulvihills did adopt their daughter through a “reputable” agency, and that they followed correct, legal procedures. And also, I agree wholeheartedly that international “traffic” in dodgy adoptions is a horrible trade which needs to be seriously combatted – by the US and every country involved.
But what does any of this have to do with an “optimistic” or ‘pessimistic” assessment of the situation? I’m with Michael D. on this (@11:01) – whatever the circumstances of Allie Mulvihill’s original adoption, it still seems heartlessly cruel for a Government agency to possibly tear this young girl away from the only life and family she has known for the (undetermined) faults/flaws/crimes of somebody else – possibly before she was even born.
And I still feel that having situations like this depend mainly on the goodwill of Federal security bureaucrats in applying lenient interpretations of immigration laws is NOT a cause for optimism. Although, I do think that in this case, Incertus’ scenario (@ 10:44) is a likely outcome.
4tehlulz
lolwut?
Dennis - SGMM
If you stopped commenting the quotient would plummet.
MobiusKlein
It’s horrid, cause even if you grant all the suspiscions of improper adoption, the girl in question has been a de facto US citizen, and should be treated as such.
Citizenship is not a bureaucratic jot to be erased on a whim – it the the legal artifact of a human state. The specific laws of Citizenship are there to encode a bigger idea, and to lose them in stupid paperwork is crazed.
Incertus
We do this pretty much all the time when it comes to underage prostitution. The levels of fucked-upedness in this country are incredible sometimes.
Barbara
Human trafficking is abominable . . . but to think that you are effectively fighting it by questioning adoptive parents one by one fourteen years after it happened is addlebrained. In any event, even in international adoption situations, most adoptive parents don’t really know enough to know whether the adoption is legitimate. Perhaps some are willfully blind, but the way to combat this is through international treaties and audits of adoption agencies, not slamming the least culpable parties. The party who would suffer the most harm in this situation is the purported victim of the adoption — the adoptive child. The professional traffickers are long gone.
jake
Wait, I am confused.
The buses around these parts have multi-lingual signs encouraging victims of trafficking to call the gubbermint and promises they won’t be shipped back home (where the cycle is likely to start all over again).
But I’m wondering how the fuck deporting this girl (or any other child in her situation) will strike a blow against human trafficking?
And if the fed really thinks the parents are the sort of creeps who would buy a baby shouldn’t they take her out of the home now?
radish
Well, the 110th congress sure does like to hand out retroactive immunity — all they have to do is hand some out to adoptees who arrived younger than age X, and who have been resident for more than Y years.
Other people can be prosecuted if it turns out they were deliberately buying or selling a baby but there’s no reason to leave the kids in question in limbo meantime.
El Cruzado
Gotta love how when it comes to immigration presumption of innocence becomes such a quaint concept. In this circumstances, shouldn’t it be the USCIS job to prove that she is NOT eligible.
They certainly should add a statute of limitations for these adoption related snafus, else the only thing one ends up doing is fucking up the least deserving part of the whole deal.
El Cruzado
Gotta love how when it comes to immigration presumption of innocence becomes such a quaint concept. In these circumstances, shouldn’t it be the USCIS job to prove that she is NOT eligible?
They certainly should add a statute of limitations for these adoption related snafus, else the only thing one ends up doing is fucking up the least deserving part of the whole deal.
Phoenix Woman
One name: Luis Posada Carriles.
Dennis wins the Internet.
You can blow up airliners and firebomb cars but if you’re anti-Castro the head of ICE will personally give you a backrub along with your green card.
Geeno
Desperate people do desperate things. I’ve seen perfectly ordinary co-workers contemplate working with dodgier/illegal agencies in their desperation for a child. Don’t kid yourself, adoption w/i the US is f’d up; a lot of these families turn overseas out of necessity, not to provide an underpriviledged child a head start.
In NO way shape or form should any of this be visited upon the child. The statute of limitations for that expired when she started speaking english as a toddler.
Phoenix Woman
This forcibly reminds me of the situation of Julie Hiatt Steele. She refused to back up Kathleen Willey’s bullshit and as a result lost her job, home, and damned near her kid, who was one of the “iron crib” babies of Ceaucescu’s regime when Ken Starr’s people started applying the screws:
http://www.salon.com/news/1999/01/cov_13newsa.html
I suggest checking to see if the Mulvihills pissed off a local politician or support the “wrong” party.
RSA
I think that one party’s concerns are being ignored in this story: the biological parents of Allie Mulvihill, who may or may not have given her up for adoption. If they weren’t the ones who gave her up, then there’s no happy ending for them, even if it works out for Allie. (And by working out, I mean her getting to stay in the U.S., which she obviously wants.) That is, this should be less an immigration issue than an investigation to find out whether a crime was committed by the adoption agency. And if it can’t be proved, which seems doubtful, it ought to be let go.
El Cid
Would the Republicans mind publishing a simple guide, on the record, of which laws count and must be enforced rigidly and which laws are made to be broken or cannot apply to the super-magical inhabitants of the White House?
That might help.
AnneLaurie
I suggest checking to see if the Mulvihills pissed off a local politician or support the “wrong” party.
Or if young Allie was taking a spot in the magnet school / sports team / cheerleading squad to which some deserving young white child living with his/her genetic parents felt entitled. Tragically, I’m not joking — I live in bluer-than-indigo Massachusetts, and we periodically get cases where indignant all-Amurkin arsewipes try to get their kids’ classmates deported, or at least scared enough of deportation to give up that coveted college-application-enhancing “prize”. And when the grievers in question are exposed, they inevitably wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim themselves the ‘real victims’.
