The Profit Machine

The Financial Architecture of Legalized Child Trafficking

The adoption and foster care system in the United States, and particularly in California, is not a charitable enterprise. It is a multibillion-dollar industry sustained by direct fees, federal incentives, and ongoing subsidies that reward the permanent severance of families. Children are converted into revenue-generating assets, priced according to demographic variables, and transferred for profit. This is human trafficking institutionalized through legislation and state administration.

The financial mechanisms are explicit and documented:

• Private Agency Fees Domestic infant placements command $35,000 to $80,000 per child, with California agencies routinely charging $50,000 on average. International placements range from $40,000 to $80,000. These fees are paid by prospective adoptive parents to agencies, attorneys, and facilitators—entities that market children through profiles emphasizing age, race, and “level of openness.”
• Federal Adoption Incentive Payments Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, states receive $4,000 to $10,000 or more per finalized adoption exceeding a baseline, with escalated amounts for children designated “special needs.” California collects $10 million to $30 million annually in these direct federal payments, rewarding counties for terminating parental rights rather than supporting family preservation.
• Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) Subsidies Once adopted, children labeled “special needs”—a category that includes older age, minority race, or sibling groups—qualify adoptive parents for monthly payments of up to $2,500 until age 18 or 21. This equates to over $500,000 in lifetime subsidies per child, funded by state and federal taxpayers. The designation ensures long-term revenue for adoptive placements while agencies collect upfront fees.
• Group Homes and Foster Care Per Diems Private contractors operating group homes receive $300 to $1,000 or more per day per child. Prolonged placement increases revenue prior to adoption, creating a disincentive for reunification.
• Overall Scale in California The state generates $500 million to $800 million annually through combined private fees, federal bonuses, and subsidies. Nationally, the industry exceeds $20 billion when including related services such as crisis pregnancy center funding, marketing, and legal facilitation.

These funds flow from the severance of original families—often poor, marginalized, or immigrant—to agencies, contractors, and adoptive parents. Poverty is reclassified as neglect to justify removal; trauma is monetized through subsidies. Demographic pricing is embedded: Caucasian infants command the highest fees, while children of color are discounted upfront but generate extended subsidy streams.

This is not philanthropy. It is a structured market in human beings, where financial incentives align against family preservation and in favor of permanent transfer.

Adoptees and foster care alumni have been the commodities in this machine. We have endured the trauma it inflicts while others profited from our severance.

The profit motive must be eradicated. All financial incentives for adoption must be abolished. Subsidies tied to severance must end. The industry that treats children as assets must be dismantled in its entirety.

Adoptees stand united in this demand. The evidence of profiteering is irrefutable. Accountability will follow.

Addendum: Detailed Elaboration on Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) Incentives

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA), enacted under President Bill Clinton, represents one of the most explicit federal mechanisms for incentivizing the permanent severance of families in the United States. Far from prioritizing child safety or family preservation, ASFA established financial rewards for states that increase adoption numbers, transforming children—particularly those from impoverished or marginalized families—into sources of federal revenue.

The incentives operate as follows:

• Adoption Incentive Payments The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards states bonus payments for every adoption that exceeds a baseline established in prior years. The base award is $4,000 per child for general adoptions. This increases to $6,000–$8,000 for children aged 9 and older, and $10,000 or more for children classified as having “special needs.” The “special needs” designation is broadly applied and includes older children, sibling groups, and children of minority racial or ethnic backgrounds—ensuring that a significant portion of foster children qualify for elevated bonuses.
• Annual Funding Scale States such as California, with large foster populations, routinely receive $10 million to $30 million annually in these payments. The total federal outlay for adoption incentives has exceeded $500 million since the program’s inception, with funds distributed based solely on adoption finalizations, not reunifications or kinship placements.
• Timelines Designed for Termination ASFA mandates that states initiate termination of parental rights proceedings when a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months. Exceptions are limited and rarely applied in practice. This rigid structure punishes families facing poverty, housing instability, or treatable mental health challenges—conditions that cannot always be resolved within arbitrary deadlines. The result is predictable: parental rights are terminated, creating “legal orphans” eligible for adoption and triggering incentive payments.
• Disincentive for Family Preservation No equivalent federal bonuses exist for successful reunifications or kinship care placements. Reunification receives base Title IV-E funding, but exceeding adoption targets yields additional rewards. This misalignment ensures that state and county agencies prioritize termination and adoption over support services, kinship searches, or preventive measures.
• Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities The incentives disproportionately affect Black, Native American, and Latino families, who are overrepresented in child removal statistics. Children from these communities are more likely to linger in care long enough to meet ASFA timelines, qualify as “special needs,” and generate higher bonuses upon adoption.

