Texas family split apart for years during adoption plight

Texas family split apart for years during adoption plight
12:13 PM MST on Thursday, June 19, 2008
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA-TV
Video

Brett Shipp reports
CARROLLTON - While adopting an overseas baby can be an emotional roller coaster, one Carrollton couple had no idea how much it could change their lives.
After three years of confusion, one North Texas man's wife and adopted child remain a halfway around the world.
Prodip Ash, of Carrollton, is so excited about his adopted baby girl, Pronita, he said he listens to recordings of phone conversations with her. He said he also gets chills recalling the day his wife, Malobika, called him with news of their successful overseas adoption.
"I was so happy," he said. "I cannot explain how happy I was, so happy."
Unfortunately, since their adopted child came from an orphanage in their native country of Bangladesh, they knew they would have to wait a few months before they could welcome their daughter to America.
But due to a series of administrative blunders and personal miscalculations, the reunion with wife and new baby has never taken place. And the months, have turned into years.

Family photo.
At best, it could still take months for the reunion to occur.
"[It's] like I'm no where to go," Ash said. "My back is against the wall. What can I do?"
It seems there is little Ash, a United States citizen, can do.
He received clearance from U.S. immigration back in 2005 to adopt from an overseas orphanage. He has the adoption papers, clearance form the orphanage and release papers from the natural parents. And in October 2005, baby Pronita was legally adopted and ready to return to America with his wife. Then the State Department began raising questions about the legality of the adoption and denied the baby's visa.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Services in Dallas said the embassy in Bangladesh operates on strict rules.
"We need to make sure that we are not, USCIS, is not in the baby selling business, said Maria Elena Garcia-Upton, with USCIS. " "We need to safeguard not only the rights of the children, but again, the right's of the biological parents as well as the adoptive parents."
But according to Garcia-Upton, what's happened to the Ash family has gone well beyond reason.
"Normally it takes months; it doesn't take years," she said.
According to Ash, the reason it has taken so long is because even though the state department cleared the adoption, the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh lost his case file. Ash is being told he must start the visa process all over again.
"It's gone, for somebody's mistake, somebody's negligence," Ash said. "It's gone from my life. I'm never going to get back these three years."
Ash has hired an attorney, repeatedly contacted the government and petitioned Congress. He said he has done everything he can to bring his daughter back home.
"It's very painful," he said breaking down into tears.
Since News 8 began asking questions, officials with Immigration Services in Dallas have been trying to assist him, encouraging him to file for a new type of visa. And while Ash has made two trips to Bangladesh to visit his wife and daughter in the past three years, he said he wants them home.
At best, however, it could still take months for the reunion to occur.
E-mail bshipp@wfaa.com