A Parenting & kids forum. ParentingBanter.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » ParentingBanter.com forum » alt.parenting » Spanking
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

DCF will stress Cuban father's consent



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old August 6th 07, 08:26 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default DCF will stress Cuban father's consent

DCF will stress Cuban father's consent
An international custody dispute over a 4-year-old girl may hinge on a
document her father in Cuba signed when he allowed her to travel to the
U.S. with her mother.
Posted on Mon, Aug. 06, 2007
Digg it del.icio.us reprint or license print email
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/amer...ry/193920.html

When his girlfriend won the right to move to the United States more than
two years ago, a Cuban farmer signed the required form giving permission
for their toddler daughter to leave with her.

Now, Florida child-welfare administrators, who are embroiled in a bitter
custody dispute over the 4-year-old girl, believe they have a powerful
weapon against the Cuban national, who is fighting to take her back to
Cuba: his own consent.

Lawyers with the Department of Children & Families want the little girl,
whose mother gave up custody last year, to remain permanently in the
home of a wealthy Coral Gables foster family. They are arguing that her
birth father essentially abandoned the little girl when he signed the
consentimiento in December 2004 allowing her to travel with her mother
to the United States.

Some immigration attorneys and advocates, however, believe that the
state's position has potentially damaging consequences, and could
inadvertently strip hundreds, if not thousands, of Cuban fathers of
their parental rights.

''This could open up a very dangerous can of worms,'' said Felix
Masud-Piloto, director of DePaul University's Center for Latino Research
in Chicago.

Roger Bernstein, an immigration attorney for 15 years, said that
construing such consents as surrenders of a parent's right to raise his
or her children might discourage parents from signing them -- which
could, in turn, discourage legal migration. ''It could have a chilling
effect and would be bad policy,'' he said.

The girl's father, who has been in Miami for about two months fighting
for custody of his daughter, lives in the central Cuba town of
Cabaiguán, where he fishes, raises pigs and works a malanga and plantain
farm. He lives in his parent's house along with his wife, another
daughter and other family members.

The little girl's mother won a visa lottery enabling her to legally
emigrate to the United States. On Dec. 23, 2004, the father signed a
two-page consent, which allowed the mother to travel with the toddler de
forma definitiva -- or definitively -- to the United States.

Neither the girl nor any of the participants in the case is being named
by The Miami Herald to protect the girl's privacy.

In late 2005, the little girl and her older brother -- who has a
different birth father -- were sheltered by the DCF after their mother
became suicidal and was hospitalized. The DCF agreed to allow the two
children to live with the Cuban-American family in Coral Gables, and the
couple later adopted the now 12-year-old boy.

ABANDONMENT CLAIM

Although the DCF is allowing the girl's father to visit her twice
weekly, the agency's attorneys have said in court they would like her to
remain permanently in the custody of her foster parents. Agency
attorneys have said they will argue that the birth father abandoned the
little girl, and is therefore unfit to raise her.

In a juvenile court hearing last month, DCF chief of staff Jason
Dimitris, an attorney who is spearheading the state's effort, announced
that the DCF would introduce the father's consent as evidence of
abandonment. The girl's mother and father were not married.

DCF administrators, faced with some public consternation over their
efforts to separate a father and child, defended themselves in court
last month, arguing that the state would not have been forced to shelter
the little girl if her father had not abandoned her.

''The department did not create the situation with this child,''
Dimitris said. ``The father created the situation, and the department
had to respond.''

Consents like the one signed by the girl's father go back decades in
Cuba. The document, also known as a patria potestad or poder -- legally,
a waiver of parental custody -- is commonly used as power of attorney by
custodial parents, and the Cuban government has required that
noncustodial parents sign them before their children can leave the island.

In the 1960s, the patria potestad was widely used when Cuban children
were sent unaccompanied to the United States in what came to be known as
Operation Pedro Pan after speculation swirled that Cuban leader Fidel
Castro planned to seize children and send them to the Soviet Union to be
indoctrinated, said Masud-Piloto.

