Guatemala Adoption Fraud May Hit U.S.

Parents In America Worry Their Kids Could Be Taken Away As Identity Scams Investigated

(AP)  Luciany Ball's adoption file says she was born 14 months ago by Caesarean section to a single mother who gave her up so she could be raised by a loving family in a six-bedroom Indiana farmhouse.

But now some of the documents appear to be fraudulent, part of a slew of irregularities at the agency handling Luciany's adoption that have left dozens of babies in danger of being seized from their anguished American adoptive parents. The probe also casts a cloud of uncertainty over some 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions.

Prosecutors describe their probe of Casa Quivira - considered Guatemala's best adoption agency - as their first serious attempt to investigate a $100 million industry that has made tiny Guatemala the largest source of American babies after China.

The system has delivered 29,400 Guatemalan children into U.S. homes since 1990 - so many that one in every 100 Guatemalan babies born each year was growing up in an American home.

But after a months-long investigation that began with the seizure of 46 babies from Casa Quivira last August, prosecutors say they found fraud cloaking the true identities of at least nine children and that half their birth mothers couldn't be found at all.

The fraud points to much deeper problems with the flawed adoption system that Guatemala replaced in January, and casts a cloud of uncertainty over the backgrounds of thousands of children now growing up in America, The Associated Press has learned.

After intense lobbying by U.S. parents, most of the 2,900 pending U.S. adoptions will likely go forward, partly because Guatemala lacks the resources to fully investigate them. Parents of the Casa Quivira babies, however, are stuck in the very nightmare they tried to avoid by spending at least $30,000 per child for hassle-free adoptions.

"I certainly wouldn't want to give Luciany back," said Mary Ball, the child's adoptive mother, her eyes welling up. "She's our family. She's our daughter."

Prosecutors say the problems at Casa Quivira include illegal payments to at least one birth mother, stolen identities - including that of a child stillborn 22 years ago - and a mentally ill birth mother who was incapable of giving consent.

A Guatemalan judge said he would announce Tuesday whether to pursue a trial against Casa Quivira's attorney and notary. Prosecutors also obtained an arrest warrant against the American owner, and they want fresh DNA tests for all the babies, even those whose paperwork is apparently in order.

"Their rights to an identity are violated because if their mothers have no identity, neither do they," prosecutor Jaime Tecu told the judge.

Luciany's story reveals some of the complexities of adoptions in the poverty-ridden country.

Luciany was born on Jan. 4, 2007. Her birth mother shows up twice in her village's civil registry, with the same picture and fingerprints but different names. One says she is Maria Natividad Hernandez, a married woman. The other - created in her village the same day she gave birth to Luciany in a hospital hours away - identifies her as Orbelina Davila Paz, a single woman.

Prosecutors suspect she got a false ID so she and her husband could give the baby up without going before a judge. They believe many of the birth mothers with false identity documents were trying to get around laws that require husbands and grandparents to renounce their rights in court.

Luciany's birth mother gave her to a network of notaries and attorneys supplying babies to Casa Quivira, a spotless home in the picturesque colonial city of Antigua. A few weeks later, Mary and Michael Ball started adoption proceedings for Luciany.

Mary Ball, 39, has an adopted sister, and has wanted to adopt a child since she was a little girl herself. She felt so strongly about adoption that she discussed her plan with Michael even before getting married.

She chose Casa Quivira because her best friend had adopted through the same agency. The Balls did not want to adopt an American child out of fear the birth mother would back out at the last minute.

"We didn't want to grow attached to a child and have that child taken away," said Ball, who prosecutes sex crimes and child abuse in Indiana.

They met Luciany when she was 4 months old and fell in love. She has huge brown eyes and a ton of dark brown hair. Every month they received new photos of her by e-mail. They spent more than $30,000 in agency fees and travel costs.

The Balls were told that Luciany would be living in poverty if she stayed in Guatemala. A visit by the AP to her birth mother's home in Santa Rosa de Lima confirmed the extended family lives in a tiny one-room shack made of cinderblocks, with an open cooking area. Barefoot children played on the dirt floor as sewage water ran past.

[michellem99-2009]

Dear Lily,
Go out in yer area and learn there are many persons there. Each different. Ye will meet a deaf person who have never heard a sound. Ye wiil meet a blind person using a white cane. Ye will meet a person in a chair that has never walked. As ye walk ye will meet a homeless person. Ye will be appalled. Ye will meet a vet just home from a war. Ye will be hunray but won''t go to a mission for a bite to eat. I thank God Allmighty I am poor and legally blind. I confronted it all years ago. A lady wanted to adort me and I said no. I meant it. She was a bloody LDS and I wanted no part of it. I confronted it when I took back my birth name. I confronted it when I told Dad I never meant to hurt him. I love Dad.

