Indiana couple's adopted children trapped in Haiti: 'Very stressful'
John Tennant and his wife Missy joined 'America's Newsroom' to discuss their plea for their kids' safe arrival in the United States as the nation faces a surge of violent unrest.
An Indiana couple slammed the State Department's "absurd" handling of the crisis in Haiti, issuing a desperate plea for their adopted children to safely flee the embattled country and arrive home in the United States.
John Tennant and his wife Missy, who have two adopted sons in Haiti, said they have not spoken to their kids in more than one week and have no way of regularly communicating with them. They joined "America's Newsroom" to discuss the State Department's handling of the situation.
"They [State Department] are supposed to meet with the adoption agencies tomorrow. Most of these children are already legally adopted, and our children are legally adopted, and what the State Department is currently asking for is absurd when Haiti's on the verge of collapse," Missy told Dana Perino on Monday.
"What the State Department needs to do is waive visas," she continued. "They need to waive Haitian passports and ask the Haitian government to do so, and the Haitian government will take the lead from our State Department on this. The planes are coming to rescue some Americans, but they're not rescuing our legally adopted children."
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The Tennants started the process to adopt the two boys, who are now 15 and 13 years old, in 2019 after several visits to the country, according to WRTV. They told the outlet the process was completed in March of 2023.
John said Monday that they have been trying for a year to get the State Department's help in relocating the boys to Indiana.
"We have tried several times, actually, for the last year," John said. "Plus, we have tried to make contact with them and asked for these because this wasn't something… [that] just suddenly happened and we didn't see it coming. We've seen it coming for a long time."
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The U.S. State Department confirmed Sunday that more than 30 American citizens landed safely in Miami, Florida, after being evacuated from Haiti amid ongoing gang violence in the country.
The passengers were flown on a government-chartered flight, which arrived at the Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon after the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged U.S. citizens earlier this month to leave Haiti "as soon as possible" as chaos continues to unfold.
While the State Department said more than 30 American citizens were evacuated on the charter flight, a U.S. official told Fox News earlier on Sunday the more precise number was 47.
"It's very stressful just knowing they're there. They're hearing the gun fire," John said. "They're hiding underneath their beds because they don't understand. They don't know what's going on… if they can get hit. So they're scared and… trapped here. You can't… just comfort them, so it's very stressful."
"This is why we're reaching out to everyone we can to try to help us and help the other families get their kids home," he continued.
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The State Department said it is aware of at least several hundred more U.S. citizens who remain stuck in Haiti.
Fox News' Landon Mion, Bradford Betz, Bryan Llenas and Gillian Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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