Judith Martin — Adding to the recent interview about human trafficking, the following information about human trafficking of infants and children comes from the late John Lee, who was a principal of Dibert Elementary School in New Orleans for many, many years. It is seconded by the Adoptees Birthrights Committee out of Metairie, Louisiana, as told in meetings some 30 years ago.
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Predominately white, young American families who have difficulties in “making babies” of their own will resort to adoption. Of course, they want a “perfect white baby” such as come through social welfare agencies, like the Volunteers of America or the Edna Gladney Home(s). Historically, blacks do not adopt children.
The social changes over the last half-century have removed much of the shame of a white woman giving birth to an out-of-wedlock baby. These mothers, more and more, are keeping and raising their babies themselves, as blacks have done for generations since before and after the Emancipation Proclamation.
To adopt a perfect white child takes a long time. The pool of available white children is diminished because fewer out-of-wedlock babies are being placed for adoption. Then there are all the background investigations, followed by perhaps years of being on a waiting list. Parents “desperate” to adopt are not going to wait. So, these childless families will resort to taking “second best”, white children from the former Soviet Union, for example. “Third best” are children from the Orient or Central and South America. It is about the babies from the Americas that I am most concerned here.
Case History: The boy, "Blake", was born to a Mexican mother (father unknown), who more likely than not was a slave in the drug and prostitution businesses. Wanting a better life for her child, and because she was trapped in slavery, she surrendered the child to a "baby mill" that would bring such (well-documented) children into Texas. The home that took such children in had its own waiting list, and "orders" were filled rather quickly. The selling of babies is big business. (The selling of older children, as described in Carmela's story, is the sequel for many.)
"Blake" was adopted by a couple who were and still are computer "geniuses". At last, they had the image of the perfect American family, mommy, daddy, and a child.
As John Lee told me, when these Hispanic children begin to reach their early teens, they realize that they essentially are "poodles", there for show. They rebel and get involved in crimes of all sorts, including female and male prostitution, to take revenge on the whole charade they have been obliged to pretend did not exist. Children with these backgrounds often band together through schools, learn Spanish quickly, and gravitate to the rest of the Hispanic community—which is where their acceptance leads them into trouble.
"Blake", at the age of 13, was placed under house arrest until age 21 (he will be age 20 this year in spring). Whatever it was he did, his parents had to find a multi-story house with an attic in which to keep him. The house they found is in my neighborhood. There can be no doubt that "Blake" is being kept on medications. There can be no doubt, though, that through the cell phone, he is running his own criminal enterprise; on Facebook, he has boasted that he makes over $250,000 a year. He is allowed out of the house on occasion; some Hispanic boys of his age do visit him sometimes.
In closing, there can be no doubt that this deplorable practice of importing babies from Central and South America will continue as long as there is a demand in the white communities. It is even suggested that there are "baby mills" where breeder women are forced to make babies. At the very bottom of the whole business is the fact that there are Americans who will pay a lot for a healthy baby, white or not.
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About the Author
Judith Martin is a retired librarian, a graduate of Loyola University, New Orleans. She contributes as a historian to the "Friends of Science" fan club on Facebook. Martin is also a member of Levees.org, a group that is working to bring out the truth about the levee failures, post-Hurricane Katrina, in southeast Louisiana.
