Haitian girl in Melbourne put in state's custody
BY JOHN A. TORRES
January 18, 2010

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A 2-year-old Haitian girl who traveled to the United States with local relief volunteers has been remanded to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

The girl, Mishna Prezelle, was brought to the U.S. to be cared for by Dr. Stephen Badolato of Melbourne, who operated on the young girl's feet in August. She was born with a foot deformity and is in need of follow-up care, Badolato said.

Now, despite letters from her birth mother in Haiti giving Badolato temporary custody and other documents regarding her medical needs, it is unclear what will happen to her.

The local team was detained and interrogated for six hours late Saturday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the airport in West Palm Beach.

The team thought that Mishna's one-year visa allowed her re-entry to the U.S., but it was for one time only and was used for her surgery in August. The volunteers were ordered to remain on or just outside their plane as immigration police investigated what they called a "potential kidnapping case."

"The good thing is that her medical needs are not an emergency right now," Badolato said Sunday afternoon. "Hopefully, we can get this straightened out and get her up in Brevard County before long."
Team members -- including American Airlines pilot Tom Garcia of Titusville, pilot Marlin Moudy of Stuart, television journalist Marci Gonzalez of West Palm Beach and this FLORIDA TODAY reporter -- used Internet social networking sites to rally support for investigators to let them go. Congressman Bill Posey was among the politicians who responded. Posey talked by telephone with the investigator in charge.

Meanwhile, the man who organized the relief effort -- Titusville missionary Joe Hurston, founder of Airmobile Ministries -- made the last-minute decision to remain behind in Haiti to continue working on his water-purification units.

"I need to stay because I don't know if I will be able to make it back into (Haiti)," Hurston said. "There is still so much that needs to be done."
Hurston also has been working with Barbara Walker -- who operates an orphanage in Haiti that arranges adoptions -- to secure visas for the dozens of Haitian children in the final stages of being adopted.

Many of the structures in Walker's orphanage were damaged during Tuesday's earthquake, and she is afraid that another tremor may result in children being hurt or killed. The children and volunteer workers have slept outdoors since the magnitude-7.0 earthquake killed thousands in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com.

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