Las Vegas Sun, NV
Jan 25 2005
Girls’ plight sparks community support
By Timothy Pratt
<timothy@lasvegassun.com>
LAS VEGAS SUN
Friends and family of Emma and Mariam Sarkisian — two Armenian teens
who have lived most of their lives in Las Vegas and are threatened
with deportation — rallied in support of the girls Monday, as their
attorney filed additional arguments to a federal judge in favor of
releasing them from a Los Angeles cell.
Meanwhile, Emma, who is 18, expressed frustration in a call from her
cell at being detained under what she described as “gross,
disgusting” conditions and being kept in the dark about their case.
The rally of about 30 people was held outside George Federal Building
in downtown Las Vegas on Monday afternoon. Some of the Sarkisians’
supporters had come from Los Angeles, holding signs with messages
such as, “To become American is not a crime.”
One of them was Grayr Nikogosyan, a neighbor of the Sarkisian family
when they lived in the Los Angeles area during the mid-1990s who has
maintained a friendship with them since then.
“The girls don’t deserve all this,” Nikogosyan said, referring to
their detention since Jan. 14 and possible deportation to Armenia.
The case began in July when Rouben Sarkisian, father of the girls,
was surprised at the Las Vegas office of immigration authorities by
the news that his daughters had no legal status in the United States.
Rouben Sarkisian is a U.S. resident, the step below citizenship, and
thought the girls were also residents. He has three other daughters
who were born in the United States.
Instead, they were told the girls were under orders to be deported
since 1993, according to their attorney, Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner.
A twist got added to the case when the Republic of Armenia didn’t
recognize the girls, since they left the country when it was still a
Soviet republic, making them Soviet, not Armenian, citizens.
But by Jan. 14, Armenia changed its position on the issue. The girls
were sent to Los Angeles the same day. Since then, their legal team
has twice had to make 11th hour moves to keep the teens from being
placed onto flights to Moscow. The maneuvers bought time to argue
before a federal judge that the girls should be allowed to stay for
humanitarian reasons.
The girls are in the middle of something they shouldn’t have to
endure, their friends and family said Monday.
“They are just trying to lives their lives as normal teenaged girls,”
Nikogosyan said.
Nikogosyan also said that his daughter, Mari, who attends Clark
Magnet School in Glendale, Calif., had rallied hundreds of friends to
send letters to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., about the case.
Mari said her school and other schools in Glendale are taking up the
cause, since most of the students at those schools are Armenians or
children of Armenians.
“Everybody’s sending e-mails about this,” she said.
Alisa Petrossian, a news editor at Horizon TV, an Armenian station in
Los Angeles, said her station had broadcast news of the Sarkisian
girls three times over the weekend to an estimated 250,000 viewers
nationwide.
The Los Angeles area is home to about 150,000 Armenians, according to
the U.S. Census.
The girls are being detained during the day in a federal holding cell
in Los Angeles and are taken at night to a Best Western hotel that
immigration authorities rent out for children and families awaiting
deportation, Emma said.
Emma said the girls did not obtain soap and shampoo until three days
after arriving to Los Angeles.
When she had a headache during the first couple of days, she said she
asked for Tylenol and was told she would have to be taken to the
hospital.
“I didn’t want to be separated from my little sister,” she said,
referring to 17-year-old Mariam.
There has been no nurse or doctor to see them to inquire of their
health during the 10 days they have been detained, she said.
A sergeant and two officers guard them at all times, including when
they sleep, she said.
Emma described the cell as having a phone that uses pre-paid cards, a
window that guards use to observe them, a television that is usually
tuned to the news, benches and a toilet that is “filthy.”
She said that only the benches had been cleaned since the two have
been detained.
An immigration services spokesman this morning said he was not
immediately able to comment on the allegations.
The sisters are able to call their parents with cards they buy with
$190 their parents gave them before being taken into custody. They
have $120 left, she said.
Attorney Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner, part of the legal team for the
Sarkisians, filed arguments to a Las Vegas federal judge Monday
arguing for their release. He said that parental rights and
international law favors his motion.
The idea is to bring the girls back to Las Vegas while the federal
judge rules on Stuchiner’s underlying argument — that the girls
should be given humanitarian consideration and allowed to remain in
the United States a few months longer while their father finally
becomes a citizen.
At that point, their father can petition for them to become
residents.
Meanwhile, Stuchiner said, they should be home and not in a cell.
“They’re not exactly a flight risk. Why should they be away from
their family?” he said.