AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation releases the following statement in support of a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act:
 
“The federal Indian Child Welfare Act creates a separate and unjust set of rules for Native American children,” said Brandon Logan, director of the Center for Families & Children at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “Rather than looking to the best interests of the child in making decisions on foster care placement and adoption, federal law imposes an inferior, race-based standard on state courts. The standard set by this law can lead to racial segregation and injustice and deny Native American children the best opportunity to flourish.”  
 
The Texas Family Code provides that all cases of custody and adoption must focus on the best interest of the child. However, the Indian Child Welfare Act mandates different rules for custody and adoption cases involving children from federally recognized Native American tribes that could compel a placement that is directly against the best interest of the child.  

A non-Native American Texas married couple is at the center of Attorney General Paxton’s lawsuit. The family wants to adopt a two-year-old Native American child they have fostered since he was ten months old. The child’s biological parents and grandmother support the adoption. And the court-appointed, neutral guardian ad litem believes placement with the foster family is in the child’s best interest. But a state court believed ICWA required a different outcome solely because of the child’s race: to live with an unrelated Native American family with whom he had no previous connection.
 
View the lawsuit here: http://bit.ly/2i7B0Wz

For more information or to schedule an interview with Mr. Logan, please contact Alicia Pierce at [email protected] or 512-472-2700.

Brandon Logan is the director of the Center for Families & Children at Texas Public Policy Foundation.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin. The Texas Public Policy Foundation aims to advance a societal framework that effectively fosters human flourishing based upon cooperation and mutually beneficial exchange of ideas and speech.

Website: www.TexasPolicy.com
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation
Twitter: www.Twitter.com/TPPF
 

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