This makes my blood fucking BOIL. For the love of all that is holy, PLEASE FORWARD THIS and WRITE/CALL the people listed at the end of the post!
Request for Action from the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA):
Cirila Baltazar Cruz gave birth to her baby girl in November of 2008 at Singing River Hospital in Pascagoula, MS. She speaks very little Spanish and no English, as her native language is Chatino, an Indigenous language from Oaxaca, Mexico that is spoken by some 50,000 people.
The hospital provided her with an “interpreter” who is from Puerto Rico and does not speak Chatino, the language of the mother. Because of the language barrier and the misunderstanding by the hospital’s interpreter who only spoke Spanish and English, a social worker was called in.
The hospital’s social worker reported “evidence” of abuse and neglect based on the following:
* The “baby was born to an illegal [sic] immigrant;”
* The “mother had not purchased a crib, clothes, food or formula.” (Most Latina mothers breast feed their babies).
* “She does not speak English which puts baby in danger.”Ms. Baltazar Cruz’s baby was snatched from her after birth at the hospital and given to an affluent attorney couple from the posh Ocean Springs who cannot have children.
The authorities made no effort to locate an interpreter in her native tongue. MIRA located an interpreter who is fluent in Chatino in Los Angeles CA and has interviewed the mother extensively with the interpreters help. The mother has been accused of being poor and not being able to provide for this child. No one has asked the mother to provide evidence of support. She owns a home in Mexico and a store which provides both secure shelter and financial support, not counting the nurturing of a loving family of two other siblings, a grandmother, aunts, uncles and other extended family.
Meanwhile, there is word in the Gulf Coast community that the “parents to be,” have already had a baby shower celebrating the “blessed arrival” of this STOLEN child!
PLEASE MAKE CALLS & WRITE LETTERS DEMANDING THE SAFE RETURN OF BABY & REUNITE WITH HER MOTHER
If you believe this is unjust and outrageous and goes against all moral and religious beliefs and values, please call or write to the presiding Judge and the MS Department of Human Services to STOP this ILLEGAL ADOPTION! Stealing US born babies from immigrant parents is a growing epidemic in the United States. Many Latino parents have lost their children this way!
Honorable Judge Sharon Sigalas
Youth Justice Court of Jackson County
4903 Telephone Rd.
Pascagoula, MS 39567
(228)762-7370Children’s Justice Act Program
MS Dept. of Human Services
750 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39202
Call (601)359-4499 and ask for Barbara ProctorFor more information please call MIRA at: (601) 968-5182
MIRA Organizing Coordinator
Victoria Cintra at (228) 234-1697 or Organizer Socorro Leos at(228) 731-0831
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June 19th, 2009 at 4:52 pm #
Twittered and posted on Facebook. What the fuck is this insanity?
June 19th, 2009 at 5:55 pm #
That is so fucked up! Maybe the new “parents” should be contacted too?
June 19th, 2009 at 11:46 pm #
Things like this make my blood boil over. Don’t suppose they have email or anything (a letter from the UK would take over a week)? Will go look.
June 20th, 2009 at 12:02 am #
This totally disgusts me, there is enough true child abuse in the world without stealing children illegally, to give well off couples a baby.
June 20th, 2009 at 6:44 am #
Spreading far and wide.
I feel, literally, sick to my stomach.
I am thinking of how this can happen to a mother and, as a mother to be, am enraged and disgusted.
It’s barbaric. Simply barbaric.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:07 am #
Going to post and tweet now!
June 21st, 2009 at 10:22 am #
I’ll call tomorrow but any talking points besides the obvious wtf stop stealing babies!!?
June 21st, 2009 at 6:24 pm #
This is absolutely appalling. Spreading the story around for sure.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 am #
I called to get more information and it seems the best we can do when dealing with public service is put public pressure on them. Keep the pressure, keep circulating this barbaric story. Write letters, spread the word and stay with it.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:32 pm #
Estrobutch,
I pulled talking points from MIRA’s bulleted stars. I said 3 times that I didn’t think that “…” was abuse or neglect or a reason to take away someone’s baby from their care. In some cases, I elaborated why. (For example, I mentioned “cosleeping” and “breastfeeding” when I mentioned “not buying a crib or formula. And I said that I thought there were plenty of precedents of women not speaking the language in a land foreign to them, yet getting their children urgent care when they needed it, and that therefore, a parent not speaking English didn’t endanger the child too much for that parent to be allowed to raise the child they desperately want to raise.)
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:25 am #
Katie, just an fyi… co-sleeping, tho i personally fully support it, is now considered “endangerment” according to U.S. standards. i say this, unfortunately, because i work in medical and social service arenas. i absolutely think it’s appalling that co-sleeping has been miscaracterized this way, but it has, under the guise of the risks of “rolling over” on a baby, of “smothering” and even of SIDS (which makes no sense since SIDS is practically unheard of in cultures outside the U.S. where co-sleeping is the norm). Readers should also know that although this may vary from state to state and therefore not be relevent in Mississippi, many medical facilities do recommend/require that a mother have formula on hand even if she plans to nurse, “just in case”. It’s quite ridiculous the pressures that can be put on mothers to do things the “American way”. i have personally known of refugee mothers with Protective Services cases for “neglect” on the basis that they refused ultrasounds, which are for anyone else optional, or for wanting to give birth at home.
I am disgusted that so-called poverty is being used as a reason to remove a new born baby from her mother’s care, and even more so because poverty is clearly not even the circumstances anyway. this is too reminiscent of how Native American babies were stolen for decades, and it disgusts me that it would continue to happen. it does not, however, surprise me. And don’t even get me started on the lack of a qualified interpreter…