Colorado Daily, CO
Dec 13 2004

Free for now

The Associated Press

DENVER – An Armenian family held in an immigration detention center
in Denver for nearly five weeks has been unexpectedly released.

“I’m shaking. It happened so fast. It’s incredible. I feel like I’m
in a dream,” said Gevorg Sargsyan, moments after he, his sister Meri,
brother Hayk and father Ruben walked out of the center Thursday.

The Sargsyan family was taken into custody while their attorney was
trying to obtain visas for them, based on their contention they were
victims of a con man who trafficked in fraudulent visas. That battle
is not over.

The family has lived and worked in the western Colorado town of
Ridgway for more than six years.

Gevorg was on the dean’s list at the University of Colorado, where he
was studying chemical engineering. Hayk is a senior honor student at
Ridgway High School. Meri was well known for playing piano in local
churches. Ruben, a space-optics scientist in Armenia, had been
working multiple jobs to provide for his family.

His wife, Susan, and their daughter Nvart, who both work in Ouray and
Ridgway, were not taken into custody because their immigration cases
were being heard separately.

Ouray County residents have raised more than $30,000 for their legal
defense, written hundreds of letters and e-mails and asked officials
from regional immigration officials to President Bush to take another
look at the case and allow the family to stay.