Tweet
Family struggles to keep teen daughters in U.S.
LV girls are in federal custody, face deportation to Armenia
Las Vegas Sun
January 20, 2005
By Timothy Pratt ([email protected])
Speaking from a federal jail cell in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon,
18-year-old Emma Sarkisian said one way she has kept up her spirits
since being taken into custody Friday by federal agents in Las Vegas was
watching her little sister's impersonations of "bad 'American Idol'
singers."
She laughed. Then she cried, blurting out, "I miss everybody and want to
go home."
Using a 12-minute calling card to speak to her mother in Henderson at 4
p.m. Wednesday, Emma had just been told by a Department of Homeland
Security official for the second time in five days that she and her
sister, Mariam, had been granted a reprieve from being put on a plane to
the Republic of Armenia -- a land that, despite being their birthplace,
is so foreign to both that they don't even speak its language.
Emma graduated from Palo Verde High School in June. Her sister, who's
17, is set to do the same in 2006. Their father, Rouben, runs Tropicana
Pizza at Pecos Road and Wigwam Parkway.
The Sarkisian family is now wrapped up in a case that their attorney
Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner -- who worked 26 years for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service before opening a private law practice 23 years
ago -- called "absolutely ridiculous."
Stuchiner compared the case to that of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy in
2000 who also was taken by armed federal agents from his relatives in
the United States.
And though a small crowd of Armenians and Russians burst into applause
at Tropicana Pizza 3:30 Wednesday afternoon when they heard the news
that the Sarkisian sisters had gained another day on U.S. soil, only
three hours before the flight was scheduled to leave Los Angeles,
Stuchiner said the case was far from over.
The family's odyssey began in 1991 when Rouben and his wife, Anoush,
came to the United States with their two young daughters on a tourist
visa from Ukraine.
Anoush applied for political asylum as the Soviet Union was about to
break up. The application was denied.
The couple split up after having three more daughters in the United
States in the next three years. Rouben married a U.S. citizen and
thereby became a resident, the step below citizenship.
That marriage also broke apart.
Rouben has lived with his five daughters and shared raising them with
their mother for about five years.
In July, Stuchiner said, Rouben took his two oldest daughters to
immigration officials in Las Vegas to inquire about their status, since
he understood that they also should have become residents.
He was told they should be deported. However, when U.S. authorities
called Armenian authorities, they were told that the sisters had been
born in a country that no longer exists, since the Soviet Republic no
longer existed.
They were Soviet citizens, but not citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
So the Armenian government wouldn't accept them.
Immigration authorities issued an order of supervision, meaning the
daughters had to visit local federal offices each month.
Meanwhile, Stuchiner waited for an appointment to be granted for their
father's citizenship exam, but that date never came. Once Rouben becomes
a citizen, the whole issue of his daughters' status becomes moot, since
he can petition for them to become residents, Stuchiner said.
When the Sarkisians showed up for their monthly visit Jan. 14,
immigration officials told them that Armenia had decided to issue the
daughters passports. They could now be deported.
The girls were sent on a plane to Los Angeles that same day, but not
before a Las Vegas official said to Stuchiner that their flight out
would not be until Tuesday.
On Monday, the attorney got a call from the girls.
"They said, 'They're putting us on a plane.' " he said. It was 5:45 p.m.
The plane was scheduled to take off at 6:45 p.m.
Stuchiner said he called an official in Los Angeles and got him to
contact the official in Las Vegas who had promised the sisters would
remain in the country until Tuesday.
Ten minutes before the flight left, the girls were taken back to their cell.
On Tuesday, the flight was full, Los Angeles officials told the attorney.
On Wednesday, Stuchiner filed a writ of habeas corpus with attorney Troy
Baker at the George Federal Courthouse.
Again, the flight was scheduled for 6:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., the
magistrate handed down a decision to grant the stay.
But Los Angeles officials wouldn't release the girls Tuesday, a
development Stuchiner saw as "madness."
"What are they afraid of?" the attorney said. "It's not like they're
public enemy No. 1. This is a girl missing high school, for God's sake."
Stuchiner will be back in court today to file an emergency order
requesting immediate release of the sisters.
Then he will argue that the federal government should allow Rouben to
obtain his citizenship and petition for his daughters, on humanitarian
grounds.
He also said that members of Nevada's congressional delegation could
step in and pass what's known as a private bill, which would also grant
the girls residence.
Stuchiner said the system -- a system he knows from the inside -- has
become more rigid and entrenched since Sept. 11, 2001.
"(The attacks) have caused the most compassionate nation in the world to
not have compassion with a couple of teenage girls," he said.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the five Sarkisian girls, Patricia, has
decided to go straight to the top.
The 10-year-old wrote a letter to President Bush Tuesday asking a series
of questions about her sisters.
Why are they in jail? she asks.
"Why can't they come home?"
"I mean they didn't do anything wrong like drugs or even smoke."
"I'm asking you these questions because you are the only person that can
answer these questions."
