March 14, 2002

40 U.S. families allowed to adopt Cambodian kids

By Steve Friess
Special for USA TODAY

Forty American families are making preparations this week to travel to Cambodia to finalize adoptions there, the first invited by the U.S. government to do so since an orphanage-by-orphanage probe of baby trafficking began in late February.

The families, which received notice late last week, represent one-fifth of the roughly 200 families left in a lurch when the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service stopped issuing visas to orphans in the Southeast Asian nation in December.

The Cambodian system is rife with allegations that many babies have been stolen from or sold by their parents, claims that INS officials say have merit.

Public and congressional pressure prompted the INS last month to create a task force to examine and resolve so-called "pipeline cases," those in which prospective parents were already matched with children and had passed several official steps on the Cambodian side of the adoption process. Those families have been receiving monthly photos of the children, in some cases since July, and have been awaiting the official invitation to come take custody.

That final step in the process is known as a "visa appointment," in which the parents are invited to meet with U.S. Embassy officials who complete the adoption by issuing the baby a visa. The 40 families notified last week will go to Cambodia for that meeting, while the remaining families continue to wait for similar word.

The most famous "pipeline" parents, Academy Award winners Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton, were not among this 40, an INS spokesman says. The couple adopted a 7-month-old boy, Maddox, in early March and had the boy brought to Africa to be with Jolie, who is filming a movie there. Maddox is traveling on a Cambodian passport and cannot enter the USA until granted a visa appointment.

INS spokesman Bill Strassberger says the task force visited about five of the 20 orphanages in which babies are involved in pending adoptions and will move on to about five a week for the next three weeks.

Cases aren't being handled in the order they were received but by which ones happen to be connected to the orphanages they visit, he says.

Strassberger also says there's still a chance that parents with visa appointments could ultimately be denied visas for their children.

Still, for this wave of children, the task force is seeking blatant evidence of baby trafficking in specific cases, and such evidence is hard to come by.

If denied, the parents could still live abroad with the children for two years, then receive a family-member visa for the child, under an INS rule.

As some cases proceed, dozens of anxious parents view the development as a sign their own frustrating limbo may be ending.

"The good news is that appointments are being made," says Jefrey Christian of Downingtown, Pa., who, with his wife, Eileen, is hoping to bring home the now-7-month-old girl they were matched with in October.

They are not among the select 40 who got the invitations last week, but they were still encouraged by the news. "That is exciting. Kelly Marie is coming home soon. It seems like we have been waiting forever."

Some, like Scott and Dawn Smith of Fort Wayne, Ind., disregarded INS advice and went to Cambodia to take custody of their children and live with them there while the controversy raged.

Dawn Smith is starting her third month living in the capital, Phnom Penh, with Isaac, now 2, while her husband had to return to his job as an emergency-room physician.

"Apparently, the INS task force is going to visit our orphanage next week to match Isaac with his paperwork," Scott Smith says. "Our facilitator is going to let Dawn know which day so she can go with Isaac there."

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