[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 7 (Thursday, January 21, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S113-S114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            HAITIAN ORPHANS

  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, over the past week, we have witnessed the 
immense destruction that the earthquake in Haiti and its subsequent 
aftershocks have wrought on the Haitian people. Old and young, rich and 
poor, weak and strong, no matter who you are, this earthquake has 
brought heartache and sadness to numerous lives.
  First, I want to send my condolences to the people of Haiti and their 
family and friends around the world who lost loved ones in this 
tragedy. I also want to send my condolences to our brave men and women 
in the U.S. Embassy who also have lost loved ones, but who are 
continuing to help the people of Haiti and Americans in Haiti in the 
midst of this natural disaster. These individuals represent the very 
best of what America encompasses.
  I am proud that as soon as this earthquake struck our southern 
neighbor, the U.S. Government as well as the American people galvanized 
their resources to ensure that resources were delivered for people who 
have lost everything.
  Today, I come to the floor to speak about a specific population that 
has been and will continue to be affected by this disaster, the most 
vulnerable population of all, Haitian orphans. Before the earthquake, 
these children were looking for families, for people to love them and 
for people to love. This quest has not changed; however, their tenuous 
situation in life only further deteriorated after the earthquake. While 
I know that everyone has suffered so much, these children are without 
the natural protection that parents provide. Therefore, it is our duty 
to be their voice and to make sure that if they survived the earthquake 
that they also survive this critical period of time while resources are 
trying to be delivered and a sense or order is trying to be restored.
  This weekend several of my constituents have contacted me about their 
concern for this most vulnerable population. One constituent wrote:

       Senator Casey:
       I am writing on behalf of our friends, Michael and Monica 
     Simonsen who have been in the process of adopting their son, 
     Stanley Hermane (DOB: 4/9/2008), from Haiti since August 
     2008. Stanley was brought to Petit Anges de Chantal orphanage 
     when he was only two months old. He was severely malnourished 
     and covered in scabies. They have visited him in Haiti three 
     times, each time bringing supplies and donations to the 
     orphanage. The resources are scarce under normal 
     circumstances and with the current crisis, there is a genuine 
     concern that the children will not survive.
       I am writing to request that you support initiatives 
     created to help expedite the adoption process for children 
     who already have completely committed U.S. approved families 
     waiting at home. Expediting the process will not only secure 
     their safety but will free up already scarce resources for 
     children orphaned by this disaster.
       Senator Casey:
       After years of personal investment there, Jamie and Ali 
     McMutrie, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have brought 30 
     children almost through the entire adoption process to 
     anxiously waiting families here in America. Almost.
       The recent earthquake of January 12th has destroyed their 
     orphanage leaving Jamie and Ali to sleep outside on the lawn 
     with all their children. With food and water in short supply 
     and rioters all around, the clock is ticking for you to do 
     something.

  I am happy to report that Jamie and Ali McMutrie, who help run the 
BRESMA orphanage in Haiti, were able to evacuate 53 of their orphans 
and

[[Page S114]]

