Stateless girl continues to face immigration roadblocks
Posted February 24, 2018 10:12 pm.
Last Updated February 25, 2018 10:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 12-year-old girl stuck between two countries that refuse to claim her continues to face immigration roadblocks as her adoptive Canadian father fights to bring her to Canada.
Vaden Earle has been trying to bring Widlene Alexis Earle to Canada since he adopted her eight years ago. He says they’re running out of time and running for their lives, as they hide out in the Dominican Republic.
This weekend, Earle made the trek back to Canada to come face-to-face with the man he’s been waiting to meet for years — Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Ahmed Hussen. During an appearance at a Black history month event in Toronto, Earle finally got his chance.
“Do you know who I am, I’m her father,” Earle tells Minister Hussen as CityNews cameras are rolling. “Can you tell me when we can expect any answers?”
Widlene was born in the Dominican Republic to a Haitian mother who died when she was just a few years old. Earle adopted her and started the process of bringing her to his home country back in 2009.
Since then, several of the family’s applications have been denied. Over time, progress has also stalled after the Haitian earthquake, and changes in adoption and immigration laws. But with the mass deportation of Haitians in the Dominican, the Earle family says their safety isn’t guaranteed.
“It’s like a giant social cleansing,” said Earle. “They’re doing active deportation sweeps in our town, so we had to move from our house into a hotel room, we pulled her out of school for four months.”
Earle says it’s been 34 days since the most recent application for a temporary residency permit was submitted, and they haven’t heard back yet. Earle says neither the Dominican Republic nor Haiti will take Widlene in, and that’s causing even more roadblocks.
“I’ve got documentation here saying an adoption in Haiti isn’t possible and it’s not in the best interest of the child, which gives every mechanism to your office to go ahead and issue a temporary resident permit,” Earle told Hussen.
