Foreign governments are brazenly ignoring American parents’ rights to their own children.
The problem continues despite President Trump’s return to office.
And the State Department just revealed three countries failing American parents in a shocking child abduction report.
Foreign courts leaving American parents in the cold
The State Department dropped its 2025 Annual Report on International Child Abduction last week, and it’s bad news for dozens of heartbroken moms and dads fighting to get their kids back from overseas.
The report named and shamed three countries as flat-out “noncompliant” with the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act – Ecuador, Honduras, and India.
These countries are giving American parents the runaround after their children were snatched across borders by ex-spouses or relatives.
Ecuador topped the list of offenders. Their courts just won’t enforce return orders, leaving desperate parents hanging while a whopping 75% of abduction cases from 2024 are still unresolved after a full year.
“Judicial authorities continued to demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance. . . as courts regularly failed to implement and comply with return orders,” the State Department wrote.
American parents living a nightmare
The numbers tell a gut-wrenching story: 140 children taken, nearly half still stuck overseas, and 38 families who’ve been fighting for over a year with nothing to show for it.
Each case represents a mom or dad who’s missing birthdays, first days of school, and bedtime stories while bureaucrats shuffle papers.
“The pain and trauma experienced by children and left-behind parents are immeasurable,” the report admitted, in what might be the understatement of the year.
India got hammered especially hard in the report. They flat-out refuse to sign the Hague Abduction Convention – that’s the agreement that’s supposed to get kids back home quickly when they’re taken across borders.
“India demonstrated a pattern of noncompliance due to its failure to resolve abduction cases in a timely manner and lack of engagement on Convention accession,” the report blasted.
Winning in court means zilch in these countries
Here’s the real kick in the teeth – even when American parents win their cases, these countries still don’t send the kids home.
“A return order does not guarantee a child’s return. . . enforcement continues to be one of the biggest obstacles,” the report confessed.
So you can fight for years, drain your savings on legal fees, finally get a judge to agree with you. . . and then watch as absolutely nothing happens. That’s the nightmare these parents are living.
The State Department brags it “engaged in over 300 diplomatic meetings with foreign officials regarding unresolved abduction cases.” Three hundred meetings! And yet half the kids are still gone. Makes you wonder what they’re actually saying in these meetings, doesn’t it?
Some improvements amid the failures
The report wasn’t entirely negative. Japan and Romania, previously cited for problems, showed improved handling of child abduction cases.
“The government of Japan has shown increased responsiveness and collaboration, resolving most new cases within the calendar year,” according to State Department officials.
Romania similarly demonstrated “a strong willingness to collaborate, and resolution timelines improved compared to previous years.”
But for the dozens of American parents still waiting for their children to come home from Ecuador, Honduras, India, and other problematic countries, these improvements offer little comfort.
The report makes clear that despite international agreements, diplomatic pressure, and legal battles, American children continue to remain trapped overseas while their parents fight a seemingly endless battle to bring them home.
With President Trump’s renewed focus on putting America First in foreign policy, many parents hope that stronger actions will follow to pressure these noncompliant nations.
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