Parent Power Works in Washington

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What You Need to Know About Advocacy

by William L. Pierce, PhD
© 2002, All rights reserved

On February 15, 2002, 42 ordinary U.S. citizens with children marooned in Cambodia were hosted in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Earlier that day, James Ziglar, Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) came out to talk with them when they demonstrated at INS headquarters. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), adoptive parent of two children and one of four Co-Chairs of the nonpartisan, bicameral Congressional Coalition on Adoption, rushed in between votes to thank and encourage the group. Staff aides to Landrieu and Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) spent 90 minutes talking about what Congress is doing to address the parents' concerns. Sen. Landrieu returned after voting, talking informally with individual parents for 30 minutes.

At least 130 U.S. families who are in the process of adopting children from Cambodia are getting results. Citizens in other countries may well ask, "how does this 'parent power' work?"

"Parent power" is what groups like International Social Service dismiss as "politics," but it works when citizens politely and legally insist that their elected representatives listen to them. Besides writing letters, emailing or calling, parents gathered in Washington, D.C. and created a 4 X 6 foot poster showing the pictures of the children they have already adopted in Cambodia, or the children who have been referred to them. Some wore T-shirts with photographs of "their children" on the front.

News of the Cambodia adoption "moratorium" has been widely reported in the adoption media and U.S. government sites, but not until Feb. 15 did details of a letter, signed by 40 Members of Congress, to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General (INS is part of the U.S. Department of Justice) become public.

Congress will have a report from INS before March 1. Like the children "stuck" in Vietnam, whose parents also mounted an organized appeal to Congress, probably most of the 130 children - barring proof of fraud or coercion - will go to their new American families.

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