Camarillo family takes adoption battle to State Department
By Michael Collins
Friday, February 8, 2008
Steve and Julie Carroll and two other families who are in the same situation made their case directly to State Department officials Wednesday evening during a 1 1/2-hour meeting.
While they left without getting a commitment that the government would issue the visas needed to bring their children home, the families still considered the meeting productive because they got to show the human toll of their ordeal. …
Steve Carroll said the families were assured that their cases were top priorities and that the government is evaluating each adoption on its individual merits. …
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who has promised to intervene on behalf of the families, has accused the State Department of cruelty and has said the infants have become unfortunate pawns in the international spat.
State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said the agency is just doing its job.
McInturff said he could not comment directly on the Carrolls’ case because of confidentiality concerns.
In general, he said, the State Department is scrutinizing adoptions in Vietnam more closely than in the past because investigators have uncovered evidence of fraud in some cases and have raised doubts about whether some of the children involved are actually eligible for adoption.
“We’re fully aware that this additional period of review of adoption cases has been difficult for a lot of the families,” McInturff said.
However, “if these children are not eligible for adoption in the first place, it doesn’t serve the interests of anybody to push the process forward illegally.”
No responses yet