'God wanted us to come here to help children, we are convinced of that,' Laura Silsby, one of 10 Americans accused of trafficking Haitian children, said Monday through the bars of a jail cell here. 'Our hearts were in the right place.' Whatever their intentions, the Americans who were detained at the Dominican border with 33 children struck a deep emotional chord in this earthquake-damaged country. Even as Haiti's crippled government asserted itself in the name of defending the nation's children, officials made it clear that more was at stake. In the wake of the worst natural disaster in Haiti's history, authorities have opened the country to a flood of international assistance, some of it coming uncomfortably close to infringing on national sovereignty. The 10 Americans, authorities said, crossed the line. Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive angrily denounced the Americans as 'kidnappers' who 'knew what they were doing was wrong.' Justice Minister Paul Denis said, 'We may be weakened, but without laws the Haitian state would cease to exist.' And the chief of the National Judicial Police, Frantz Thermilus, said, 'What surprises me is that these people would never do something like this in their own country. We must make clear they cannot do such things in ours.' The Americans, Baptists affiliated with a church in Meridian, Idaho, said they were trying to rescue orphans from the earthquake and take them to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. But even that noble intent began to fall apart under scrutiny on Monday as questions were raised about whether the children were indeed orphans. Silsby said that a Haitian pastor in Port-au-Prince, Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries, had brought them the children, whose ages ranged from 2 months to 12 years. While she acknowledged that the group not have documentation that the children were orphans or permission to remove them from the country, she told reporters on Saturday, after they had been arrested, that they had planned to return to the capital to complete the paperwork. On Monday, Silsby said that in the midst of the crisis they did not think they needed the documents. She said the group did not intend to offer the children for adoption. 'We intended to raise those children and be with them their entire lives, if necessary,' she said. Wearing pedal pushers, sandals and a top printed with palm trees, she recalled the rambunctious twin boys and the two skinny sisters placed in her care. 'These kind of children are sold across the border for the price of a chicken,' she said. 'We wanted to give them lives of joy and dignity in God's love.' But SOS Children's Villages, an Austrian organization that runs the orphanage where the children have been temporarily placed, said at least one of the children, an 8-year-old girl, told workers, 'I am not an orphan,' according to the group's Web site. The girl said she thought her mother had arranged a short vacation for her. In an earlier posting, SOS said that the children were destined for adoption and that a group associated with the Baptists, New Life Children's Refuge, advertised adoptions for Americans. But Silsby, 40, said that New Life Children's Refuge had paid no money for the children. Fearful of the possibility that unscrupulous traffickers would take advantage of Haiti's sundered justice system to take children from poor families for adoptions, prostitution or worse -- organ donations and slavery have been mentioned -- the government had halted all adoptions except those already in motion before the earthquake. Bellerive's signature is now required for the departure of any child. For the government, the arrests were an opportunity to send a message, and the official reaction was outrage. 'If people want to help children of Haiti,' said Marie-Laurence Jocelin Lassegue, a government spokeswoman, 'This is not the way to do it.' 'There can be no questions about taking our children off the streets,' she added. 'It is wrong. And those who do so will be judged.' Although much of the country's judicial and law enforcement structures, including the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court and numerous police stations, lie in ruins, Haitian officials said they were exploring options for trying the Americans in Haiti. Several officials acknowledged that if there is to be any trial at all, it would likely be in the United States. Bellerive said the Americans could face serious charges, although none have been filed yet. In Washington, the State Department said the embassy had been granted unlimited access to the Americans, but where they may be prosecuted and on what charges was up to Haiti. 'It's their country,' Philip J. Crowley, a department spokesman, said. 'The judgment is really up to the Haitian government.' The Americans were affiliated with two Idaho churches, Central Valley Baptist in Meridian and East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls. Silsby said her group also included members from Texas and Kansas. The Haitian trip appeared to be an outreach effort of a group organized by Silsby, 40, and Charisa Coulter, 24, her children's live-in nanny, who was also among those jailed in Port-au-Prince. The group, New Life Children's Refuge, is described on the Web site of East Side Baptist Church as a 'nonprofit Christian ministry dedicated to rescuing loving and caring for orphaned, abandoned and impoverished Haitian and Dominican children.' It said the group planned to establish an orphanage in Cabarete, Dominican Republic, to 'provide opportunities for adoption through partnership with New Life Adoption Foundation,' which subsidizes adoptions 'for loving Christian parents who would otherwise not be able to afford to adopt.' The document on the Web site laid out a plan to 'rescue orphans from Port-au-Prince.' The itinerary for Jan. 23 said: 'Drive bus from Santo Domingo into Port au Prince, Haiti and gather 100 orphans from the streets and collapsed orphanages, then return to the D.R.' The status of New Life Adoption Foundation was not immediately clear. The group was not registered as an adoption agency in Idaho and it did not appear to be registered as a federal nonprofit. The group also did not appear on a list of accredited international adoption agencies on the Web site of the State Department. Mel Coulter, Coulter's father, said of the group that 'it was never their intent to establish an adoption agency or anything similar to it,' He said his daughter and Silsby 'shared a common passion for the children and they were both following the path God led them down.' 'I can't at all question where they went and what they did because I'm really convinced it was at God's direction,' he said. 'They were acting in faith. That may sound trivial but they were acting not only in faith but God's faith.' But in Haiti, the group may have run into worldly issues they had not anticipated. Haiti has long been a target for trafficking organizations, Justice Minister Denis said, and in the wake of the earthquake authorities had alerted police and judicial officials that criminal organizations might attempt to take advantage of the disaster. Asked what he thought about the Americans claims to be doing God's work, he shrugged and said, 'What is God's I leave to God. What's the state's is ours.' 