Kentucky foster child at center of international custody dispute

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — A high-stakes international custody battle involving a Kentucky foster toddler known as "Baby T" is drawing legal scrutiny and raising questions about cross-border jurisdictional limits.

Caleb Yeske, who cared for the girl as a foster father for more than a year after she entered his care at one month old, has raised alarms over the child's safety following her return to her biological mother in Guatemala.

The case centers on a series of legal actions that began after the child's biological mother in Louisville—who had faced an attempted murder charge involving the child and later pleaded guilty to second-degree wanton endangerment—was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and deported to Guatemala.

He says despite concerns raised by Kentucky foster care officials, a Jefferson County family court judge ordered the child reunited with her mother.

"If the goal of foster care and the expectation is that the child's safety and well-being comes first, how, how was any of this with the child's best interest in mind?," Yeske told LEX NEWS in an interview.

Yeske later traveled to Guatemala to check on the toddler, stating that local child protection authorities eventually removed her from his care on Oct. 30 amid concerns over her health, living conditions, and nutrition.

"That's the very difficult part of this is that when they did take the child, we knew that we were concerned about her health. She was covered in, essentially, flea bites all over her body," said Yeske.

Advocates and attorneys are now pressing for transparency, pointing to complex legal questions regarding how state family courts and child welfare systems handle cases where children are relocated across international borders outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts.

Despite the international gap and heartache, Yeske says he hopes to one day reunite with Baby T.

"The biological mother had never even met the child since she gave birth to her, and so she had no idea who this baby was or how to care for her, and we continue to, the main reason that we're concerned right now is for the child's safety and well-being."

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