It’s Too Bad We Couldn’t Have Adopted Some of Those Migrant Children

More than
52,000 children have been caught crossing our southern border
since October of last year, including several thousand children
from Guatemala. Until 2007, more than 5,000 Guatemalan children
were adopted by parents from other countries each year. Under
pressure from groups like Unicef, however, Guatemala shut down
intercountry adoptions. Today, the only way Guatemalan children can
come to the U.S. is to cross the border illegally.

Reason TV took a critical look at Guatemala’s intercountry
adoption policies back in 2011.

“Abandoned in Guatemala,” produced by Paul Feine and
Alex Manning. Approximately 20 minutes.

Original release date was October 6, 2011. Original writeup is
below.

“If we shut down international adoptions, that’s 5,000 kids a
year whose lives we are ruining, whose lives could have been
wonderful, and we’re dooming them by shutting them into these
institutions. So, to me, that’s fundamental evil.”

—Harvard law professor Elizabeth Bartholet

In 2007, Guatemala’s privately run system of adoption attorneys,
orphanages and foster care providers helped nearly 5,000 abandoned
children find homes with loving families around the world. But then
the Guatemalan government shut down international adoptions,
created a centrally controlled adoption agency and nationalized the
orphanage system. The plan was to promote in-country adoptions, but
that plan hasn’t worked. Last year, only 35 children were adopted
by Guatemalan families.

Why did the Guatemalan government put an end to a system that
was giving thousands of abandoned children a chance at a better
life? And what did UNICEF have to do with it? Reason.tv producers
Paul Feine and Alex Manning went to Guatemala to find out.

“Abandoned in Guatemala: The Failure of International Adoption
Policies” is a film about the promise of international adoption and
the sad reality that international adoptions around the world are
decreasing, largely due to the influence of UNICEF. It’s also a
film about a privately run system that worked and a state-run
system that is failing. Most of all, “Abandoned in Guatemala” is a
film intended to raise awareness about international adoption in
the hope that in the near future more abandoned children will be
placed with loving families, wherever they happen to live.

Approximately 20 minutes.

Produced by Paul Feine and Alex Manning. Additional camera:
Anthony Fisher. Graphics: Sharif Matar. Voice-over translations:
Rin Palmer. Special thanks to Lissa Hanckel, Ana Isabel
Maria-Gadala Centeno and Madre Ines. Music by Jason Shaw
(audionautix.com) and Vate (www.vate.com.mx).