NCFA Implores Departments of State and Homeland Security to Grant Humanitarian Parole to Haitian Adoptees

Alexandria, VA - National Council For Adoption (NCFA) joins congressional offices and other child-welfare stakeholders in imploring the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security/USCIS to prioritize the lives of the approximately 70 Haitian children matched with American adoptive families by granting Humanitarian Parole to these children and facilitating their immediate evacuation from Haiti for their physical protection.

The crisis in Haiti is unprecedented and unparalleled. Foreign nationals, including U.S. Embassy staffers, have been evacuated as gang members rule with impunity, forcing the main airports to intermittently close due to gunfire aimed at planes.

Children are particularly at risk. “Haitian children face unprecedented challenges,” said Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, director-general of IBESR, the Central Adoption Authority, in a statement co-authored by UNICEF. “It is our collective responsibility to ensure their protection, hope and the chance to build a better future.”

Ms. Villedrouin therefore granted permission for these children, all of whom have been vetted and approved for adoption, in accordance with Haitian, U.S., and international law, to be sent to the United States. Their adoptive parents, who have been similarly vetted and approved by U.S. authorities, should be allowed to unite with these children in the U.S. and complete the adoptions in a manner that prioritizes children’s safety.

“Each of these cases need urgent action,” said NCFA’s Ryan Hanlon. “U.S. citizens who have adopted children internationally cannot be asked to abandon their children while waiting for a visa. Instead, we must be willing to respond to these extreme, unprecedented circumstances with solutions that prioritize the safety, health, and welfare of these families and the children they have legally adopted.”

NCFA calls for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to issue immediate humanitarian parole to these Haitian children in the adoption process with American families and for the State Department to facilitate their departure from Haiti to the United States.