Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Parental Right Reliquishment - anchor baby question
Several years ago, my husband and I separated. During our separation, he met a woman who turned out to be an illegal alien looking for a way to stay in this country legally. She got his address, went to the house where he was living, and had sex with him in the driveway. He heard from her a couple of time after that and then didn't hear from her again until I received a letter from DCSE in the mail 9 months later asking him to come in for a paternity test. He turned out to be the father, and the woman started using free legal aid to take him to court, eventually trying to get the child's last name changed to my husband's to give the appearance that the child was conceived from a real relationship.
We had reconciled by this point, and I finally wrote a letter to our Congress person (who coincidentally was serving on a subcommitted regarding ''anchor babies''), which was read to the judge in court for the name change. Needless to say, it was not granted; however, my husband received yet another letter from DCSE several weeks ago that refers to the child with his last name! He has never met this child and has no desire to ever have any contact. Can he voluntarily relinquish his parental rights given the circumstances?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Parental Right Reliquishment - anchor baby question
If the Division of Child Support Enforcement(DCSE) is now pursuing your husband for the establishment of a child support obligation, it's probably high time that he retain the services of an attorney to represent him in this matter. And, no, unless there is a person willing to adopt this child and to take on the fatherly obligations which your husband would now apparently like to relinquish(assuming that there are such), it's unlikely that any court would agree to the termination of your husband's parental rights with respect to this child(allegedly conceived in a driveway).
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