2nd Hearing on ICA in Chris Smith's Subcommittee July 28th

[LukieD]

It's Official:

http://www.internationalrelations.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1335

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights
Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ)
Improving Implementation of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

You are respectfully requested to attend the following open hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights to be held in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Date Thursday, July 28, 2011
Time 2:00 PM
Location Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building
witnesses The Honorable Susan Jacobs
Special Advisor for Children's Issues
Bureau of Consular Affairs
U.S. Department of State

The Honorable Kurt Campbell
Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Note Further witnesses may be added.

[M.Capestro]

I'll be there!

[momoftwo]

Wish I could, but I was just there..and heading to Mexico soon!  I hope many can make it

[FC_Florida]

Wow, it's next week already. I wish I could go! The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee is from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. One of the few supporters from my state of Chris Smith's efforts in preventing international child abduction; though I don't know if she's going to be attending this particular hearing.

[NoansDad]

Does Ileana Ros-Letinen support stopping international child abduction? She is my representative. I have sent her faxes, I have been to her office and have been told 'nothing they could do'. I was left a message from someone in her Washington office telling me they JUST GOT MY FAX asking me to call back as quickly as possible to him, 4 months after I sent my faxes. I called an left messages every day for a week. No response back again.

I asked her Miami Office manager 'Mercy" Vasquez what I R-L stance was on HR 1940 and she had no idea what I was talking about. And yes she is the CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

[gil]

Does Ileana Ros-Letinen support stopping international child abduction? She is my representative. I have sent her faxes, I have been to her office and have been told 'nothing they could do'. I was left a message from someone in her Washington office telling me they JUST GOT MY FAX asking me to call back as quickly as possible to him, 4 months after I sent my faxes. I called an left messages every day for a week. No response back again.

I asked her Miami Office manager 'Mercy" Vasquez what I R-L stance was on HR 1940 and she had no idea what I was talking about. And yes she is the CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

I'm pretty sure she has a good relationship with Chris Smith and I'm almost positive she will end up co-sponsoring HR 1940. As far as you particular case goes, there is no excuse for not being more responsive to you.

[ANALE]

Sadly it seems that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing in these Washington offices.  Or maybe they just don't care which is probably more like it.  These are the people we elect to office.  I just get so furious when I think about it!!

[liesl78]

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend this hearing due to work commitments.

Would anyone be so kind to post a link in case it's streamed live?

[SageDad]

Does Ileana Ros-Letinen support stopping international child abduction? She is my representative. I have sent her faxes, I have been to her office and have been told 'nothing they could do'. I was left a message from someone in her Washington office telling me they JUST GOT MY FAX asking me to call back as quickly as possible to him, 4 months after I sent my faxes. I called an left messages every day for a week. No response back again.

I asked her Miami Office manager 'Mercy" Vasquez what I R-L stance was on HR 1940 and she had no idea what I was talking about. And yes she is the CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Why would a Cuban American Senator from the same part of Florida that was home to the Elian Gonzales fiasco know anything about international child abduction 

Oh wait, that's right, she was a Congresswoman at the time and was at the forefront of those against returning Elian to his father in Cuba.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0005/11/cf.00.html

[SageDad]

I wish I could be there, but I have no doubt that Congressman Smith knows and cares about this issue and will ask the right questions.  He won't let them do their typical song and dance and walk out of there after saying a whole lot of nothing.

I look forward to seeing the video of the hearing.  Should be very interesting.

[LukieD]

The hearing begins at 2pm tomorrow and I'm told it will be available online by webcast:

http://www.hcfa.house.gov/

[FC_Florida]

Does Ileana Ros-Letinen support stopping international child abduction? She is my representative. I have sent her faxes, I have been to her office and have been told 'nothing they could do'. I was left a message from someone in her Washington office telling me they JUST GOT MY FAX asking me to call back as quickly as possible to him, 4 months after I sent my faxes. I called an left messages every day for a week. No response back again.

