[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 56 (Monday, May 5, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3962-S3963]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID:
  S. 692. A bill to require that applications for passports for minors 
have parental signatures; to the Committee on Foreign Relations.


                          PASSPORT LEGISLATION

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, today I rise to introduce legislation which 
will help resolve a serious problem that plagues this Nation. Last 
year, and unless we do something this year, 1,000 young boys and girls 
will be abducted from their home and taken to foreign countries. Most 
of them will never come back to this country. These are young people 
who have every right to be in this country, but one of their parents 
gets a passport and takes them someplace.
  This legislation I am introducing involves a young boy by the name of 
Mikey Kale. His father was Croatian. His father got a passport signed--
not notifying the mother--and went to Croatia. This is one of the happy 
endings of these stories. This young boy was allowed to come home with 
his mother--not allowed to come home. She went through a lot of time 
and effort and spent a lot of money to get him so she could bring him 
home.
  Most of the time the children never return. For example, Mr. 
President, this last week on ABC's ``Prime Time,'' they featured a case 
very similar to the Mikey Kale case, a case that involved a mother who 
took a daughter to Costa Rica. She did not have custody of the child. 
Sole custody was awarded to the father. A warrant was issued for her 
arrest. For more than 3 years this father has searched, and suffered, 
trying to get back his daughter. He has been unable to do so. It 
appears, even pursuant to that television program, that they know where 
the child is, but because of the complexity of the law in Costa Rica, 
the child has not been allowed to return.
  Extradition law, generally, does not include child abduction. So most 
parents are stymied. I repeat, 1,000 young boys and girls each year are 
abducted in this manner. Usually, these abductions take place during or 
after a contentious divorce, sometimes even by an abusive parent, many 
times by an abusive parent. At a time when these children are most 
vulnerable and most uncertain about their future, they are snatched and 
taken to a foreign country.
  The tragedy of this wrong is best illustrated by an ordeal forced 
upon people from the State of Nevada. No family should have to go 
through what

[[Page S3963]]

Fred and Barbara Spierer went through in 1993. Barbara's ex-husband 
obtained a passport for 6-year-old Mikey without Barbara's knowledge, 
consent or approval. On Valentine's Day, 1993, he abducted Mikey, 
boarded an airplane, and left for his country of Croatia, his native 
country. At that time, that country was, for lack of a better 
description, in a state of war. After tremendous emotional and 
financial efforts, the Spierers were able to get Mikey to come home.
  I stress, this problem is more common than we would like to think. It 
has been suggested that we do something about it. This legislation will 
do that. What, in effect, this legislation would do is say if you are 
going to take a child outside the United States, you must have the 
signatures of both parents. If one parent has custody, then only that 
signature is required. If there is joint custody, it would take both 
signatures. It is not difficult to get the signatures of both parents 
to take a child outside the country. Thousands of parents throughout 
the United States are currently undergoing the same emotional and 
financial stress that the Spierers experienced. This simple change in 
the law would prevent future agony and distress.
  As I indicated, Mr. President, few parents are as fortunate as the 
Spierers. Few will ever see their children again. Recovery rates for 
children, once they are in a foreign country, are extremely low. It is 
a sad fact that once a child leaves the United States, it is nearly 
impossible to get the child returned as most nations do not recognize 
custody orders from the U.S. courts.
  As I said, most extradition treaties do not cover international 
parental abductions. Experience shows that foreign governments are 
generally reluctant to extradite parental abductors. Often when facing 
extradition, the abducting parents will hide the child with a friend or 
relative in a foreign country or even go to another foreign country, 
complicating things even more. This action prevents the child from ever 
being returned.
  At any rate, getting a child returned in the United States is 
extremely expensive, far beyond the resources of most families. Many 
families have to spend in excess of $50,000 just in lawyers trying to 
retrieve their children, often, to no avail. Prevention is the only 
feasible way of dealing with international parental abductions. The 
best way to prevent international parental abductions is to make it 
more difficult for parental abductors to obtain passports for the minor 
children.
  The aim of the Mikey Kale Passport Notification Act is prevention. It 
prevents parental abductors from obtaining U.S. passports for their 
minor children. This, Mr. President, seems the least we could do.
                                 ______