Child services bungle background check

background check, which led to three children being removed from their home. CPS workers in Houston placed the children in the care of Gabriel Gonzalez, a U.S.-born citizen who has never been arrested, as their mother (Gonzalez’s sister-in-law), was recovering from a drug habit. A background check determined that Gonzalez was an illegal immigrant with an arrest record and an outstanding arrest warrant out of California. “They were saying that (I was) an illegal immigrant, and I got felony charges and drug charges and stuff on there, so I took it upon myself to go look and see what I can do to prove them wrong,” said Gonzalez. “I was very angry, very angry. Very upset and hurt.” Gonzalez and his wife did their best to tell CPS that their check was wrong, but caseworkers didn’t want to hear it. They then walked into police stations in the hope of proving his innocence, but were informed there was nothing the individual stations could do. Finally, Gonzalez went to the FBI Headquarters in Houston to prove his innocence. They performed a correct background check, and it was clean. CPS still refused to admit they had made a mistake, regardless of the proof offered by the FBI and the Gonzalez family’s insistence that they had the wrong man. Eventually they agreed there had been a complication in the background screening, yet the children remain separated. CPS claim that there are “other safety concerns” – primarily words that were uttered as Gabriel and Alicia Gonzalez were trying to convince caseworkers that they had made a huge mistake, that the family may threaten to hide the children anytime they disagree with caseworkers. Such a news stories emphasizes the importance of getting background checks right – as a mistake can be catastrophic. In this case it was an adult who was the victim, but in other cases it could be the children.]]>