She signed the letter, "Just a kid, Patricia Sarkisian."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2005/jan/20/518156310.html
LV girls are in federal custody, face deportation to Armenia
Las Vegas Sun
January 20, 2005
By Timothy Pratt ([email protected])
Speaking from a federal jail cell in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon,
18-year-old Emma Sarkisian said one way she has kept up her spirits
since being taken into custody Friday by federal agents in Las Vegas was
watching her little sister's impersonations of "bad 'American Idol'
singers."
She laughed. Then she cried, blurting out, "I miss everybody and want to
go home."
Using a 12-minute calling card to speak to her mother in Henderson at 4
p.m. Wednesday, Emma had just been told by a Department of Homeland
Security official for the second time in five days that she and her
sister, Mariam, had been granted a reprieve from being put on a plane to
the Republic of Armenia -- a land that, despite being their birthplace,
is so foreign to both that they don't even speak its language.
Emma graduated from Palo Verde High School in June. Her sister, who's
17, is set to do the same in 2006. Their father, Rouben, runs Tropicana
Pizza at Pecos Road and Wigwam Parkway.
The Sarkisian family is now wrapped up in a case that their attorney
Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner -- who worked 26 years for the Immigration and
Naturalization Service before opening a private law practice 23 years
ago -- called "absolutely ridiculous."
Stuchiner compared the case to that of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy in
2000 who also was taken by armed federal agents from his relatives in
the United States.
And though a small crowd of Armenians and Russians burst into applause
at Tropicana Pizza 3:30 Wednesday afternoon when they heard the news
that the Sarkisian sisters had gained another day on U.S. soil, only
three hours before the flight was scheduled to leave Los Angeles,
Stuchiner said the case was far from over.
The family's odyssey began in 1991 when Rouben and his wife, Anoush,
came to the United States with their two young daughters on a tourist
visa from Ukraine.
Anoush applied for political asylum as the Soviet Union was about to
break up. The application was denied.
The couple split up after having three more daughters in the United
States in the next three years. Rouben married a U.S. citizen and
thereby became a resident, the step below citizenship.
That marriage also broke apart.
Rouben has lived with his five daughters and shared raising them with
their mother for about five years.
In July, Stuchiner said, Rouben took his two oldest daughters to
immigration officials in Las Vegas to inquire about their status, since
he understood that they also should have become residents.
He was told they should be deported. However, when U.S. authorities
called Armenian authorities, they were told that the sisters had been
born in a country that no longer exists, since the Soviet Republic no
longer existed.
They were Soviet citizens, but not citizens of the Republic of Armenia.
So the Armenian government wouldn't accept them.
Immigration authorities issued an order of supervision, meaning the
daughters had to visit local federal offices each month.
Meanwhile, Stuchiner waited for an appointment to be granted for their
father's citizenship exam, but that date never came. Once Rouben becomes
a citizen, the whole issue of his daughters' status becomes moot, since
he can petition for them to become residents, Stuchiner said.
When the Sarkisians showed up for their monthly visit Jan. 14,
immigration officials told them that Armenia had decided to issue the
daughters passports. They could now be deported.
The girls were sent on a plane to Los Angeles that same day, but not
before a Las Vegas official said to Stuchiner that their flight out
would not be until Tuesday.
On Monday, the attorney got a call from the girls.
"They said, 'They're putting us on a plane.' " he said. It was 5:45 p.m.
The plane was scheduled to take off at 6:45 p.m.
Stuchiner said he called an official in Los Angeles and got him to
contact the official in Las Vegas who had promised the sisters would
remain in the country until Tuesday.
Ten minutes before the flight left, the girls were taken back to their cell.
On Tuesday, the flight was full, Los Angeles officials told the attorney.
On Wednesday, Stuchiner filed a writ of habeas corpus with attorney Troy
Baker at the George Federal Courthouse.
Again, the flight was scheduled for 6:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., the
magistrate handed down a decision to grant the stay.
But Los Angeles officials wouldn't release the girls Tuesday, a
development Stuchiner saw as "madness."
"What are they afraid of?" the attorney said. "It's not like they're
public enemy No. 1. This is a girl missing high school, for God's sake."
Stuchiner will be back in court today to file an emergency order
requesting immediate release of the sisters.
Then he will argue that the federal government should allow Rouben to
obtain his citizenship and petition for his daughters, on humanitarian
grounds.
He also said that members of Nevada's congressional delegation could
step in and pass what's known as a private bill, which would also grant
the girls residence.
Stuchiner said the system -- a system he knows from the inside -- has
become more rigid and entrenched since Sept. 11, 2001.
"(The attacks) have caused the most compassionate nation in the world to
not have compassion with a couple of teenage girls," he said.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the five Sarkisian girls, Patricia, has
decided to go straight to the top.
The 10-year-old wrote a letter to President Bush Tuesday asking a series
of questions about her sisters.
Why are they in jail? she asks.
"Why can't they come home?"
"I mean they didn't do anything wrong like drugs or even smoke."
"I'm asking you these questions because you are the only person that can
answer these questions."
She signed the letter, "Just a kid, Patricia Sarkisian."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2005/jan/20/518156310.html