Thread: Court date set over boy from drop house

Published: 06.20.2008

Court date set over boy from drop house
By Brady McCombs
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The parents of a 1 1/2-year-old boy from Mexico authorities found at a suspected drop house in Tucson will have to wait until next week to find out if they'll be reunited with their son.
Hector Salvador Michel Felix, of Jalisco, Mexico, was found June 12, said Alejandro Ramos Cardoso, spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Tucson.
Officials suspect Hector's parents paid to have him smuggled across the border and were planning to cross illegally themselves, Ramos said.
However, by the time the boy's parents came forward Tuesday in Nogales, Sonora, a 72-hour window allotted by Arizona officials to find a child's parents had passed, he said.
At that point a child becomes a ward of the state. Child Protective Services officials then must schedule a hearing before a family court judge to determine if the child should be returned to his parents, said Liz Barker Alvarez, CPS spokeswoman.
In Hector's case, the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. At a hearing, CPS presents a case to the judge about whether its safe to return the child to the parents, said Barker Alvarez, who couldn't talk about this specific case.
The state agency will work with officials in the child's native country to gather information about the family's situation.
The Mexican Consulate is encouraging CPS to tell the judge to allow Hector to return to his parents, Ramos said. Hector has been with a foster family in Tucson since June 12.
Officials with Mexico's child-welfare services have met with the couple and verified they are Hector's parents, Ramos said.
Hector was found after the consulate received a phone call from a woman who said she suspected a woman in her neighborhood was taking care of children who had been smuggled into the United States.
The consulate staff called Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Pima County Sheriff's Department with the information, Ramos said. Those agencies contacted CPS.
Law enforcement officers went to the Tucson-area house and found a 37-year-old Mexican woman with her four children and an "unexplained infant," said Vincent Picard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
The woman was later deported to Mexico, he said. A son and daughter, also from Mexico, agreed to be voluntarily returned to Mexico. The woman's two other daughters, both U.S. citizens, went with the rest of the family to Mexico, Picard said.
The woman said she was taking care of Hector but wouldn't say who his parents were or where they were, Ramos said.
"At that point we had nothing to work with," Ramos said. "She wouldn't cooperate at all."
A consular staffer visited the boy in foster care and took pictures of him and filmed a short video. Those were aired Monday night on newscasts by Univision and Telemundo in an attempt to help find his parents, Ramos said.
On Tuesday, a couple from Jalisco showed up at a Mexican child-welfare-services office in Nogales, Sonora, claiming to be the parents, Ramos said. They said they had seen the news reports, he said.
After reviewing their identification cards and Hector's birth certificate, Mexican officials determined the two were the toddler's parents, Ramos said.
Usually, CPS trusts the judgment of the consulate, Ramos said. But in this case the agency is considering conducting DNA tests to verify the people are Hector's biological parents, he said. The DNA tests are used when there is any doubt, Barker Alvarez said.
"Obviously, we would not want to return a child to the wrong parents," she said.
The Mexican Consulate hopes the tests, which could delay the return, won't be necessary and that the judge decides to allow Hector to return to his parents, Ramos said.
Hector is in good condition physically although he is a little disoriented, Ramos said. His parents are in Nogales, Sonora, waiting to hear what happens, Ramos said.
The Mexican Consulate sees cases of small children who have been separated from their parents while crossing the border about once a month, Ramos said. It sees unaccompanied juveniles, usually teenagers, on a daily basis, he said.
In most cases, parents are found before the 72-hour window expires and the children avoid becoming wards of the state, he said. When that does happen and the cases go to hearings, Ramos says he has never seen a case in which a judge chooses not to return a child to the parents, even if they paid to have the child smuggled or became separated from their child while crossing through the desert, he said.
"In these kind of cases, they give them back," Ramos said.
Barker Alvarez wouldn't discuss if parents' paying to have their children smuggled across the border alone would constitute unsound parenting practices. Those decisions fall to a judge, she said.
"We all are interested in the child being returned to his family as soon as possible as long as that can be achieved safely," she said.
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