Leo Ochoa, a Coral Gables attorney who has specialized in immigration
law for almost 30 years, said most of the parents who sent their
children out of Cuba during Pedro Pan executed patria potestad
documents. Since then, he said, he has seen such consents ''here and
there,'' but he has no firm estimate of how often they are used.

''They were common in the old days,'' said Tammy Fox-Isicoff, a former
special assistant U.S. attorney for immigration cases who has practiced
immigration law in private practice since 1988. ``If you wanted to take
a child from Cuba, you needed a poder.''

Ochoa said he did not believe that a consent-to-travel document, by
itself, would be sufficient to show that a Cuban father was surrendering
rights to a child. The document, when added to other pieces of evidence,
might help support a case that the father abandoned his child when he
allowed her to leave, presumably permanently.

''It would weigh against the father's claim,'' Ochoa said. ``If he cared
so much for the child, certainly he would not have consented to have the
child go to the U.S., where he would not be allowed to travel, at least
under the present system.

''Is it a complete renunciation of parental rights? That might be
stretching it a little bit,'' he added.

Said Bernstein: ``It has to be viewed in the context of where it was
signed: a totalitarian state, where you do what you need to do to get
families safe and out of harm's way.''

WHAT WAS HIS INTENT?

Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney at Holland & Knight who specializes
in cases involving the Cuban Adjustment Act and migrant children, said
that, ultimately, the dispute over the consent could boil down to the
father's intent when he signed it.

''Was this document made under duress? Did the father have to sign it so
that his daughter had the choice to live in freedom?'' Fresco asked.
``Did he have the intent to abandon then, and does he intend to abandon now?

''A policy choice needs to be made as to how you want to treat these
fathers,'' he said. The state could treat such consents as voluntary
surrenders of the right to raise a child, Fresco said, ``or do you want
to say you are not going to give full faith and credit to these
documents, and a father retains some parental rights?''






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

  #2  
Old August 7th 07, 12:12 AM posted to alt.support.child-protective-services,alt.support.foster-parents,alt.dads-rights.unmoderated,alt.parenting.spanking
fx
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,848
Default DCF will stress Cuban father's consent

fx wrote:
DCF will stress Cuban father's consent
An international custody dispute over a 4-year-old girl may hinge on a
document her father in Cuba signed when he allowed her to travel to the
U.S. with her mother.
Posted on Mon, Aug. 06, 2007
Digg it del.icio.us reprint or license print email
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/amer...ry/193920.html

When his girlfriend won the right to move to the United States more than
two years ago, a Cuban farmer signed the required form giving permission
for their toddler daughter to leave with her.

Now, Florida child-welfare administrators, who are embroiled in a bitter
custody dispute over the 4-year-old girl, believe they have a powerful
weapon against the Cuban national, who is fighting to take her back to
Cuba: his own consent.

Lawyers with the Department of Children & Families want the little girl,
whose mother gave up custody last year, to remain permanently in the
home of a wealthy Coral Gables foster family. They are arguing that her
birth father essentially abandoned the little girl when he signed the
consentimiento in December 2004 allowing her to travel with her mother
to the United States.

Some immigration attorneys and advocates, however, believe that the
state's position has potentially damaging consequences, and could
inadvertently strip hundreds, if not thousands, of Cuban fathers of
their parental rights.

''This could open up a very dangerous can of worms,'' said Felix
Masud-Piloto, director of DePaul University's Center for Latino Research
in Chicago.

Roger Bernstein, an immigration attorney for 15 years, said that
construing such consents as surrenders of a parent's right to raise his
or her children might discourage parents from signing them -- which
could, in turn, discourage legal migration. ''It could have a chilling
effect and would be bad policy,'' he said.

The girl's father, who has been in Miami for about two months fighting
for custody of his daughter, lives in the central Cuba town of
Cabaiguán, where he fishes, raises pigs and works a malanga and plantain
farm. He lives in his parent's house along with his wife, another
daughter and other family members.

The little girl's mother won a visa lottery enabling her to legally
emigrate to the United States. On Dec. 23, 2004, the father signed a
two-page consent, which allowed the mother to travel with the toddler de
forma definitiva -- or definitively -- to the United States.

Neither the girl nor any of the participants in the case is being named
by The Miami Herald to protect the girl's privacy.

