Roadblocks to U.S. Adoptions

TIJUANA —  Roberto Lopez points out over the dusty yellow buildings of the orphanage and says he wants American parents to adopt him so he can live on “el otro lado,” the other side. But Roberto, who has called Casa de la Esperanza home for all but one of his 14 years, doesn’t have much hope that will ever happen.

Despite a decade-long explosion of adoptions that has brought tens of thousands of foreign-born children to the United States, cultural and bureaucratic barriers have made it difficult for Mexican children to benefit from the droves of U.S. parents looking to adopt abroad.

The number of international adoptions in the United States jumped from 6,472 in 1992 to more than 20,000 in fiscal year 2002, according to U.S. State Department statistics on immigrant orphan visas. But only 61 of the children adopted in 2002 have been from Mexico -- compared to 5,053 from China and 4,939 from Russia.

Adoptions of Mexican children have been persistently low. There were 73 orphan visas granted to Mexican children in 2001 and 106 in 2000. Adoption attorneys and agents cite various reasons for the low numbers, including the Mexican government’s reluctance to place children abroad, the role of extended families in Mexico in caring for their own and strict immigration reviews before visas are granted to orphan children.

Prospects for Mexican children finding homes in America may be on the verge of improving, however, as the U.S. prepares to implement a multinational treaty in 2004 that sets uniform guidelines and procedures for adoption.

Mexican authorities say they have been cautious about placing children in the United States, in part, because it has moved so slowly in implementing the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. The U.S. signed the treaty in 1993, but it was not approved by the House and Senate until 2000.

Now various agencies are haggling to determine how to apply the treaty on U.S. soil. Having the rules in place, presumably in 2004, should begin to crack the door open further for Mexican children to find homes in the United States, said UC Berkeley Law School professor Joan Hollinger. Other experts agree.

“The Mexican central authority will be more willing to deal with the United States,” Hollinger said of implementation of the international rules.

“People who are concerned about the integrity of the process and the legality of adoptions from Mexico will ostensibly feel much more security in the process.”

With legal confusion lessened, adoptive parents in the U.S. may take advantage of Mexico’s proximity and avoid costly flights halfway around the world to find children, Hollinger said.

Adoptive families hope new regulations will make the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service less of an obstacle. But under current rules, once an adoption is finalized in Mexico, the INS investigates to determine whether the child is truly an orphan, eligible for a visa to immigrate into the United States.

If a visa is denied, parents in the U.S. are then left with a difficult choice: leaving their child in Mexican foster care or moving to the country for two years until meeting the custody requirement for a visa.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Aida Capaceta Tostado, an adoption attorney in Tijuana. “Mexico can’t revoke the adoption because the mom is gone and has given up her rights. And the couple doesn’t want to leave the baby here. It’s not fair for the baby or the couple.”

INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said the agency has to take the precautionary steps to prevent birth mothers from selling their children.

Adoptive parents in Mexico are permitted to pay only the medical costs of pregnancies and deliveries, but cannot give mothers money directly.

“We can’t, as the government, stand by and allow for exploitation to take place, and child trafficking is exploitation,” Strassberger said.

Adoption attorneys say the process differs from country to country because of the laws and cultural and religious values of a particular nation.

It’s no secret that there are more adoptions from China, attorneys said, where boys have more social status and orphanages are filled with newborn girls. And in Eastern Europe, the fall of communism led to countries opening their orphanage doors to U.S. couples looking for white children.

But the U.S. ground rules for determining if children are orphans are the same regardless of country of origin, said Irene Steffas, a liaison between the INS and the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.

The low numbers of Mexican adoptions do not appear to be racially motivated. This year, 2,219 Guatemalan children received orphan visas to live with U.S. families.

Mexican officials said they try to return children to their families or place them with adoptive families within the country before considering international adoptions. Some Mexican states also prohibit international adoptions for children younger than 5.

In Tijuana, the children at Casa de la Esperanza arrive for lunch just before noon. Each day, they line up to say a quick prayer before rushing into the auditorium. Many of the 55 children have parents who are homeless, prostitutes or addicted to drugs.

Some, like Roberto and his 8-year-old sister, Karina, were orphaned when their parents died of AIDS. Roberto said he’s thankful they aren’t living on the streets but that they would “still be happy to leave” the orphanage.

Antonio Lara, who runs the orphanage with his wife, said he would love to see each of the children placed in stable homes but doesn’t believe the adoption process should be rushed. Officials have to ensure that the adoptive parents are committed to the children and that they are adopting for the right reasons, he said.

Brent Yoder, director of Adoptions Options in San Diego, said he discourages families from adopting from Mexico, calling the country’s public adoption process “convoluted.” If a family is still determined to adopt a Mexican child, Yoder said he suggests they go through a less restrictive private adoption that can be arranged directly with birth mothers rather than going through the government, as in public adoptions.

Nevertheless, the process is still cumbersome, requiring several trips to the country and taking as long as six months. It is also risky.

Occasionally, well-intentioned adoptive parents are so desperate that they unwittingly pay fake agents, said Maria Ramirez of Adoptions Unlimited in Chino. Even though she has placed dozens of Mexican children in the U.S., Ramirez said she never promises parents anything.

“It’s an emotional and financial roller coaster,” Ramirez said. “We never guarantee a placement.”

Jessica and Darryl Wagoner lived through a year of uncertainty before finally crossing the border legally into the U.S. with two adopted sons.

Unable to have children, the Huntington Beach couple decided to adopt and chose Mexico primarily because of its proximity. But they got a hint of potential glitches when the birth mother didn’t show up for their first meeting in January 2000. But at the next meeting, the birth mother handed her 5-month-old son to the Wagoners, who received legal permission for temporary custody.

The Wagoners said they knew then there was no turning back. While the adoption was going through, Darryl Wagoner took a leave of absence from his carpentry job and moved to Mexico to live with the boy they named Trent.

After a few more stops and starts, the adoption was approved and the INS granted the baby a visa just before Easter 2000.

During the process, the birth mother became pregnant again and offered a second child to the Wagoners, raising red flags on both sides of the border. “They were very suspicious,” Wagoner said. “They wanted to make sure she wasn’t selling the babies.”

Jessica Wagoner said the process was “nerve-racking and expensive,” costing more than $40,000 in fees, hospital expenses and other costs.

In the end, right before Christmas that year, the Mexican court also approved the adoption of the second boy, Aidan, and the INS granted a visa.

Now that it’s over, Jessica Wagoner said, she knows it was worth it. “I couldn’t even think of living without them.”