[michellem99-2009]

I am in the real world. Ye have not read where ladies have cut babies out of their mothers. We have children in this nation so it makes no sense to go abroad to take their children. Issues..Wake up and help American born children that have the same needs here. It is not fair to go overseas for this. I am older 53. We have kids here and they need a loving family. Think American. Lady in my day that was the role of the female to breed only. If ye could not ye was worthless. I was a girl and that was all I heard *Wait until ye have children of yer own, day in and day out.* I wanted more than a washed down education that girls were taught. An education that was drawn up in the 40s and taught thru the 60s. Boys came first. They were to be the bread winners. As a girl I was taught an education that did not work. I never married. I did help care for children in one home and I alway knew I did not want to be a mother. It had to do with I am handicapped. Babies are demanding as all children are. I am forever asked about family med history. A child that is adoped can''t know its birth family history. The same of foster children. Confront. I dumped on the state due my mother''s 2rd husband not wanting another man''s child. Children are used to get money from the state. They are in homes where they are abused. I am 53. I feel strongly a child is a member of his/her birth family. That is sacred or should be.

[lily1972]

MICHELLEM99 you have some serious issue you need to comfront. Good luck to you! Hope you find help.

[tomanyt]

killtheliars...An adoption refund policy. LOL

[michellem99-2009]

I grew up in foster homes. I knew I had a sister and brother that went to different foster homes. I HATED THAT LIFE. It is true no body wants a sp needs child. We end up in foster care. I don''t believe in adoption. I have my reasons. This article is one reason. They said* they don''t want to give the child up as she has become apart of their family*. Well ye just may have to. Ye did not not birth her and it sound like her is part of a crime. CRIME THAT STARTED IN HER NATION. Americans are baby crazy. It seems they can''t live with out children. True children are need to carry on the human race. Children are used for sefhish reasons. Yes in a sense they did buy a baby thru legal means ete. The first thing a small girl is given is a baby like doll to play mother. That teaches her young mind that is it for her she brtter be a mother or else. It is no wonder children are abused. I stood up to my birth mother and told her there is no way I will have a child just cos ye want a grsndbaby. I was 27.

[killtheliars]

if a U.S. citizen adopted a baby and then finds they need to give it back there needs to be compensation for the U.S. citizen.
If the baby''s birth parents or parent can fully pay for all of the care and services, medical and otherwise (and just because the U.S. parent had insurance does not mean the birth parent should not have to pay full value for services recieved)as well as hourly wages for child care food costs ect then the U.S. parent should give the baby back after being paid.
If they cannot then they don''t get the kid back, I''m sick of American''s being scammed and then expected to suck up the financial loss just because the person may have a nice standard of living.

[tomanyt]

"It''''s disgusting seeing them selling babies like cars, all lined up. What a world we live in.

Posted by lochlan" Maybe they should put them in a display case.

[tomanyt]

I guess all the anti-abortion people are adopting children in the states so now people have to go overseas to get a child. How sad...

[blr919]

Why are so many of you attacking this adoptive mother? She did not buy her baby. She adopted her through legal channels. It was the birth mother and the guatemalan lawyers who were deceptive. Reread the article and stop casting stones.

[saransk]

Adoptions in the US have become so difficult and expensive as to be impossible for many. Social Service depts. in most large US cities are biased against trans-racial adoption, preferring to keep kids in foster care. Most social workers would rather a child stayed with their birth mother, even in poverty, than have them placed for adoption. Most, if not all, non-minority adoption is now private. Only older children are still under governmental care, many suffering from detachment disorder or other disabilities. As with every thing privatized, the law of supply and demand holds true, and birth mothers (an especially their lawyers) demand and demand.
Most adoptive parents would like nothing more than to adopt in the US, but should they be forced to accept a child of a different race, or an older child. Many US minorities do not adopt yet they are very vocal about preventing cross racial adoption. The costs for a private adoption put it out of the reach of most couples.
Remember, many couples adopting have suffered through infertility treatments, some have had domestic adoptions fall through or other setbacks. It is very simplistic to say couples adopting abroad are selfish - most just want what we all want, a family.

[berealy2k]

What about the kids in the US that need to be adopted. Whats is so wrong with adopting American kids? These people who adopt kids from overseas only want tokens, something they can feel good about. It make them think they did something good in their life, even through it looks like they haven''t done any good at all.

[billpl-2009]

well, at least 29000 kids made their way to good families.

go ahead and fix the system, but leave those kids alone.

[ram849]

How about aborting these children before they are even born. Doesn''t that disgust anyone any more?

[lochlan-2009]

It''s disgusting seeing them selling babies like cars, all lined up. What a world we live in.

[brianbwb-2009]

"We didn''t want to grow attached to a child and have that child taken away," said Ball, who prosecutes *** crimes and child abuse in Indiana."

So even though she should know better, she buys a baby for $30 grand, reminiscent of the days of chattel slavery. Does she think that because she paid so much money for a life that the amount somehow legitimizes the transaction?

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by Jaysea0822

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