Rick Massimo
Laws against outing an FBI agent and covering it up, however, are totally optional.
Emma Anne
Phoenix Woman: “I suggest checking to see if the Mulvihills pissed off a local politician or support the “wrong” party.”
I was thinking the same thing. Another example is Martha Stewart. Laws must be strictly enforced to the letter when non-Republicans might have transgressed.
GOms
No Child Left Behind…on the plane back to Guatamala!!!!
The failings of this government are exponentially stupid! If Bush wasn’t such a dumb fuck, this matter would already be done and the girl would have never have had to worry about this for more than a few days. Of course, being the compassionate, conservative Jeezer that he is, I am sure as soon as he learns to read the memos on his desk, he’ll figure sumpin out!
PhoenixRising
Gotta love how when it comes to immigration presumption of innocence becomes such a quaint concept. In this circumstances, shouldn’t it be the USCIS job to prove that she is NOT eligible.
Well, not so much. This is a complex issue in which I have become expert against my will, so I’ll bore you with the details:
It is the responsibility of the adoptive parents to demonstrate two things: that their state of residence approves them as potential parents (ICE takes an application called an I-600a, which is an advance-processed visa for a relative who hasn’t been identified yet) and later, that the child they have adopted abroad, or plan to adopt once immigration has occurred, is eligible for this special type of visa.
As far as I can tell from CNN–which was the first smart thing this family has done, turning a bright light on the process–this family got a different kind of visa. I’m not expert in the international adoption law of the era in question, as the law changed in 1996, but I suspect that the ‘humanitarian visa’ Allie immigrated on was a temporary visa that was convertible under certain circumstances which cannot be met in her case–due to the fact that the mom listed on her Guatemalan birth certificate can’t be found to verify her intent to abandon Allie.
The law is very specific: to be eligible for permanent residency, Allie needs to show that her bio mom is dead or abandoned her because of indigence. In principle, this prevents babies form being sold. In practice, it requires orphanages and reputable adoption agencies to launder babies.
If there is no one alive to be investigated about the circumstances of abandonment, the orphan is eligible for immigration; whereas living and identified bio parents might not check out according to that particular embassy official’s expectations of what ‘indigence’ means in that place and at that time.
So, yes, Allie can’t expect to have her life work out well if she’s deported. And the process is subjective and produces unnecessary abuses of children’s rights even if you assume that a for-profit adoption system is a given.
But I know people who decided, under the same circumstances the Mulvihills faced in 1994, to turn down the referral and remain childless rather than take a chance on participating in baby-buying. I also know people who moved the family to the birth country for two years, as two years of cohabitation in the country of origin makes the adopted child eligible for a standard relative visa.
So yes, also, these parents assumed a lot about how being law-abiding and white meant that rules potentially would be bent for them.
All around, this is the kind of situation in which a trustworthy and transparent government would be well worth paying a bit more for…
Original Lee
This is a really stupid thing to have happen. Why isn’t there a statute of limitations on this kind of “gotcha” stuff? My cousin has adopted 2 kids from 2 different South American countries, using a reputable agency. One kid was adopted 14 years ago, like Allie, and one kid was adopted 10 years ago. How long is my cousin supposed to wait for the adoption to be “permanent”? How long do the kids wait for their citizenship to be “permanent”? Can the Border Patrol swoop down on them at any point in time for the rest of their lives? This is adoption, not murder 1.
Liz
If they decide to deport her, who will they deport her to? Custody of Guatemala’s child welfare system? Return her to the adoption agency of origin? Drop her in the middle of Guatemala City and wish her good luck? If the problem is that they can’t find her mom to verify the adoption, what the hell are they going to do to enforce this stupidity?
PhoenixRising, that was a great run-down on the legal side. I’m sorry that it was something you had to learn…that rarely bodes well. These people…hell, ANY people intending to adopt from another country should get themselves some solid legal advice so they understand these visa problems before trying to adopt.
But the fact remains…trying to deport a kid because they can’t find a mother to verify the adoption, without anyone to deport her TO, is mind-explodingly irresponsible.
pseudonymous in nc
Ah, the bit of the US bureaucracy that most Americans never have to deal with. Underfunded, demoralised, and bound by rules instituted by Congressman Cracker McNativist to crow to his district.
PhoenixRising has covered the legal aspects, but those who have never dealt with the Department Formerly Known As INS really need to understand that it’s a mixture of Kafkaesque rule encrustation and quixotic interpretation.
Rationalising the morass of immigration law to avoid these situations — the non-citizens who lost a spouse and the right to remain in the US make up another group — is what lots of people mean when they talk about supporting ‘comprehensive immigration reform’. It’s not all about those Mexicans on building sites. It’s about having an immigration system that isn’t loaded with gotchas, doesn’t require hours of legal advice, and includes enough clarity to produce quick decisions and enough humanity to determine where ‘following the rules’ blindly makes no sense.
The obvious next step in this case involves Rep. Charlie Dent, and the two PA senators. If there was a wrong done during the adoption, intentionally or inadvertently, it’s clear that no mandated sanction can redress it a decade later. And if the rules can’t be bent, then a private bill can move things on.
TenguPhule
And on wings of sugarpuffs, Wilfred also believes that anyone in the Bush Mafia gives a shit.
TenguPhule
If a Democrat does it, its a felony.
If a Republican does it, it doesn’t count.
SETSQ.
Jason
Redhand is right, if you think this is bad, spend a couple of weeks volunteering at an immigration law clinic and see what’s being done in your name. This is nothing.
r€nato
who could have predicted that a government agency named “Homeland Security” would turn out to be a collection of oppressive police state bureaucrats?