Feds sorting out status of 2-year-old Haitian orphan flown into PBIA

Feds sorting out status of 2-year-old Haitian orphan flown into PBIA

Samantha Frank

Posted: 01/22/2010 5:57 PM

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A 2-year-old Haitian girl, who survived last week's earthquake only to be taken away crying by federal immigration officials at Palm Beach International Airport Saturday, remains in federal custody while government officials sort through paperwork.

Mishna Prezilus, who was flown from an orphanage outside Port-au-Prince on a private plane with two Florida reporters, was traveling to the United States for medical treatment and was supposed to be placed in the temporary care of Stephen Badolato, a doctor from Melbourne. Instead, she was detained at the airport for more than nine hours before she was placed in Children's Village in Miami, which works with the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide services for unaccompanied, undocumented immigrant children.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman for the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement, confirmed Friday that Mishna is in the custody of the federal agency.

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