[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
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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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