Because Lexi is 1.5% Native American, the Choctaw Tribe was able to completely tear apart Lexi's life due to an egregious misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act. The attorneys who brought this case to the high court made clear from the beginning that their goal was not only to remove Lexi from her [extended] family, but to overturn the Indian Child Welfare Act.. The family's lawyer, Lori Alvino McGill, filed the request for the California Supreme Court to hear the appeal. There's a heartbreaking update to . Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. February 28, 2023. They were able to adopt the boy in January 2018 after the placement fell through. LEXINGTON, Ky. (RNS) After more than two weeks and worldwide headlines, revival services at Asbury University in central Kentucky came to an end recently . The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who is 1/64th Choctaw on her birth father's side. Lexi is a 6-year-old girl from California who has spent the the majority of her life in a loving home - a home that she wanted to be her forever home. The emotional scene played out on a Facebook live stream watched by more that 1,000 people which showed a teary child, wearing a pink shirt and grasping a teddy bear while Rusty Page carried her out of the home and loaded into a black sedan as his wife wailed I love you Lexi from the driveway. Dozens of cases involving foster families have gone to court around the country after the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. She said Lexi and the Utah family had traded messages and had monthly visits during the past three years. In the days after losing their legal battle, the Pages addressed an online petition called Keep Lexi Home to several California and LA DCFS officials. Placement with family is the gold-standard of any child-custody case, not just a case involving tribal children. Lexi, who is 1/64 Choctaw, was taken from her foster home north of Los Angeles in a tearful parting in March and placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to keep Native American families together. The girl, Lexi, was taken away from foster parents Rusty and Summer Page on March 21, 2015, after about four years living with the family. The Indian Child Welfare Act defines Indian children as enrollees or potential enrollees who have a biological parent who is a member of any of the country's 573 federally recognized tribes. Lexi, a six-year-old with one-and-a-half per cent Choctaw blood has been removed from her foster parents of five years Protesters tried to stop government officials from taking the child from. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. The brutal racial politics of the Indian Child Welfare Act. "The law is very clear that siblings should be kept together whenever they can be, and they should be placed together even if they were not initially together," Heimov told the Los Angeles Daily News (http://bit.ly/1pYtXlg ). The Utah family had never met Lexi at that time; and the tribe agreed there was good cause to depart from ICWA's placement preferences. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. "While the past 10 days have been complete anguish for our family, there's no way our pain can compare to the confusion and disorientation that Lexi is experiencing," Rusty Page said. The Pages argued that Lexi has lived with them since the age of 2 and considers them her family. . Her father, who had a criminal history, never lived on a Choctaw reservation and didnt have any social, political, or cultural ties to the tribe, according to the court documents. Reading ICWA to demand this tragic result is inconsistent with Lexi's constitutional right to stability and permanence-- a right recognized by the California Supreme Court more than twenty years ago. All Rights Reserved. I'm scared. "There's no doubt in my mind that what happened . It means if youre a foster family and if you have an Indian child, you should be terrified that your child could be taken at any time, says Mark Fiddler, a Minnesota attorney who represented the adoptive parents in the Baby Veronica case. However, a court found that the Pages have not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. There is still considerable disagreement over the application of the law and whether it serves children's best interest, said Ralph Richard Banks, a professor at Stanford Law School. The tribe and parents or Indian custodian of the Indian child have an unqualified right to intervene in a case involving foster care placement or the termination of parental rights . A Santa Clarita family appealed to California's highest court to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home and sent to live with relatives in Utah. Foster care is a much-needed temporary service provided for children until the child can be returned to the care of his or her family. When the federal law was enacted, studies showed up to one-third of Native American children were being taken from their homes by private and state agencies, including church-run programs, and placed with mostly white families or in boarding schools. She was placed with extended family in Utah under a decades-old federal law designed to keep Native American families