Finding a family: Children from Mexico rarely adopted in U.S.

Monday, January 6, 2003 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

By Anna Gorman

Los Angeles Times

• Adopting a child from Mexico can be a complicated, emotional and risky process for a U.S. family. Many choose instead to travel to Russia or China. That may change, though, as the United States implements the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions, which sets uniform guidelines and procedures and may open the door to more Mexican children finding homes on 'the other side.'

TIJUANA, Mexico — Roberto Lopez points out over the dusty yellow buildings of the orphanage and says he wants U.S. 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 it will ever happen.

Despite a decadelong explosion of adoptions that has moved 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. citizens 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 represented in those 2002 statistics were from Mexico — compared with 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 United States 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 the United States has moved so slowly in implementing the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. The United States 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 Joan Hollinger, a law-school professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Other experts agree.

"The Mexican central authority will be more willing to deal with the United States," Hollinger said.

"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 United States 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. 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 to the United States.

If a visa is denied, parents in the United States 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, depending on laws and cultural and religious values.

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.

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.

At Casa de la Esperanza, many of the 55 children have parents who are homeless, prostitutes or addicted to drugs.

Roberto and his 8-year-old sister, Karina, were orphaned when their parents died of AIDS. Roberto said that 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 a stable home but he 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 Adoption 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 the birth mother 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

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in Chino, Calif. Even though she has placed dozens of Mexican children in the United States, Ramirez said she never makes promises.

"It's an emotional and financial roller coaster," Ramirez said. "We never guarantee a placement."