Four Year Old May be Returned to Birth Mother

Procedural errors made in an adoption, necessary to Missouri state adoption laws, may eventually return a child to his birth mother, as reported by the Associated Press for Google News.

While the birth mother, a Guatemalan immigrant, was caught up in a raid in 2007 she allowed her son to be adopted by an American couple. 

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that both the adoptive parents and the birth mother, Encarnacion Bail Romero, must now file the proper paperwork.  There will then be a new trial regarding Romero's parental rights. 

Judge Patricia Breckenridge believes that there may be evidence that Romeo abandoned her child and that is why another hearing is required.  Breckenridge wrote the majority opinion for the seven-member court. 

While three other judges indicated that they would have reversed the adoption, Breckenridge is interested in seeing how the case would eventually be played out.

Breckenridge wrote of her concern, "Every member of this court agrees that this case is a travesty in its egregious procedural errors, its long duration and its impact on mother, adoptive parents and, most importantly, child."

Romero, arrested when immigration officers swept the poultry plant she was working in, pleaded guilty to aggravated identify theft.  She was sentenced to two years in a federal prison.

When Romero was released in 2009, she immediately began the process of regaining custody of her son, Carlos. 

Carlos Romero had been living with Seth and Melinda Moser since the age of one.

After his mother's arrest, another couple that Romero had left her child with contacted the Mosers to ask them if they would adopt the boy. 

Carlos is a U.S. citizen as he was born in the U.S. 

According to Romero's attorneys she wasn't deported and remained in the U.S. after completing her sentence so that she could challenge the adoption.

The attorney representing the Mosers, Joe Hensley, felt that the Supreme Court's decision that allowed for the boy to remain with his clients until the adoption proceeding was a good one.  Hensley said, "The main complaint, I guess, is there were a couple of reports that weren't filed, and so we'll get those reports and do it again."

While Hensley has contended that Romero had her parental rights terminated by the court because she didn't try to maintain contact or provide for her child, Romero's attorneys state that she didn't abandon the child, but instead wasn't given sufficient legal representation before her custody was taken away from her.

Romero's attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to consider evidence that would suggest Romero's poor representation, and, show whether the boy was truly abandoned or not.

Jennifer Nagda, the associate director of University of Chicago's Immigrant Child Advocacy project, said of the Romero case, "We're fundamentally disappointed that the court did not recognize the violation of the child's rights to his relationship with his mother. I think there's a real danger in beginning the procedures anew.  A new trial may skew in favor of the existing relationship between the putative adoptive parents as opposed to the constitutionally protected relationship between a parent and child."

John De Leon, a lawyer for the Guatemalan foreign ministry, said, "The court has recognized that immigrants have rights, the same rights as anyone else, to raise their children." 

Contact a family law attorney from our directory to help you with any adoption issues you are having.