In a convoluted adoption case, an employee with an adoption agency lost her bid for custody, the natural mother lost her rights, and the father, an illegal alien that hadn't seen his daughter since birth, was recently given custody of the child, as reported by the Washington Post.
The Idaho Supreme court made the decision to send M.R., 3, to Mexico where she has since been released to her father, J.R. Officials with the Consulate of Mexico, in Boise, Idaho, reported that the two would be living with other family members in the town of Salamanca, near central Mexico.
Earlier this year the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that a lower court was wrong in ending J.R.'s parental rights.
J.R. had entered the U.S. illegally, prior to M.R.'s birth, and had been barred from returning.
The Idaho Department of Health and Human Services had argued against J.R. gaining parental rights – and the agency removed the child from her mother's care and began pursuing her adoption.
Sebastian A. Galvan Duque, the spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Boise, was pleased with the court's latest decision. Duque said, "As you might imagine, it was a very emotional moment for the father. The (Supreme Court) decision sets forth an important precedent for similar cases in Idaho and strengthens the judicial framework which allows non-citizen parents to continue enjoying their parental rights."
Duque's colleagues were part of the group that brought M.R. from Boise into Guadalajara to meet her father.
In 2007, J.R. married M.R.'s mother in Idaho, though he was in the state illegally. Once caught up with in Arizona, a court order forced him to return to Mexico. At the time, his wife went with him. After becoming pregnant, however, J.R.'s wife returned to Idaho, giving birth to M.R. in November of 2008.
J.R. attempted to reunite with his family in March of 2009, he was again caught in Arizona and returned to Mexico.
Also in March of 2009, M.R. was removed from her mother's care, due to allegations of abuse and neglect, and placed in protective custody.
A case plan was in the planning stages, to reunite mother and daughter, at the same time J.R. reached out to the agency requesting that he be given custody of M.R.
M.R. had been living at the time with a foster family – whose mother was an employee of the agency – and expressed the desire to adopt her. M.R.'s mother at this time had made no progress so the state began to terminate her parental rights.
On the claim that J.R. had abandoned M.R., the agency pursued terminating his parental rights as well.
A magistrate judge ruled that J.R. couldn't financially support his child – however the state Supreme Court disagreed and further argued that the motives of the state were questionable as they sought to maintain the child with an agency employee.
Fighting for your parental rights? Whether or not your case is an international dispute or a local one, contact a family law attorney to best handle your child custody case.