In the Press...
Smith Recounts Sad Stories of 'Left Behind' ParentsCongressman tells national audience that 1,800+ U.S. parents are fighting to see their children again
Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees international human rights, and former left behind dad David Goldman, of Tinton Falls, N.J., who battled for five years to bring his son home from Brazil, took to the set of Fox News Channel to remind the country that there are more than 2,400 American children wrongfully held overseas.
“International child abduction rips children from their homes and lives, taking them to a foreign land and alienating them from a left behind parent who loves them and who they have a right to know,” Smith said. “Their childhood is disrupted, in limbo, or sometimes in hiding as the taking parent seeks to evade the law, or to conjure legal cover for their immoral actions. Abducted children often lose their relationship with their mom or their dad, half of their identity and half of their culture." Click here to watch the Fox News segment. Smith and Goldman called for the passage of Smith's legislation, H.R. 1940, to raise the profile of the issue of international abduction by appointing a new Ambassador-at-Large for International Child Abduction. The ambassador would head a new office charged with helping left behind parents secure the return of their children and collect detailed information and report on abducted children in all countries. “With all the assistance and support I received, after over four years and then another year and one half after the death of his first abductor, on Christmas Eve 2009, my son and I were finally reunited and returned home,” Goldman said. “It was nothing short of a miracle. Even after five and one half years of my son's illegal retention and documented abuse, he is now home and he is flourishing.” Related links:
|