CHILD-HUNGRY UTAHNS FIGHT RED TAPE
CHILD-HUNGRY UTAHNS FIGHT RED TAPE
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By Brent Israelsen, Staff Writer
Published: Friday, May 24 1991 12:00 a.m. MDT
Summary
Several Utahns seeking to adopt Romanian children are finding themselves caught between an American rock and a Transylvanian hard place.
Not only has the Romanian government announced a June 1 ban on adoptions, but the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service seems to have tightened its rules on granting visas to the adopted children, according to two Davis County families.
Several Utahns seeking to adopt Romanian children are finding themselves caught between an American rock and a Transylvanian hard place.
Not only has the Romanian government announced a June 1 ban on adoptions, but the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service seems to have tightened its rules on granting visas to the adopted children, according to two Davis County families.Joe Price, Layton, is in Buzau, Romania, trying to find an "adoptable" child before June 1. On that day, the Romanian government will cease granting adoptions until it creates new, stricter regulations in which all adoptions will go through a state agency. The ban may not be lifted until September.
In a telephone interview from Romania, Price said he had found a 21/2-week-old girl who had been abandoned by her parents and was being cared for by her grandmother.
The Romanian adoption court would likely have granted him the child, but INS told him that the baby was not adoptable according to INS definitions and therefore would not get a visa. The INS has refused visas to more than 20 Romanian children adopted by Americans under what the U.S. government considers dubious circumstances.
"The definition of `abandoned' children required by the Romanian court is not the same definition being used by INS to give the child a visa," said Price, who must now race to find another child and file papers in a Romanian court before June 1.His wife, Debbie, is furious at the U.S. government's refusal to grant the child a visa.
"I've been on the phone today with Sen. (Orrin) Hatch's office," said Debbie Price from her Layton home. "I don't understand why a child that has been abandoned can't be adopted.
"My husband is under pressure to find a child to get a court date before June 1st, and at the same time, he's fighting our own government. It's kind of a two-headed snake."
"It's really a strain," Joe Price said. "There are a lot of children who need good homes."
A number of U.S. couples are having the same problem. An Idaho couple recently adopted a child in a Romanian court but had to leave the country emptyhanded because of INS's refusal to grant a visa, Joe Price said.
Bob and Beverly Thurgood are hoping that doesn't happen to them.
Bob Thurgood formally adopted a 6-month-old orphan girl in a Brasov, Romania, court on Monday.
But he has run into problems at INS.
"I can't believe how slow our government is being in reviewing the (immigration) papers," said Beverly Thurgood from her Syracuse home.
The Thurgoods do feel fortunate, however, that they were able to get a Romanian court date before the June 1 deadline.
Like hundreds of child-seeking Americans who have gone before them, Joe Price and Bob Thurgood may need nothing short of a miracle to succeed in bringing a child back with them to the United States.
"I'm still hopeful," said Joe Price. "I still have five or six working days. I'm going to keep hoping and praying till the 31st of this month that something good will turn out."
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