EMILY MACHADO - 3 yo (2008)/Custodial - Phoenix AZ

The average custody battle takes a toll on both parents and kids, but
one Arizona father went to extremes, fighting to get his little
5-year-old girl back from South America. 25-year-old Michael
Sanchez is one step closer to being reunited with his daughter in Brazil
-- but the legal fight is far from over.


Emily Machado was spirited out of the country in March 2008. She was taken by her non-custodial mother to Brazil. But just a few days ago, Interpol located the little girl and her mother in Sao Paolo, the biggest city in Brazil. Emily
was born in 2005. Michael Sanchez and Emily's mother Nijia dated all
through high school, but never married. For a couple years Emily lived
with her mom, and Michael tried to work out a parenting agreement so he
could see his daughter. But when custody was awarded to Michael, Nijia took off to Brazil with Emily. Her family lives there. Michael
has been working with police, the state department, and the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children. He waited for over two years
for word of Emily. Now, Michael wants to bring Emily back to
America because it's where she's from and where she belongs. But it will
be hard helping her adapt to her new life here. "It is hard, I
do not know if she knows who I am, she is heartbroken and distraught,
she does not know what is going on," he says. "I haven't seen her in
years. She will have a lot of questions." Michael says he wants Emily's mom to remain a part of her life. He's
done a lot of the legal work by himself, preparing and filing motion
after motion in this case. He is now planning to become a lawyer.

My name is Michael Sanchez, and on March 27, 2008, my daughter, Emily Machado was internationally abducted by her non-custodial mother and taken to her native Brazil. Prior to the abduction, I had taken the mother to court in Illinois to establish paternity and to secure the rights to my daughter.

In 2007, a parenting agreement was reached between Nigia, the mother, and myself. In the agreement, it had the normal agreement setting, visitation, child support, custody, et cetera. In part of the agreement, it stated: “Either parent can take the child for vacation but not outside the country without permission from the other parent and written notice and or an order from the courts.”
I did not given permission.

In 2008, Emily was abducted to Brazil. I reported Emily missing to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at such time, I went back to court. Sole custody was given to me. A civil warrant was issued against the mother and child support was stopped immediately. On Sept. 2, I received an e-mail from the State Department saying that Emily and the mother had been located in Brazil.

I filed for my daughter’s return under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction law. If you are interested in helping me get Emily back visit the website, www.Bringemilyhome.org, or call 480-319-5376.

We met in high school shortly after the sudden death of my mom before the abduction and Nigia became pregnant. We dated all through high school and graduated in 2004. I learned to grow up without a father of my own, since he banished me when I was a child.

There will be a “Walk to reunite father and daughter” Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to noon. The walk will start in the Copper Basin neighborhood at the Chevron station, which is located at 2474 E. Hunt Highway, San Tan Valley.

There is no cost of admission. People can bring signs to show support.

Michael Sanchez Reunited With Daughter Emily Machado After Years-Long International Custody Battle (VIDEO)

Updated: 8/18/11 02:25 PM ET


Three and a half years ago, Michael Sanchez went to visit his two-year-old daughter Emily at her mother Nigia Machado's apartment in Berwyn, Illinois. The couple had split, but they'd arranged a custody agreement where he could see Emily two days a week and every other weekend.

When he got to the apartment on that day in March of 2008, no one was home. Instead, according to NBC Chicago, he found a note from Nigia saying she'd fled, and taken Emily with her.

After he filed missing-persons reports, the State Department quickly found that Nigia had purchased a one-way ticket to her native Brazil.

"The letter explained how she felt threatened by the courts, and that she was afraid she was going to lose custody of Emily sooner rather than later," Michael wrote on his website, BringEmilyHome.org. "She was also angry that I knew she was not a legal U.S. citizen and scared that she was going to be deported."

International law says that if a child has been abducted in violation of a custody agreement in his or her home country, he or she must be returned to that country. But the Brazilian courts were slow to take action on the case, according to the East Valley Tribune. Sanchez -- who comes from a difficult background and struggles with mental impairment -- was forced to work two jobs to pay for the legal fees required in the protracted battle.

By the time the fourth year of the struggle began this summer, Sanchez started to despair. Courts had finally served Nigia Machado papers to return her daughter; she had refused to comply. He'd even been down to Brazil to try to find the girl, but her mother had refused to let him see her. "Sometimes it feels hopeless," he said in June, according to an ABC report.

But the story took a sudden turn on Wednesday evening. According to a new NBC Chicago report, Sanchez and his former partner reached an agreement, and he was reunited with his daughter.

"Thank you all for your well wishes and support," he wrote on BringEmilyHome.org. "I will keep you updated on Emily and I."

Few other details of the agreement are available. Meanwhile, Sanchez says he'll continue his advocacy on behalf of other parents in his position. He's pushing for a law that would allow airport security to check if a parent is taking a child out of the country in violation of a custody agreement, and prevent them from leaving if so.

Last year, according to a State Department report, around 2,000 children were kidnapped by a parent and taken out of the country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/michael-sanchez-reunited-_n_930293.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl7|sec1_lnk2|87573&ref=fb&src=sp

We received a request to remove this story from our forum, however the request was anonymous, and no details were given pertaining to the reason the request was made.

The requester simply stated this story was not entirely truthful, and asked that we removed the child's name from the forum.

If the person who made the request would contact me through the link on my profile, I'd be happy to discuss the matter further.

Before removing stories, we need to verify that the requester is in fact who they say they are, and that the child in question is SAFE.

Because of the now highly suspect link between the NCMEC and convicted child sex trafficker, Laura Silsby, we must perform extreme due diligence in removing names from this website.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-25/clinton-silsby-trafficking-scandal-and-how-media-attempted-ignorecover-it