I asked her Miami Office manager 'Mercy" Vasquez what I R-L stance was on HR 1940 and she had no idea what I was talking about. And yes she is the CHAIRMAN of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Why would a Cuban American Senator from the same part of Florida that was home to the Elian Gonzales fiasco know anything about international child abduction  

Oh wait, that's right, she was a Congresswoman at the time and was at the forefront of those against returning Elian to his father in Cuba.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0005/11/cf.00.html

Yes Carlos, unfortunately, politics as usual. Don't get me started with South Florida's...They'll move a finger if their own agendas will benefit from it. In the meantime, they all gather up at Versailles for some cafecito....

I am surprised, Noan's Dad - and very sorry to hear from you- that your Congresswoman and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee has not been much of a help on your case. Nevertheless, she has supported Chris Smith's H.R's in the past, along with a handful of Congressmen/women from Florida. Is it a partisan thing? Who knows. But still, not the optimal number of supporters. It's such a shame that our state doesn't have a Chris Smith or Senator Lautenberg to push things further to make it happen. My Congresswoman too, who considers herself and is known among her peers and constituents as"a champion for Human Rights" (She introduced and helped pass the PROTECT Our Children Act, which creates the largest law enforcement effort ever formed for the protection of children,H.R. 3845),has turned a blind eye to international child abduction. Go figure. Perhaps because she is the chair of the DNC?

At this point i cannot wrap my head around all of this nonsense.

One thing you could do is to get the media involved. Use whatever traditional and social media tools you have available. Have you contacted your NBC local affiliated? You mentioned you are from Miami area, right?  I'm sure they'd be able to get footage from Dateline (both David and McCarthy cases) to do some research on the subject. It amazes there are a lot of people in Florida who are still oblivious to what went through with David and Sean (and with you, Ariel Ayubo and the many left behind parents), considering that are many families here that at least one parent is a recent immigrant (in Florida's case, a majority from South and Central America; lots of Brazilians). If David ever comes to Florida to promote his book, which I hope he does, you and other Floridian left-behind parents could round up some press-releases as well and make sure the local news media do a good interview with all of you, including the left-behind parent who blew the lid on international child abduction, David Goldman.

Keep pushing, Noan's Dad. And hang in there.

[M.Capestro]

The below release was forwarded to Mark last night from Smith's office:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE               
Contact: Jeff Sagnip (202) 225-3765
July 27, 2011                                               
http://chrissmith.house.gov

U.S. State Dept. to Outline Plan Thurs. to…
Bring America’s Children Home

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a congressional hearing Thursday, the U.S. State Department will reveal its efforts to return to the U.S. more than 2,400 abducted American children and enforce the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

The hearing, to be held by Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees international human rights, follows the emotional testimony at a May hearing of distraught ‘left-behind’ parents, who in most cases have never seen their children again after the abduction.

Handling of child abduction cases by countries signatory to the treaty, as well as countries not signatory to the Hague (such as Japan), will be discussed. Japan, a top offender, is the only G-7 nation to not sign the treaty.  The Congress is not aware of any case where a Japanese court has issued and enforced an order to return an abducted child to the U.S. Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, the European Union, Spain, U.K. & France have all pressed Japan to sign the treaty, and act to allow visitation, communication and a framework, or memorandum of understanding, to resolve current cases.

Who:  Congressman Smith, Chairman of the human rights subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs Committee; other members of the committee; The Honorable Susan Jacobs, Special Advisor for Children's Issues, Bureau of Consular Affairs, U.S. Department of State; The Honorable Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State

When:  Thursday, July 28 @ 2 p.m.

Where:  2172 Rayburn House Office Building on the first floor.

[M.Capestro]

Things are running late. Right now we're being told that we may be starting at 3p.

[Bob D'Amico]

Perhaps State wants to start late so that their abysmal efforts aren't able to be picked up and reported in time for the evening news.

That's not an unusual government ploy.