Speech #930044248

The mortality rate Is tremendous. This couple faced another year of redtape within the U.S. Immigration office while attempting to adopt the second child. Their love must be admired. But our bulky plodding paperwork system which leads to such sorrows must be censured. Congress did pass a law after the Korean war which had the intentions of facilitating adoptions. However. this law. section 101(b) (1) (F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. which permits petitions on behalf of an alien orphan to obtain a visa outside of the numerical limitations. has not relieved the problem. The petition. known among potential adoptive parents as the infamous form 1600. has itself become a roadblock of paper on the path to adoption. In advance of adoption. the petitioner is required to provide proof of citizenship and marriage. proof of the orphans agevery difficult in war torn nationsevidence of support including letters from employers. bank and savings account statement. copies of past income tax returns. a certified adoption decree and a certified translation of the decree. documented evidence that the orphan has been unconditionally abandoned. evidence of continued residence in the United States. fingerprints. photos of the couples. and on and on in abundant profusion of paperworkwhile the baby goes without a family in a crowded diseaseridden institution. As a result of such immigration obstacles. there were only 89 adoptions of these orphans during 1971. While the current law was intended to alleviate some of the international adoption problems. it has within it a feature which is the impetus for this mound of paperwork. The current law requires adoption before the child can be brought to the United States outside the regular visa limitations. Therefore the legal work of two nations must be done by long distance with work in each nation and the slow processing slowed even more by the miles in between. Let me quote to you from a telephone conversation with a staff aide in this matter with a Maryland mother who along with her husband went and completed an international adoption this December: We could stand the waiting when we were having agency interviews. We knew they had to do their best to see if we would be good parents. But to tell you the truth. the worst of the whole experience. was the paperwork. When it came to the immigration matter we had paperwork everywhere. Papers to prove we could support the child (even though the adoption agency already had this material). Papers to prove we were married.