Silsby section of article:

The international adoption debate played out on the world stage in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, which killed 200,000, when a group of U.S. Christian missionaries were accused of kidnapping "orphans." Laura Silsby led a group of 10 missionaries from Idaho that was stopped at the Dominican Republic border as they tried to cross the border with 33 children without proper legal documentation. Silsby originally claimed the children were orphaned or abandoned, but the Haitian government and the orphans' charity SOS Children later found that all had at least one living parent.

Laura Silsby, the head of New Life Children's Refuge, arrived for a Port-au-Prince court hearing in February 2010 in Haiti. Charges against all but Silsby were dropped; Silsby was jailed for four months before being tried on charges of arranging illegal travel by a Haitian court and released on time served. Some parents told CNN they placed their children in Silsby's care because that was the only way they knew to ensure a better quality of life for them.

Silsby's group, New Life Children's Refuge, said it was going to house the children in a converted hotel in the Dominican Republic and later move them to an orphanage. According to the itinerary of Silsby's mission, part of the group's plan, in addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, was for the planned orphanage to "equip each child with a solid education and vocational skills as well as opportunities for adoption into a loving Christian family."

While the incident -- which some labeled "kidnapping for Jesus" -- painted a dark picture of good intentions for international adoption advocates, the Haiti earthquake also offered a victory when in April 2010, the Obama administration granted "humanitarian parole" to speed up U.S. adoptions of Haitian children already in progress.

By August of that year, some 1,500 Haitian orphans joined U.S. families.