30 parents who have been waiting to pick up their Haitian adoptive children are in a holding pattern tonight at the Orlando Sanford International Airport trying to get through mounds of red tape. 26 kids are left out of the original 79 – Federal Officials are going BACK through all of their paperwork (home check, background check) and then re-interviewing all parents. We’re being told each interview will last an hour and there are 30 parents left
Once the interview process is finished and the kids are released to the parents, it is on a temporary basis pending the completion of all paperwork. The adoption process is not complete and the kids could be taken back from the parents. A federal spokesperson said that was highly unlikely, but possible.
US Department of Health and Human services is in charge on the ground – all kids are under temporary custody of the office of refugee resettlement. All kids left are part of their “Category 2” – meaning that all of the paperwork was not done before the earthquake and in the eyes of the law, the kids don’t have a legal guardian in the US. All kid who’s paperwork was done, or Category 1, have been released to their parents. And some of the kids that went to Denver, were Category 2, but their adoptions were expedited.
As of 8:20pm tonight, the kids are not being moved from the airport – although HHS has secured beds at a local foster facility just in case. There are 4 people on the ground from HHS processing paperwork last we heard. There are no time lines on how long it will take, and frustration is mounting. 1 infant was taken to the hospital, but they won’t say which hospital or for what. Earlier today, there was another plane standing by to fly 29 kids from Haiti into Florida, but the Haitian government stopped all orphans leaving the country until a total evaluation was done, on a case by case basis.
Fox News Producer Chris Laible contributed to this story