In a dramatic change of policy, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service said it would allow hundreds of Americans who are caught
in the middle of a moratorium to adopt children from Cambodia.
The announcement means more than 200 families who had filed
petitions to adopt there before Dec. 31, 2001, will be matched
with Cambodian orphans. Previously, the INS had permitted only
the completion of adoptions that were in the later stages at
the time that a Dec. 21 moratorium took effect. Those latter-stage
cases were usually ones in which Americans already had been
matched with children.
Wednesday's move responds to intense congressional criticism
of the moratorium, which INS put in place amid allegations that
Cambodia is rife with baby stealing and trafficking.
The INS task force agreed to investigate about 400 pending
late-stage cases while insisting that no replacement matches
would be allowed in cases where problems arose.
A few cases did appear to involve some corruption, including
evidence of falsified documents, but the INS continued to approve
more than 300 adoptions.
A highly sensitive case that may now be resolved is one in
which a Colorado couple and a Seattle woman were matched with
the same 2-year-old girl. The girl in the Cambodian orphanage
has a 3-year-old brother whom Mark and Neva Carlson of Evergreen,
Colo., also want to adopt. But Ellen Skugstad of Seattle plans
to adopt one child. Cambodian authorities had decided to give
the Carlsons the boy and Skugstad the girl.
Skugstad had said she'd accept a new match rather than split
up the siblings, but before Wednesday the INS refused to consider
the move. Skugstad, who couldn't be reached for comment, can
now pursue a new match. The new plan dictates that children
matched from now on must have been born before Dec. 31, 2001,
an effort to prevent baby trafficking from occurring.
''We had not intended to give out new referrals, but there
were cases where families felt they were being treated unfairly,''
INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said. ''We're trying to be as
accommodating as possible,'' he said.
