Mark Melson, CEO of Fort Worth’s Gladney Center for Adoption, says local and national adoption agencies are in a wait-and-see period after efforts in urging Congress and President Donald Trump to provide travel ban exemptions to adoptees was followed by federal guidance allowing some exemptions.
“It rectifies it for the moment,” Melson said.
The U.S. Department of State issued the new guidance on Jan. 28, stating that children being adopted by U.S. citizens may qualify for an exemption on a case-by-case basis. The move comes after organizations like the Gladney Center and the National Council for Adoption urged families for several weeks to contact their Congress members to advocate for adoptee children from other counties to not be barred from Trump’s recent orders on travel ban and visa freezes.
In June, the administration placed travel bans or restrictions on several countries with exemptions to adoption visas. Another iteration of the order issued in December — and went into effect on Jan. 1 — no longer included exceptions for adoption visas,” both Republican and Democratic lawmakers said in a letter to the U.S. Department of State.
The State Department announced mid-January the government will suspend processing immigrant visas of 75 different countries over public assistance concerns, according to the Associated Press.
Before the exemption, restrictions made adopting families at the Gladney Center and agencies across the country “gravely concerned,” Melson said.
Melson is also on the National Council for Adoption’s board of directors. The travel restrictions brought delays for children who have already been legally cleared to immigrate to the U.S. through the adoption process, he said.
“They’ve had a long wait already. They’ve been in process for many of them for years, and now it’s that magic day when they get to go and bring their child home and, yet, we’re faced with this slowdown,” Melson said, adding that children waiting to be picked up by their adoptive families are spending more time in orphanages or foster homes.
The State Department issued new guidance Jan. 28 stating children being adopted by U.S. citizens may qualify for an exemption on a case-by-case basis.
Out of the 75 countries facing restrictions, 42 are adoption-sending countries, Melson said. About 62 families, either a part of the Gladney Center’s Columbia or Thailand adoptive programs, have been directly affected, he added.
Melson said he personally believes the absence of an adoptive exemption to the immigration restrictions was “an oversight, not done maliciously.”
“These are children that belong to these families,” Melson said. “They have gone through the steps in the process. Now we’re just literally checking a box on a piece of paper, and that child can come back home and be cared for by this loving family.”
To see how the exemption plays out is a wait-and-see kind of moment, Melson said. He’s anticipating the exemption will work for a majority of families going through an adoption and have their paperwork, he said.
He’s thinking about a family who is currently traveling to Thailand to pick up their child early next week.
If the process goes smoothly as normal, he says, then it rectifies the situation, Melson said. Until they see that family go through the process, “we’re not exactly sure.”
“We believe it will work for its intended purposes, and accomplishes both of the goals; the adoption-based goal as well as what the government’s goal is to protect our country,” Melson said of the exemption. “We’ll see what ultimately happens, but we believe that it will be a successful placement.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
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