Haiti Charges Americans with Child Abduction

A group of ten American Baptist missionaries tried to take 33 Haitian children out of Haiti without government consent.  They were trying to take them by bus to the Dominican Republic where they were in the process of creating a Christian orphanage.  These children were going to be eligible for adoption in the U.S.  The problem (other than the whole "without government consent" thing) is that some of these kids still have a living parent.  Some of these parents claimed that the missionaries promised simply to educate the children in the Dominican Republic and allow them home to visit.  Also, the missionaries had been warned by child protection officials, human rights experts and Dominican authorities in Haiti that they could be charged with trafficking if she tried to take the children out of the country without proper documentation.  Read the full article here.

The lawyer for the group says that 9 of the 10 are "completely innocent", and that only the leader of the group should be held accountable.  I don't know how much the others knew about what was going on, so I can't really say anything about them.  However, I think that there's no excuse for Ms. Silsby, the leader.  She said that she and the group had gone to Haiti to rescue children left orphaned by the earthquake, and that "our hearts were in the right place."  I believe that for the other nine people (if it's true that they really were in the dark about the status of the children and all of the legal stuff) but not for Ms. Silsby, for the simple fact that she knew exactly what she was doing, and how wrong and illegal it was.  She lied the the parents about putting their children up for adoption!  There is absolutely no way to say that she's just trying to help the children.  

The group is charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy, and could face a potentially extended legal proceeding in Haiti and, if convicted, face prison terms of up to 15 years.  I think she should be convicted.  She was attempting to do something that would rip families apart, and she was doing it on purpose.  She should not be able to hide behind her faith or the church.  She should not be allowed to use that as an excuse.  She was doing something illegal and harmful.  She should pay the consequences.