The biological mother of a 5-year-old boy will have a chance to nullify the boy's 2008 adoption by Missouri couple. A retrial of the child custody matter is scheduled to begin Feb. 28, during which the mother, who was arrested and accused of being an undocumented immigrant in 2007, will argue to regain her parental rights over the boy.

We have previously discussed this child custody case in this blog, most recently on Feb. 1, 2011. Six months after the boy was born in Missouri, his mother, who had come from Guatemala to work at a poultry processing plant, was arrested during a raid of the plant by ICE.

While she was in jail, the woman's brother and sister agreed to take care of the boy. But they gave him to a couple who twice tried to give the child up for adoption over his mother's objections. Despite her opposition, the court granted the adoption to the second couple to apply in October 2008. The couple changed the boy's name and he has lived with them ever since.

The biological mother was later convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. She was released in 2009 and is staying in the U.S. until the custody dispute is resolved. She says that because she was in prison and did not speak English, she was unable to properly contest the adoption.

The case reached the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled for the biological mother, calling the trial court decision "a travesty of justice." The top court sent the case back for retrial. It remains to be seen if having proper legal representation and a voice in the process will bring a different result for the biological mother.

Source: ABC News, "Adoption Battle Over 5-Year-Old Boy Pits Missouri Couple vs. Illegal Immigrant," Lauren Gilger, Brian Ross and Angela M. Hill, Feb. 1, 2012