foreign dependents

My wife is a native of Ecuador. Her family still lives in South America who really struggle to make ends meet due to the terrible economy and massive unemployment that exists in most latin states. In addition, their form of currency has been changed to the American dollar , BUT the citizens are still paid in the former sucres which equal 25,000:1. This is how bad it is for them. To get to my point, we have been supporting them via Western Union to the tune of about $3k/year (which is well over 100% of their household income). Furthermore, her father visited the US in 2001 and stayed for 8 months with our full financial support. I am learning that I cannot claim either of her parents as dependents and I think this is a terrible tax law. Our government states that if they are residents of Canada or Mexico then I could claim them. Does anyone agree with this? What logic does the IRS have by taking this position? If I have supporting documentation, would the IRS really give me a hard time by enforcing this insane law and discremenate where our dependents are from?