Waukesha Co. DHHS v. Teodoro E., 2008 WI App 16, District 2 (published)
Issue/Holding: Conditions imposed for non-termination of a deported parent’s children weren’t impossible, notwithstanding parent’s inability to return to country:
¶23 But as the circuit court noted, “Mexico is not prison” and Teodoro remained free to work on and meet many of the conditions of return. As an example, the first condition, “Show that you are interested in your child,” includes subparts that deportation should not have prevented Teodoro from meeting, such as “[t]alk to doctors, teachers, therapists and other people who care for your child to learn what your child needs … [and] [p]ay child support on a regular basis.” The trial court found that Teodoro did neither of these things, either in Mexico or earlier when he was in Waukesha; indeed, during the time that his wages were being garnished to pay child support, he sometimes asked for and received the money back from the children’s mother. We affirm the circuit court’s holding that the grounds for Teodoro’s termination were not based solely on impossible conditions and that Jodie W. therefore does not govern this case.
