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.
