## Facts

- John Doe (Father), a Mexican citizen, lived in Idaho, married Jane Doe (Mother), and later left the United States after immigration-related detention and voluntary departure to Mexico.
- Mother returned to Idaho, where their daughter (Daughter), a U.S. citizen, was born in 2008.
- In 2009, Daughter was taken into protective custody after a serious injury incident involving Mother’s household; the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) initiated child protection proceedings.
- Father, living in Mexico and unable to lawfully reenter the United States without a petition Mother did not file, maintained phone contact with DHW, asked to be involved, and sought custody if Mother did not regain it.
- At DHW’s direction, Father obtained a Mexican child-welfare home study through Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), which found Father fit and able to provide an appropriate home.
- The Mexican consulate sent the favorable DIF report to DHW shortly before the termination hearing, but DHW did not present it to the magistrate court.
- DHW petitioned to terminate parental rights, alleging Father abandoned Daughter by failing to support or maintain regular contact; after an initial judgment was set aside for improper service, a second trial again resulted in termination based on abandonment and best interests.
- Father appealed, challenging the abandonment and best-interests findings and asserting DHW failed to make reasonable reunification efforts, including consideration of placement with him in Mexico.

## Issues

1. Whether clear and convincing evidence supported a finding that Father abandoned Daughter by failing to maintain a normal parental relationship for the statutory period without just cause.
2. Whether termination was in Daughter’s best interests given the availability of placement with Father in Mexico.
3. Whether DHW made reasonable efforts toward reunification, including good-faith consideration of the DIF home study and international placement.

## Decision

- The Idaho Supreme Court reversed the termination decree as to Father and remanded.
- The court held the record did not support abandonment by clear and convincing evidence where Father’s physical absence resulted from immigration barriers and he made affirmative efforts to remain involved and pursue custody.
- The court determined DHW did not make reasonable reunification efforts when it disregarded and withheld the favorable DIF home study and failed to meaningfully evaluate placement with Father in Mexico.
- The court rejected reliance on Daughter’s foster-family bond as sufficient to terminate where the lack of a Father-child relationship was largely attributable to deportation-related separation and agency inaction.
- The magistrate court was instructed to order DHW to take all reasonable steps to promptly place Daughter with Father in Mexico consistent with child-welfare procedures and the home-study findings.

## Legal Principles

- Termination for abandonment requires clear and convincing proof that a parent failed to maintain a normal parental relationship for the statutory period without just cause.
- A parent’s inability to be physically present due to immigration constraints, standing alone, does not establish abandonment when the parent makes sustained efforts to remain involved and seek custody.
- The state’s reasonable-efforts obligation includes serious, timely evaluation of placement with a fit, willing parent, including cross-border placements supported by competent foreign child-welfare assessments.
- Best-interests analysis must consider reunification with a fit parent as a realistic alternative; a foster-placement bond is not dispositive when agency action or external barriers materially contributed to the parent-child separation.

## Conclusion

The Idaho Supreme Court reversed termination of Father’s parental rights because deportation-related separation and limited contact did not constitute abandonment without just cause, and because DHW failed to make reasonable reunification efforts by disregarding a favorable Mexican home study and not meaningfully pursuing placement with Father in Mexico.


Termination of the Parental Rights of John Doe, 153 Idaho 258, 281 P.3d 95 (Idaho 2012)