Change on transporting Haitian orphans dispirits Utahns

Plans to bring a large number of Haitian orphans to the United States to unite them with their intended adoptive parents changed dramatically Tuesday when the U.S. government said it could not find a good staging area from which to evacuate them en masse, according to a Salt Lake attorney working on the issue.

Greg Constantino, who has been working with the Maison Des Enfantes De Dieu to bring out orphans already matched to American families, said the new plan calls for volunteers to stand in line and apply case by case for visas at the American Embassy in Port-au-Prince. He said he's hoping they can apply for 10 at a time, starting with the sickest children, but he has no idea how long the process will take..

Monday, the State Department said it would provide "humanitarian parole" to children who were already through the adoption process and awaiting visas or those who had been previously deemed available for international adoption and matched with American families.

Constantino sounded beat Tuesday when he told the Deseret News about the change of heart. His wife, Dr. Tawnya Constantino, a neurologist at Intermountain Medical Center, has been camped out at the Port-au-Prince airport waiting to start making arrangements to transport the children. She's the orphanage's medical director.

Children from one orphanage, BRESMA, were evacuated Tuesday after the governor of Pennsylvania helped get them transported to Pittsburgh before the rules changed yet again.

—Lois M. Collins