On 5 February , ten Baptist missionaries from Idaho led by Laura Silsby was charged with criminal association and kidnapping for trying to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti . The missionaries claimed they was rescuing orphaned children but investigations revealed that more than 20 of the children had been taken from their parents after they was told the children would have a better life in America . In an interview , the United States Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten , stated that the US justice system would not interfere and that " the Haitian justice system will do what it have to do . " By 9 March 2010 , all but Silsby was deported and she remained incarcerated .