Case Update (2020): Interest of Doe I; Cross-Border Child Placement, Home Study in a Foreign Country
In the Interest of Doe I, 467 P.3d 442 (2020), two minor children were removed from their mother's care in Idaho after they were found homeless and living in a car. Their biological father's whereabouts were unknown, but presumably he had been deported to Mexico several years earlier. About one year after the proceedings were started, the father's paternity was established, after he was located in Mexico. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare began a placement plan to send the children to live with their father in Mexico. The children's Guardian Ad Litem, however, requested more information about the father's living situation before agreeing to the placement. The Department was having difficulty obtaining a home study of the father's living situation because he was in Mexico. The court ordered the children's prompt placement without a home study, but, then, in February 2020, additional evidence was discovered about the father's crimin...