Is This What Has Become of America? Texas Citizens Have 3 Children Seized at Airport for Wanting to Visit Dying Mother
Tammi Stefano, host of The National Safe Child Show, is joined by Kathy and Ahmed Giwa, a couple who have received national media attention recently. Kathy Giwa has a Ph.D. and is working on her second Ph.D. She is a Texas certified special education teacher, Texas certified principal and also a CPS approved daycare director. Her husband, Ahmed, holds a Masters in Computer Science and also an MBA. Ahmed works for energy companies in Houston, Texas, where they live. The Giwas are dual citizens of the U.S. and Nigeria. Their children were seized by Texas Rangers at the Dallas airport in November, after Customs and Border Control officers and local police reportedly refused to arrest them due to lack of evidence. Child Protection Services (CPS) was the one recommending the arrest. Ali Giwa, the youngest child, was medically kidnapped on April 14, 2015, by Harris County CPS – a county the family doesn’t even live in – on allegations of “failure to thrive.” Though Ali has some developmental delays, CPS never mentioned to the judge that he is in the 75th percentile with his height and weight. He was returned home on July 29, but the case remained open. The U.S. Marshal at the Dallas airport allegedly had a private meeting behind closed doors with CPS, and acting on orders from CPS arrested the parents. They were at their gate, ready to board their plane with their car parked in the airport parking garage as they were clearly expecting to come back shortly to their home and jobs in Houston. They were hoping to get to say goodbye to their grandmother on her deathbed in Nigeria (Ahmed's mother) to fulfill her dying wish. Without a trial or any charges pressed against the parents, the Giwa family was torn apart when their three young children we removed from their custody at the airport just before Thanksgiving and Christmas. They have not seen their young children for over a month. They recently told their story to Tammi Stefano on The National Safe Child Show.