together. Our hearts are broken and we are trying to make sense of everything that has happened with our three other children who witnessed their sister Lexi forcefully ripped away from our family by strangers," the Page family said in a statement Monday night. The Pages' case to get Lexi back went all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear it. One of Lexis biological sisters, who is Choctaw, lives with the Utah family, and another lives nearby. The foster family understood this. Lawsuits claim it wrecked their teeth. The law has led to some emotional, high-profile cases, including one in 2016 in which a court ordered that a young Choctaw girl named Lexi be removed from a California foster family and placed with her father's extended family in Utah. Lexi can remain where she. She was reunited with her biological sister in the home but none of the family members are Native American. Wenona Singel, a law professor at Michigan State University, said membership requirements vary among tribes, with some being more restrictive than others. A foster home is supposed to be temporary, says Matthew Fletcher, director of the Indigenous Policy Law Center at Michigan State University. Lower courts found the Pages had not proven Lexi would suffer emotional harm by the transfer. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, Lexi and her extended family have had monthly visits and Skyped at least once a week prior to her relocation. However, Lexi also had extended family members who sought to adopt her once it was clear that a reunion with her birth father was not possible. / CBS/AP. The bottom line is that children subject to ICWA are second-class citizens, by law. The Pages were always aware of this goal. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower court's decision to remove the girl. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. Because Lexi is 1.5% Native American, the Choctaw Tribe was able to completely tear apart Lexis life due to an egregious misapplication of the Indian Child Welfare Act. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. The Pages' lawyer, Lori Alvino McGill, said she plans to take the case as far as the U.S. Supreme Court. Garland testifies before Senate panel amid ongoing special counsel probes, Colon cancer rates rising in younger age group, study finds, Top McCarthy aide, House Oversight chair each met with Ashli Babbitt's mother, What to know about Shigella bacteria as drug-resistant strain spreads, Closing arguments underway in double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, Ex-Georgia star Jalen Carter was racing in deadly crash, arrest warrants allege, Fiery train crash in Greece kills dozens, many of them students. The state Supreme Court declined to review the case, clearing the way for the family to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. An independent clinical psychologist was brought in to gauge her ability to transition from the foster home to her relatives. But a decision earlier this month ordered the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (LA DCFS) to place Lexi with the Utah family in accordance with the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, the department said in response to inquiries about Lexi's case. Congress did not intend ICWA's placement preferences to be used to remove a child from a loving home in these circumstances. When the grandmother died, Maldonado's mother was sent to live in Indiana with a Mennonite family who put bleach on her skin to lighten it, told her to say she was Armenian and kept her from communicating with her family, she said. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the case of a Santa Clarita family fighting to regain custody of a 6-year-old foster girl. The state denied their request after the Navajo Nation identified a potential home with a Navajo family in New Mexico. "She has a loving relationship with them," Heimov said. . In the meantime, our clients hope that the family in Utah will follow through on their promise to keep Lexi in contact with her family in Los Angeles. The case was decided in the California court system three separate times, with three different trial court judges ruling in favor of Lexi's relatives in Utah. ", The National Indian Child Welfare Association said in a statement that the Pages were aware for years that the girl was an American Indian but chose to "drag out litigation as long as possible, creating instability for the child. The Choctaw Nation issued a press release saying it was "pleased that this lengthy and unnecessary litigation has been brought to an end by the U.S. Supreme Court. "To Lexi this family is her everything . Track SoCal rain with LIVE Megadoppler 7000 HD. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The California court appointed a marriage and family therapist to perform a child custody evaluation to assess the mental health and parenting practices of both parties. Their attorney argued the lower court made an error by failing to take into account Lexi's bond with her foster parents and siblings. