New York Foundling controversies

Arizona child-placement controversy

Nineteen children transported by the Foundling to Clifton, Arizona Territory, were forcibly removed from Catholic Mexican American foster families by white vigilantes and redistributed among white households. The Foundling attempted to recover the children through legal proceedings, but local and territorial authorities did not prosecute the removals. The dispute generated litigation culminating in the 1906 Supreme Court case New York Foundling Hospital v. Gatti. The episode, together with broader criticism of western child placements and allegations of improper documentation, contributed to the eventual end of the Foundling's western placement system.