guatemala900

Thank You to everyone for contacting their reps this week! We’ve made our push and have been told by the Department of State that the proper governmental requests have been made to Secretary of State Clinton for the grandfathered cases to be on the agenda tomorrow.  After 9 months of advocacy work by our Guatemala 900 family there is no doubt that the topic deserves to be discussed at this high level.  Thanks again to the Guatemala 900 family!  Let’s believe that something positive will come out of this…..

In the meantime, our campaign will not rest.

Continue to check this website, the G900 yahoo group, and our Facebook page for more information.

News broke yesterday that US Secretary of State Clinton is going to be headed to Guatemala next week and will be meeting with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom again on March 5th.   This is obviously a golden opportunity for the current pending adoption problems to be discussed at a very, very high level.  We have been in touch with our contacts at the US State Department and they assure us that that Sec. Clinton has received the pertinent information on our cases along with a request to include it in the discussion.  They are not able to guarantee that it will be in the discussion, however.

Click here to read the official Department of State announcement.

Other news :

• California Senator Barbara Boxer’s office is collaborating with the Guatemala 900 on a Congressional letter to Guatemala’s First Lady.  When this effort comes to fruition, your reps will be able to contribute their signatures.  Please make contact with your reps to update them on your situation and give them a heads-up to the potential letter.  This will help get their signature on the letter, when the time comes.

• The Guatemala 900 is searching for another Senator to LEAD a concurrent initiative targeting the US Ambassador to Guatemala.  Please reach out to your reps to make this request.  If you want to discuss how to approach your reps on this one, please contact us.

• UNICEF agreed to moderate a “Guatemalan Summit” of the key players in Guatemala (PGN, CNA, MP, etc.), but only if the US Department of State requested them to.  The two met last week - we are awaiting to hear the result of the meeting.

• MEDIA follow up : We are refining our press package for distribution to media outlets who may be interested in reporting on our situation. This is still very much an up-hill battle.  If anyone has contact with a major media outlet, we’d love to hear from you.  Meanwhile, we’re also investigating options to create our own short documentary to ensure the story is told in the most respectable and accurate manner.

Keep visiting the Guatemala 900 website — there is a lot happening right now!

As the families of the Guatemala 900 continue to endure the wait for due process and all of the emotional ramifications that go along with it, we thought it would be very useful to create a online forum as a place to exchange information, ideas, and feelings.

To join the new Yahoo group, click here and select the blue “Join This Group!” button.  (note: you will have to create a free Yahoo account if you have not already)

For those interested, the actual link is :  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Guatemala900/

This Guatemala 900 website will continue to be the primary source of news, campaigns, etc.

Sincerely,
The Guatemala 900

Click here to read this very interesting article concerning the war against international adoption.

The USCIS has provided us with an “InfoSheet” that is designed to answer questions for Guatemala900 familes  entitled “Keeping Required USCIS Documents Valid for Transition Cases.”    Hopefully this will clear up any lingering confusion out there as to what everyone should be doing with regards to their USCIS documents as the months continue to pass.

Click here to download/view the pdf file.