[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        INTERNATIONAL ABDUCTION

  (Mr. LAMPSON asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. LAMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to continue delivering my 1-
minute stories on the issue of international child adduction.
  On October 22, 1994, after learning that she was going to lose 
custody of her children, Mrs. Isabel Felix Leon fled to Mexico with 
Margaret and William Leon Sandige.
  At the time of the abduction, Margaret was 6 and William was 1. After 
the adduction, the children's father, William Sandige, was granted full 
custody; and warrants for the mother's arrest were issued. In November 
of 1995, the mother was arrested at a border crossing without the 
children and was released after revealing their location.
  Under the Hague treaty, Mr. Sandige was awarded full custody of the 
children from the Mexican court system; however, the abductor appealed 
the decision to the Supreme Court and has blocked further progress on 
the case.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Sandige's children are now 11 and 6 years old. They 
have spent 6 years apart from each other. It is time to end their 
separation and the separation of thousands of other parents and 
children who are being forced apart. It is time, Mr. Speaker, to bring 
our children home.




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