united them with their American adoptive parents earlier this week. 
However, Jamie and Ali were not able to bring back all 150 children at 
their orphanage home. Many people across the nation like Michael and 
Monica Simonsen are still waiting to know that their child is safe and 
many orphans like Jamie and Ali's orphans who remain in Haiti still 
need food, clean water and a safe place to stay until they can complete 
an adoption process.
  This Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced that they 
would use their authority to extend humanitarian parole to Haitian 
orphans already in the adoptive process with an American family. I 
commend the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department's 
Office of Children's Issues for making this policy decision and I fully 
support their desire to assure that the best interests of these orphans 
are put first.
  However, I am very concerned that when the Department of Homeland 
Security announced its decision to provide humanitarian parole, there 
was no plan at that time to ensure a safe and orderly process by which 
eligible orphans could be processed and evacuated.
  I continue to hear reports that orphanage directors in Haiti are 
going to the U.S. Embassy and while some are being admitted others are 
being turned away. Some of these orphanages are more than 125 miles 
away. I am concerned for the safety of the 600-700 orphans that this 
announcement affects. They may be harmed trying to get to the embassy, 
and if they are okay on that journey and even succeed in obtain travel 
documents, they may be harmed when they are told to wait back at the 
orphanage until a plane is available. I am also hearing from American 
families so desperate to ensure their child is safe that they are 
trying to make their way to Haiti. We don't need more chaos in an 
already chaotic situation.
  I along with some of my colleagues have called on the State 
Department and USAID to set up safe havens for orphans, which will 
provide food, water and protection for all orphans as well as time to 
ensure that those orphans who are eligible for humanitarian parole are 
processed and evacuated in a timely manner. This is just one idea; 
however, in the absence of an alternative plan, more and more children 
will continue to show up at the Embassy's gate.
  Therefore, I ask the administration to implement a plan to ensure 
that these 600-700 orphans are safely and efficiently processed and 
evacuated to be united with their awaiting adoptive parents, and that 
we work with the international community and other NGOs on the ground 
to ensure the safety of all orphans until they can be placed in loving 
homes. Again, I thank the U.S. governmental officials who have been 
working around the clock trying to ensure the safety of these orphans 
and all those affected in Haiti.
  ``Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his 
unfailing love.'' Lamentations 3:32. In this time of darkness, I 
believe that Haiti can emerge in a better place. And I am grateful that 
our country will be a friend with Haiti in this endeavor.
  Similar to a lot of Americans, I am not surprised but heartened and 
proud by the response of the American people, a tremendous outpouring 
of generosity. People in America from all walks of life recognized 
immediately that the people of Haiti, in the depths of an incalculable, 
an indescribable horror and tragedy, in the depths of that, the 
American people showed their generosity, they showed that they 
understand that our Haitian brothers and sisters are just that, they 
are part of the family, the human family, and they are our brothers and 
sisters.
  The most vulnerable member of that family, in most instances--maybe 
not in every instance in every family but most of the time--will be a 
child. We are seeing unforgettable imagery and video of young children 
being rescued in Haiti, surviving for days at a time in the rubble and 
the horror they have been living through. Thank goodness so many people 
have invested in ways to save those children.
  But what we still have to do a better job on is making sure that if a 
Haitian child is in the adoption process, is in the pathway, so to 
speak, to being adopted, we have to do everything possible, in addition 
to the obvious safeguarding, to provide that child with security, 
physical security and food and water and medicine and medical treatment 
and, in addition to that, that we provide, as expeditiously as 
possible, a process for their adoption and ways to make it possible for 
them to be adopted, that the adaptive parent or guardian can have that 
assurance but also so that child can be well on the way to being 
adopted.
  We do not quite have that yet in terms of what the Federal Government 
can do and should do. I had a call late this afternoon with Secretary 
of State Clinton, who should be commended for her work, in a broad way, 
with regard to the response to the tragedy in Haiti but, in particular, 
her concern and her actions that she has taken to make sure these young 
children are taken care of. I will not go into all the details now, but 
let me cite in summary fashion that a number of my colleagues in the 
Senate and I have called upon the State Department and USAID to set up 
safe havens which will provide food, water, and protection for all 
orphans, as well as time to ensure that these orphans in Haiti who are 
eligible for what is called humanitarian parole--those who are on the 
way to being adopted through the process--that those who are eligible 
for that process, humanitarian parole, are indeed evacuated and 
processed in a timely manner.

  This is just one idea, one way to help. In the absence of an 
alternative plan, more and more children will continue to show up at 
the American Embassy. It is vitally important that happen.
  I commend the work of our government at various levels in terms of 
what they have been doing to respond to the challenge posed by these 
orphans and their circumstances. I know in our home State of 
Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell and Congressman Altmire worked very hard 
to bring some of these children back to Pennsylvania. I commend them 
for the effort they put forth. For all these reasons, there is plenty 
of evidence to show that the American people understand that these 
individuals, these families, and especially these children are God's 
children. We have to be cognizant of that as we go forward with sound 
policies in the days ahead.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, first let me say to my colleague, Senator 
Casey, his comments about the nearly unspeakable tragedy that has 
occurred in Haiti strike all of us in a very poignant way. I have been 
to Haiti. It is one of the poorest regions in the world. We have people 
in Haiti living in unbelievable poverty. Fly to the airport and near 
the airport is an area called City Soleil. It is a slum of nearly a 
half million people living in desperate conditions. The entire country 
of Haiti has suffered such immense difficulties for so long. The people 
of Haiti are wonderful people. To be visited now by this great tragedy 
with an unbelievable loss of life that will exceed 200,000 people is 
heartbreaking to me, and I know to all Americans who watch this tragedy 
play out on television as volunteers are digging through rubble and, in 
some cases, finding people still alive and, in most other cases, 
finding a lot of people who have lost their lives.
  The American people are a people full of great generosity, and that 
expression of generosity in the form of contributions to organizations 
that are there helping these people is something that is very 
important. All of us can be proud of the generosity of this country and 
what is now happening in the outpouring of support.

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