Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) joined U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and a bipartisan group of 14 Senators and 35 House members in writing to the Obama Administration asking for greater collaboration between the federal agencies in an effort to evacuate the 600 to 700 orphans who have been granted humanitarian parole.

In a letter to Secretary of State (DOS) Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Janet Napolitano and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Designate Rajiv Shah, these members of Congress stressed the need for a plan to swiftly evacuate orphans safely to their adoptive U.S. families.

In the letter, the senators requested that the State Department, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Agency on International Development develop a plan “to directly ensure that ALL of the 600-700 orphans affected by Monday's announcement of humanitarian parole are safely and efficiently evacuated within the next ten days.”

Following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, Senator Klobuchar has been has been working to help Minnesota families with pending adoptions.  Yesterday, she gave a speech on the Senate floor pushing for adopted Haitian children to be quickly and safely brought home to their families in the United States.  In her remarks, Klobuchar highlighted the experiences of families from Roseville, Blaine, and St. Cloud Minnesota, who are in the process of adopting children from Haiti.

On Jan. 18, 2010, the Department of Homeland Security announced that it would extend humanitarian parole to those Haitian orphans with established adoptive relationships with U.S. adoptive families so that these orphans could travel immediately to the United States.

“Understandably, families are anxious to bring their children to the United States where they can personally assure their safety,” said Kathleen Strottman, Executive Director of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI). “If they are not given the benefit of a clear U.S. government led plan to do that, then they will come up with one of their own. Given the situation on ground, it is in no one’s best interest for 350 or so American families to be planning individual rescue missions.”

In addition to Sen. Klobuchar and Sen. Landrieu, the letter was co-signed by Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Robert Casey Jr. (D-Penn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Ensign (R-Nev.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), and Mark Udall (D-Colo.).