MIAMI — A U.S.-born infant at the center of an international child-custody dispute may get a reprieve from a requirement that he be forcibly relocated to Haiti, the conflict-ridden nation of his mother’s birth.
Florida child welfare administrators, who will help determine the child’s fate, have made an about-face and are now asking a judge to allow the boy, whose first name is Ector, to remain in the United States where he is currently being cared for by foster parents who want to adopt him.
Previously, administrators with the state Department of Children & Families had requested that 11-month old Ector, who was born in Broward County and is a U.S. citizen, be sent to live with his maternal grandmother in a rural mountain village in Haiti. The agency now plans to seek to have him adopted, a lawyer said.
“The department’s position at this point in time is that the child should remain here in South Florida,” said Gina Leiser, a lawyer for DCF.
During a hearing Thursday, Leiser said “a lot has transpired” since Broward Circuit Judge Jose A. Izquierdo’s decision in July to modify Ector’s placement based on the request of his biological mother. She said the department intends to file a motion asking the court to change the goal from family reunification to adoption.
“The child’s medical condition being what it is, the child needing follow-up treatment for both his heart condition as well as his ear condition, and his doctors being here in South Florida, we do believe that it would be appropriate for the goal to be adoption,” she said, “which would then trigger the department to be required to file a petition for termination of parental rights and to procedurally start that process.”
The case, first reported by The Miami Herald, raised concerns about why child welfare workers were pushing to send a U.S.-born child to Haiti where continuing humanitarian, security, economic and political crises have the country on the brink of collapse. It also raised questions about why Ector, who was born in Broward County, was not being given the same treatment as three other siblings who were allowed to be adopted after their mother’s rights were terminated.
ChildNet, the Broward County child welfare agency contracted by DCF that is overseeing Ector’s case while he is in foster care, had requested that he be sent to live with his maternal grandmother.
ChildNet had the mother’s parental rights terminated after she said she could not care for Ector because of mental challenges and they were forced to place him in the care of Tamara and Gerald Simmons when he was less than a week old.
The Simmonses previously told the Herald that they initially supported family reunification for Ector. But they changed their minds after the judge decided he should be sent to Haiti and he was diagnosed with several medical issues, including a possible heart murmur.
On Thursday, child welfare representatives and the Simmonses’ lawyer acknowledged that Ector gets recurring ear infections and has a 12-millimeter hole in his heart. Both conditions may eventually require surgery, the Simmonses’ lawyer, Alan Mishael, said.
Leiser, the DCF lawyer, also noted that the testimony presented throughout the case demonstrated that the child’s legal father has had no contact and has not provided any support, therefore his rights should be terminated. This would free Ector to be adopted by either the Simmonses, any of his other siblings’ adoptive parents or even his grandmother in Haiti.
“There is ample testimony and evidence throughout the duration of this case that reunification with a parent who has not made any effort to be a parent to this child is not in the child’s best interest,” Leiser said.
Despite Leiser’s position, there was tension in the courtroom from ChildNet’s representatives, who sought to downplay Ector’s medical condition. Lawyer Jeanette Andrews-Thompson aggressively questioned Ector’s guardian ad litem, asking her if she had contact with the doctors in Haiti who had provided “letters” about medical care in Haiti and if she had any personal knowledge about medical attention in Haiti.
The guardian ad litem, Patricia Klein, who had referred to the letters as affidavits, said she had had no personal contact, and the information had been shared with her by the foster parents. Based on the “numerous affidavits from doctors in Haiti saying that there basically isn’t medical care, that things are too volatile for people to do surgery,” Klein said, it was her position that Ector should not be sent to Haiti, and should be allowed to be adopted.
“I’m a little concerned about him going where we can’t guarantee medical care,” she said.
Several dozen members of the Haitian community followed the hearing Thursday. The case also garnered attention from U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and state Rep. Dotie Joseph.
“I’m not trying to diminish the value of family contact. I think it’s important the child be able to maintain family relations. That said, in light of the current medical conditions of the child, this is something the court needs to consider... whether it’s temporary or permanent placement,” Joseph said.
Joseph, who is a lawyer, had reached out to DCF after reading about the case in the Herald. She asked that “extra scrutiny to the recommendation of ChildNet” be given in light of the information that Ector had a heart condition requiring treatment he may not be able to get in Haiti.
Judge Izquierdo said that given the current situation in Haiti, he’s concerned about Ector’s safety. His initial decision in July, he said, was based on ChildNet’s request and a home study provided by a ChildNet social worker who had traveled to Haiti.
According to the home study, the grandmother lives in a two-bedroom house in Montagne Noire, a hillside community in the hills above Port-au-Prince, and made $2,300 a month, the judge said. The grandmother also had a support structure to raise Ector and was already raising another half sibling of his.
“That grandparent had nothing in the report to indicate that there were... issues,” Izquierdo said, requesting a new home study.
Since his initial decision, Izquierdo noted the U.S. State Department has issued a change in Haiti’s status, and he has “concerns as to whether the sociopolitical situation in Haiti has changed to the point where there is a safety issue.”
But before making his decision, he wants to hear from Ector’s maternal grandmother and uncle, he said. Both were unable to connect for the hearing via a Zoom link. ChildNet social worker Marie Joseph told the courtroom that the uncle was following the proceedings through the telephone, and he had something he wanted to say. She then proceeded to read a message she said was from him.
“‘We are very upset and I feel you know, that the department is not trying to send our kids to us... and they don’t know our family,” Joseph quoted the uncle as saying. She said he added: “We know we are poor, and we live in a country that according to the Haitian diaspora has a civil war. But remember, this is our blood. This is our family.”
Izquierdo acknowledged the difficulties of the case.
“This isn’t a situation where it’s maybe as cut and dry as some people may think,” he said. “There are safety concerns we have to address and we will address those safety concerns. But I don’t think we can also simply ignore the existence of the grandmother.”
Izquierdo said that what is before him is “a grandmother who loves her grandchild... (who) has come forward and wishes to have her grandchild placed with her.... It is her right. And a foster mom who has a love for this child, no doubt, has raised the child since December, (and) wishes to have the child with her.”
(Miami Herald Deputy Investigations Editor Carol Marbin Miller contributed to this report.)
