WASHINGTON, DC - During an emotional hearing regarding the tragic problem of parental child abductions around the world, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today vowed to use the full force of his committee to strengthen the United State's ability to bring these children home and prevent future abductions.Each year over 1,000 children are abducted from American homes and taken to a foreign country. Too often, they are permanently out of reach of U.S. law and are never returned.

New Jersey resident David Goldman, whose son was abducted by his former spouse and taken to Brazil, testified at the hearing about the importance of providing the Department of State and the White House "with the tools they need to return our abducted children."

Menendez also met Bindu Phillips, another New Jersey resident who lost her twin sons Albert Philip Jacob and Alfred William Jacob when their father took the family to India on an impromptu vacation and kept them there against the mother's wishes.Click here to download Phillips' testimony.

He pledged to work in a bi-partisan fashion to swiftly consider legislation to prevent there from being any safe havens anywhere in the world for those who abduct children and how we can better assist parents in bringing abducted children home where they legally and rightfully belong.

Watch the full hearing

  • Panel One with Special Advisor Susan Jacobs begins at 29:50
  • Panel Two with Ernie Allen, David Goldman, Patrick Braden & Noelle Hunter beginsat 1:06:30

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