U.S. adoption providers ask Blinken to intervene on behalf of adopted children in Haiti

Adoption service providers, including the National Council for Adoption, are calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to help legally adopted children in Haiti join their new parents in the United States.

The providers sent Blinken a letter requesting that the State Department exercise its legal authority to provide passport waivers for children with legal and completed adoptions to U.S. families. Haiti’s government requires an appointment to process passport applications in adoption cases, and they have not been available, providers said, ever since a new Biden administration parole program led to skyrocketing requests for Haitian passports.

Since the Biden administration announced the new Humanitarian Parole Program for nationals of Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela on Jan. 5, Haitians have been flocking to passport offices around the country. Passports are required in order to be considered for the program and get financial sponsors in the U.S.

“The failure of the State Department to act is endangering adopted children by leaving them no safe, legal way to be united with their families in the United States,” the providers wrote. “The United States requires that children with completed and legal adoptions still obtain a Haitian passport. However, the situation at the Haitian passport office is extremely alarming. Since the initiation of the Biden Administration’s Humanitarian Parole Program, the Haitian passport office has gone from slow, unpredictable, and chaotic to completely shut down for adoptive families.”

The head of the Haiti’s Immigration Office told the Miami Herald that demands for passports have increased to 5,000 a day from the usual 1,500.

A State Department spokesperson said that the U.S. understands “it is currently difficult for adoptive parents to obtain a Haitian passport to present for an adoptive child’s visa interview,” and that the agency remains committed to helping adoptive parents navigate the complicated journey of inter-country adoption.

“Inter-country adoption is one of the department’s highest priorities. We work to ensure that inter-country adoption remains a viable option for children in need of permanency throughout the world,” the spokesperson said. “We engage actively with the adoption community, stakeholders, and countries across the globe and use all appropriate tools at our disposal to identify and overcome barriers to inter-country adoption.”

The spokesperson said the State Department will continue to engage with the Haitian government and communicate updates to families, U.S. governmental agencies, U.S. accrediting entities, adoption service providers, state authorities and the larger adoption community.

Adoption providers noted in the letter that even if the Haitian government scheduled passport appointments for adopted children, the security situation at the passport office “is so appalling that we could not send our client children there.”

”Just last Friday, tear gas was deployed at the passport office causing an evacuation and shutdown of the facility,” the letter said. “Every day there are more and more shocking reports, photos and videos of desperate people scaling fences, fighting with security, and being beaten with batons. Adopted children who received appointments when such appointments were still being issued arrived at the office unable to enter and their appointments were not honored.

“While we empathize with the passport office employees and security handling these crowds, the situation is so perilous that we would be failing our clients by putting their children in such extreme danger,” providers added. “This problem is even more troubling for our clients with special needs. How does the State Department expect we get wheelchair‐bound children with cerebral palsy a passport?”