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. But this case shines a bright light on the ways in which the law in its current form is routinely being misinterpreted, with devastating consequences for families and children. This dental device was sold to fix patients' jaws. Her relatives said in a statement they hope the ruling brings closure and "Lexi is at last allowed to live a peaceful childhood in our home with her sister.". "It was important to halt that removal, to correct state behavior, to put in minimum standards," she said. The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the 1970s to reunite Native American families broken up at disproportionately high rates due to cultural ignorance and biases within the child welfare system. But placement with family is always our priority. ###. Here are the world's 25 best beaches and top 10 in the U.S. Elizabeth Holmes has second child, seeks to delay prison, remove a six-year-old girl with Native American ancestry from her foster family, asked the appeals court to reverse a lower court ruling. Family . They have maintained a relationship with her, visiting her in California, making regular SKYPE calls, and Lexi has also been on extended visits to Utah. Forrest Hanson For Dailymail.com By Posted ekologisk jord storsck In felskning parkeringssensor volvo. Interest in the case had been high, with outpourings of support for the couple from around the world. But officials determined that Lexi is 1/64th Choctaw based on his ancestry. Sleep is overrated. The child ultimately was placed with her maternal grandmother, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. LOS ANGELES -- A California family appealed Tuesday to the state's highest court in their fight to keep a 6-year-old foster child who was removed from their home after a lower court said her 1/64th Native American bloodline requires that she live with relatives. "How is it that a screaming child, saying, 'I want to stay, I'm scared,' how is it in her best interest to pull her from the girl she was before that doorbell rang?" After several trials and appeals, a judge ruled that Lexi should leave her foster family and be placed with distant relatives in Utah. Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, 6-year-old caught in tribal custody battle. "The Pages are obviously extremely disappointed with the court's decision, but they believe in our judicial system and remain hopeful that they will ultimately prevail," their attorney, Lori Alvino McGill, said in a statement. Rusty Page told KNX-AM radio. And applying ICWA to children who had no prior connection to any tribe raises grave equal protection concerns, as the US Supreme Court recognized in 2013, in Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The Pages said they had not spoken with Lexi since she was removed from their home and continue to asked her relatives in Utah to allow communication. McGill also requested that custody of the child named Lexi be returned to Rusty and Summer Page until the appeal is decided. Lexi cried and clutched a stuffed bear on Monday as Rusty Page carried her out of his home near Los Angeles and Los Angeles County social workers whisked her away in a waiting car. Group that started #KeepLexiHome is still outside praying/singing. Lexi was taken from the Page home on Monday afternoon, Armand Montiel, a public affairs director with LA DCFS, told NBC News. Alexa suffered injuries on her face. Many steps have been taken by the Choctaw Nation to ensure the best placement of Lexi. We appreciate the concern for Lexi and want to assure everyone she is in a safe, loving home with her relatives and her biological sisters. But thats not an absolute. The Pages have fought efforts under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act to place Lexi with relatives of her father, who is part Choctaw. After several trials and appeals, a judge ruled that Lexi should leave her foster family and be placed with distant relatives in Utah. Kastelic also said there was a misconception that Native American families were unfit or too poor to care for their children. Bipartisan Senate group unveils rail safety bill in response to Ohio derailment, U.S. officials clashed over asylum restriction before Biden proposed it, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot loses reelection bid, Transcript: CIA director William Burns on "Face the Nation," Feb. 26, 2023. The Utah family had never met Lexi at that time; and the tribe agreed there was good cause to depart from ICWA's placement preferences. The Brackeens got an emergency stay and went to court. "Rather the issue is whether the child is a citizen of the tribe in question or eligible for citizenship.". The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. She has a broken nose, a cheekbone and also a hole in her jaw. There is a healthy debate going on in this country about whether the Indian Child Welfare Act is on balance a good thing, or not, as a policy matter. "But nobody could possibly be more devastated than our 6-year-old daughter who found herself restrained in a car and driven away to go and live in a foreign place hundreds of miles from her family, friends, teachers, home and life," the statement said. "There's no doubt in my mind that what happened to Lexi should have never occurred," said Lauren Axline, a former foster care worked who handled Lexi's case in the past. The Removal Act that