In late 2005, the little girl and her older brother -- who has a
different birth father -- were sheltered by the DCF after their mother
became suicidal and was hospitalized. The DCF agreed to allow the two
children to live with the Cuban-American family in Coral Gables, and the
couple later adopted the now 12-year-old boy.

ABANDONMENT CLAIM

Although the DCF is allowing the girl's father to visit her twice
weekly, the agency's attorneys have said in court they would like her to
remain permanently in the custody of her foster parents. Agency
attorneys have said they will argue that the birth father abandoned the
little girl, and is therefore unfit to raise her.

In a juvenile court hearing last month, DCF chief of staff Jason
Dimitris, an attorney who is spearheading the state's effort, announced
that the DCF would introduce the father's consent as evidence of
abandonment. The girl's mother and father were not married.

DCF administrators, faced with some public consternation over their
efforts to separate a father and child, defended themselves in court
last month, arguing that the state would not have been forced to shelter
the little girl if her father had not abandoned her.

''The department did not create the situation with this child,''
Dimitris said. ``The father created the situation, and the department
had to respond.''

Consents like the one signed by the girl's father go back decades in
Cuba. The document, also known as a patria potestad or poder -- legally,
a waiver of parental custody -- is commonly used as power of attorney by
custodial parents, and the Cuban government has required that
noncustodial parents sign them before their children can leave the island.

In the 1960s, the patria potestad was widely used when Cuban children
were sent unaccompanied to the United States in what came to be known as
Operation Pedro Pan after speculation swirled that Cuban leader Fidel
Castro planned to seize children and send them to the Soviet Union to be
indoctrinated, said Masud-Piloto.

Leo Ochoa, a Coral Gables attorney who has specialized in immigration
law for almost 30 years, said most of the parents who sent their
children out of Cuba during Pedro Pan executed patria potestad
documents. Since then, he said, he has seen such consents ''here and
there,'' but he has no firm estimate of how often they are used.

''They were common in the old days,'' said Tammy Fox-Isicoff, a former
special assistant U.S. attorney for immigration cases who has practiced
immigration law in private practice since 1988. ``If you wanted to take
a child from Cuba, you needed a poder.''

Ochoa said he did not believe that a consent-to-travel document, by
itself, would be sufficient to show that a Cuban father was surrendering
rights to a child. The document, when added to other pieces of evidence,
might help support a case that the father abandoned his child when he
allowed her to leave, presumably permanently.

''It would weigh against the father's claim,'' Ochoa said. ``If he cared
so much for the child, certainly he would not have consented to have the
child go to the U.S., where he would not be allowed to travel, at least
under the present system.

''Is it a complete renunciation of parental rights? That might be
stretching it a little bit,'' he added.

Said Bernstein: ``It has to be viewed in the context of where it was
signed: a totalitarian state, where you do what you need to do to get
families safe and out of harm's way.''

WHAT WAS HIS INTENT?

Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney at Holland & Knight who specializes
in cases involving the Cuban Adjustment Act and migrant children, said
that, ultimately, the dispute over the consent could boil down to the
father's intent when he signed it.

''Was this document made under duress? Did the father have to sign it so
that his daughter had the choice to live in freedom?'' Fresco asked.
``Did he have the intent to abandon then, and does he intend to abandon
now?

''A policy choice needs to be made as to how you want to treat these
fathers,'' he said. The state could treat such consents as voluntary
surrenders of the right to raise a child, Fresco said, ``or do you want
to say you are not going to give full faith and credit to these
documents, and a father retains some parental rights?''






CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...

yawn
 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads.... fx Foster Parents 77 July 28th 07 09:21 AM
1 Cuban girl in exile, 2 dads.... fx Spanking 1 July 20th 07 12:47 AM
Entertaining patients while obtaining informed consent Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 0 February 7th 07 12:52 AM
Age of consent (was Pathetic LIARS) Carey Gregory General 44 October 8th 05 07:37 PM
ICAN..or ICAN'T? Manufacturing C-section Consent Todd Gastaldo Pregnancy 0 October 20th 03 11:05 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 11:26 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 ParentingBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.