Q: Already took the mother of my child to court, lost because of jurisdiction. Its been a year, anything I can do?
The Mother of My Child told me she was taking her to visit family in Mexico, My child is a Citizen, a month passes I start to ask when my child will be back, she says within the next couple of weeks, I wait and nothing.. we go back and forth with the same result for a few months and then we have a falling out because I tell her I will seek legal action if she continues to keep my child from me.. she stops talking to me completely and refuses to tell me any information... I file a motion for Legal Decision Making and Parenting Time and I succeed.. she was instructed to bring my child back and my time with her would begin...The mom files I guess what would be an Appeal? And my judgement non enforceable because my child was there for 6months and jurisdiction was given to Mexico. Is there ANYTHING I can do? Time is just passing and I'm missing out on some of the best times in her life.
A:
I know this is not what you want to hear, but all you can do is file in Mexico. Mexico has jurisdiction, Arizona doesn't.
There are two laws that bear on this, and both favor Mexico.
The first is the international treaty to decide child custody jurisdiction between two countries. Both the U.S. and Mexico are signatories. Because it's a treaty, it is the "supreme law of the land" under the U.S. Constitution, meaning it trumps any state law. Under that law, the country where the child habitually resides has jurisdiction. That country is Mexico. Therefore, Mexico has jurisdiction.
The second is the law you sort of reference in your question, it's the Uniform Child Custody and Jurisdiction Enforcement Act. Arizona has adopted it. Importantly, it is the grant of authority the Arizona legislature has given Arizona courts to hear child custody cases. A Court cannot exceed the grant of authority the Legislature has provided. Under it, the Court can hear child custody jurisdiction cases only under certain circumstances, the most prevalent one (and the only relevant to your case) being that Arizona is the place the child has resided for the last six months. You don't have that. Therefore, an Arizona cannot make a ruling regarding child custody.
Your only option, therefore, its to file in Mexico.
Rich J. Peters agrees with this answer
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