ASFA did not reform a flawed system; it monetized family destruction. It accelerated the conversion of vulnerable children into adoption subsidies while providing no financial reward for keeping families intact. The legacy is clear: higher adoption rates, lower reunification rates, and billions in federal funds distributed to states for severing parental rights.

This federal policy is the engine driving much of the domestic child trafficking we expose. It must be repealed in its entirety. Financial rewards for adoption must cease. Resources must be redirected to family preservation, kinship care, and community support.

Adoptees and foster care alumni have lived the consequences of these incentives. We demand their immediate abolition.

ASFA’s Impact on Reunification Rates

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 was enacted to accelerate permanency for children in foster care by establishing rigid timelines and financial incentives favoring adoption over extended reunification efforts. While it achieved a documented increase in adoptions—from approximately 38,000 in 1998 to over 66,000 in 2019—the evidence demonstrates a corresponding decline in reunification rates and a slowdown in the pace of reunifications.

Federal data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) reveal the following trends:

• Pre-ASFA (1990s): Reunification accounted for a higher proportion of foster care exits, peaking around 60% in 1998. Longitudinal analyses of cohorts from 1990–1997 indicate reunification was the predominant outcome for children exiting care within shorter timeframes.
• Post-ASFA: Reunification rates have steadily declined. By FY 2023, only 44% of children exiting foster care were reunified with their families—the lowest proportion in decades and below 50% for the first time in recent reporting. In FY 2024 estimates, reunification hovered around 45–46%.

Multiple independent evaluations confirm ASFA’s causal role in this shift:

• Early post-ASFA analyses (e.g., Chapin Hall Center for Children, 2002) found that while adoption probabilities increased, the time to reunification slowed significantly, with the likelihood of reunification declining as adoption incentives took effect.
• A 2023 systematic review of 20 studies (1998–2023) concluded mixed outcomes: foster care populations declined and adoptions rose, but reunification rates slowed, termination of parental rights (TPR) increased, and overall child safety improvements remained inconclusive.
• PolicyLab’s 2023 evaluation noted a 25% relative increase in adoptions by 2003, but explicitly stated that reunification rates slowed under ASFA’s framework.

The mechanism is clear: ASFA’s 15/22-month timeline mandates initiation of TPR proceedings, creating pressure to terminate rights rather than extend support for family preservation. No equivalent federal incentives exist for reunification, resulting in a structural bias toward adoption. This disproportionately affects marginalized families, where poverty-related issues cannot be resolved within arbitrary deadlines, leading to permanent severance.

Adoptees and foster care alumni have endured the direct consequences: higher rates of trauma from unnecessary family destruction, identity erasure through sealed records, and the knowledge that federal policy monetized our severance. ASFA did not protect children—it institutionalized the prioritization of adoption markets over kinship and original families.

This evidence demands repeal of ASFA’s incentive structure and timelines. Resources must redirect toward genuine family preservation, kinship care, and support services—never financial rewards for termination.

Adoptees stand united. The government’s legacy of profiting from family destruction ends with accountability.

Adoptees stand united. The financial commodification of children ends now.

#RepealASFA #EndAdoptionIncentives #UnsealCalifornia

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