President Andrew Jackson pressed through Congress becomes a reality as the Choctaw are forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (which is now known as Oklahoma). Before enactment, as many as 25 to 35 percent of all Indian children were being removed from their Indian homes and placed in non-Indian homes, with presumably the absence of Indian culture. ", The Associated Press contributed to this report, Elizabeth Holmes has 2nd child as she tries to avoid prison, New Topgolf facility opens next to Montebello Golf Course, Man stopped at Pa. airport with explosive concealed in checked luggage. "Only because of the Indian Child Welfare Act, (and) people following it, he has a community," she said. At issue is the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a 1978 federal law meant to keep American Indian children within their tribe whenever possible. She said Lexi and the Utah family had traded messages and had monthly visits during the past three years. In a statement to TV Line in June 2012, Leigh revealed . What happened yesterday should never happen, to any child. ABC's Kayna Whitworth has the details from Los Angeles. Lexi is now living with relatives of her father who are not Native American. 19:37 GMT 09 Jan 2017 Please respect the privacy of Lexi and her family. What happened to Lexie Grey? The girl's sister is living with the couple, and another sister will be living down the street, said Leslie Heimov of the Children's Law Center of California, Lexi's court-appointed legal representatives. Fletcher contends the Pages lawyers are using Lexis case as a legal weapon to challenge ICWA. But other experts say that placing children with relatives is the goal of foster care and adoption, and even non-Indian kids are better off with relatives. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES, refused to intervene in their battle over Lexi. Under the transfer, Lexi will live with a Utah couple who are not Native Americans but are related by marriage to her father. The Librettis in Nevada arranged with a pregnant woman, Altagracia Hernandez, to adopt her unborn child. "They are not strangers in any way, shape or form. A California appeals court affirmed in July a lower courts decision to remove the girl. The states say the law is discriminatory, and the federal government has no right to tell states how to regulate child welfare cases. The girl with Native American ancestry was reunited with relatives in Utah under the federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted in the 1970s to help protect the interests of Native American children. Official Statement from Lori Alvino-McGill representing The Page Family's Legal Team. Theyre using this to attack tribal sovereignty, attack Indian people, and attack the Indian Child Welfare act, he says. ABC7 New York 24/7 Eyewitness News Stream. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs sought to clarify the term in 2016 by saying state courts shouldn't consider socio-economic status, or ordinary bonding or attachment to host families, among other things. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review the case of a Santa Clarita family fighting to regain custody of a 6-year-old foster girl. Lexi, who is 1.5 percent, or 1/64 Choctaw, was six years old when she was taken from her foster home near Los Angeles in a tearful parting last March. In the meantime, our clients hope that the family in Utah will follow through on their promise to keep Lexi in contact with her family in Los Angeles. They do not get the same best-interest-of-the-child standard that applies to all other children. The Pages also argued that ICWA singles out Native children for disparate treatment based on race, in violation of the 14th Amendments equal protection clause. Earlier this week I shared the story of a California family that risked losing their six-year-old foster daughter Lexi simply because the girl is 1/64 Choctaw. Dozens of cases involving foster families have gone to court around the country after the Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in the late 1970s. The Pages have three children and want to adopt Lexi, who was 17 months old when she was removed from the custody of her birth parents. The Removal Act affects Choctaw first. Maldonado and her husband have an adopted son from a neighboring tribe. We, as a tribe, are required to follow federal law. The Pros and Cons of Staying in a Business Hotel, The Ultimate Guide to Enjoying Crabs and Lobsters Delivered Right to Your Door, Golden Rule Quotes Meaning and Their Implementation. Lexi is now with her extended family and her biological sister in Utah. Dave Grohl Hauls Big BBQ Smoker to LA Shelter to Feed People Amid Storm, 5 Freeway Closed North of LA Due to Snow and Poor Visibility, Avalanche Blocks Road in Mount Baldy Area After Cold Storm Drops Several Feet of Snow, 2 Arrested in Stabbing Death of Father on Downtown LA Street, March 1983: The Day a Rare Tornado Rampaged Through Los Angeles. All Rights Reserved. The Choctaw Nation has advocated for Lexi to live with her family since 2011. The placement preferences are just that -- preferences-- and they apply only when a child is in need of a placement. 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