American Newborn’s Stuck in Iraqi Red Tape
Would you go to a war torn country when you were six months pregnant? What if your eighty-six-year-old mother-in-law was there and in ill health?
Grace Alshemmari had never left the United States before, but when her husband, an Iraqi refugee, wanted to visit his ailing mother, she said OK. She’d be home, she thought, in time to deliver her little boy back in the good old US of A.
Except she wasn’t. At thirty-five weeks pregnant, Grace Alshemmari was told she couldn’t get on an Iraqi Airways jet to fly back to the United States. She was stuck in Iraq for the rest of her pregnancy. In May 2008, she gave birth via C-section in an Iraqi hospital to baby Amir, a week late.
Now Grace is home in Indiana, and her son’s stuck in Iraq. She’s been told the only way to get the baby out of the country is by visiting the US embassy in Baghdad, but her husband’s family has warned that it’s much too dangerous for an American citizen in Baghdad right now. She’d be putting herself – and the baby – in mortal danger. The family made attempts to file the necessary paperwork in another Iraqi city and at an embassy in Jordan, but again they were pointed to Baghdad.
So Grace came home in September, hoping she could reach out to the American government from within the borders rather than across the globe. She’s been told the State Department can’t help her – she has to follow procedures that were set in place to ward against “baby smuggling.” They want to verify the baby is truly a U.S. citizen before they let her bring Amir home. 
I’m still not sure I’d get on a plane and fly to a war-torn country when I was six months pregnant – sick mother-in-law or no sick mother-in-law. But for family, it’s hard to say what you will and won’t do until you’re there. Can you really blame her for supporting her husband in his time of need?
As for the baby smuggling – what ever happened to checking with the Iraqi hospital? If they confirm this woman gave birth, do they really think she’s going to sneak someone else’s baby into the country and leave her own stranded in Iraq? Or here’s a crazy thought – how about State Department officials work FOR an American citizen instead of against one? They have the means to travel within the country with military protection. How about they travel to the Alshemmari’s family’s home in Najaf, where the baby is currently living, and confirm his existence and his resemblance to his mother. If they so wish, they can pluck a few hairs and send them off for DNA testing to confirm this baby is REALLY the child of an American citizen.
A part of me can’t help but wonder, is Grace, the American citizen, being penalized for being married to an Iraqi?
Image: Yahoo (1 – Grace and Amir. 2. Grace and Raad Alshemmari’s elder child, Karina, holds a picture of baby brother Amir)
Related Posts:
The husband is with the wife and 8 yr. old daughter in the US. Apparently, they tried to get the necessary paperwork in Iraq, but were unable to do so without bringing the baby with them. According to the article, they came back to the US (leaving the baby with his aunt) to try to get help here. I don’t think it’s too dangerous for her to go to Iraq, but rather they (the couple) think it’s too dangerous to take the baby to the US Embassy in Baghdad.
where’s the husband? thats what I want to know. Is he in Iraq with the baby, or home with the wife, or what? It all sounds a little weird to me – and it does sound a bit “not without my daughter” ish. What husband would ask his wife to risk the health of herself and their unborn child by travelling to a country in the midst of a war when she was 6 months pregnant?? And then, once she’s back in the States – and not pregnant, mind you – suggest that it’s “too dangerous” for her to go back to Iraq? It’s all very bizarre. It’s not as though the security situation has deteriorated in the last year – as a matter of fact, it’s improved.
I don’t understand why she came home and left her baby there. I would have started calling congress and the embassy and anyone I could think of to get that baby on the plane with me. (I probably would have lied about how pregnant I was to get on the first plane too or bought another ticket).
Wow Alex, you are kind of ignorant. Saudi Arabia is the only Muslim country that has those citizenship issues. You have been watching Not Without My Daughter a bit much. Despite what many people think, Iraq was actually a secular country under Saddam Hussein, and now with the US Army there, I highly doubt the current goverment would even think to make those type of laws that greatly infringe on the rights of all Saudi Arabians male and female.
She should go to Baghdad to the American Embassy, she should take the chance… whe shouldn’t wait longer to recover her baby.
I think if you marry somebody from a Muslim country, you should be aware that as a woman you have almost not rights in those countries.. and will be probably mistreated in many different ways.
That is so horribly sad. I do not understand how the government cannot varify that this child belong’s to her. I am sure they can easily do a DNA test if need be.
I am going to be laving New York to give birth in Sweden in June (my husband’s home country). I just hope that I do not have these type of problems.