Saturday, January 29, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FREED FROM IMMIGRATION CUSTODY: `I'm still in shock'

Federal agents quietly bring home two Henderson teens who faced deportation

Emma Sarkisian cries as she talks on the phone Friday while sisters Mariam and Patricia hug at the family's Tropicana Pizza parlor in Henderson. U.S. immigration officials returned Emma and Mariam to Southern Nevada from a Los Angeles detention facility. Photo by Jeff Scheid. Goar Sarkisian kisses her niece Emma as family members celebrate the return of Emma and sister Mariam on Friday in Henderson. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Immigration officials handled the Friday release of two Las Vegas teenagers reprieved from deportation to the Republic of Armenia as a stealth operation.

While attorneys for Emma Sarkisian, 18, and Mariam Sarkisian, 17, waited for the girls at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building at noon, detention officers secretly dropped them off behind the family's Tropicana Pizza parlor in Henderson, where they were left alone.

Attorney Troy Baker said it was an attempt to avoid more publicity on a case that's garnered broad-based community and media attention.

The manner of their release didn't trouble the girls, who said they've been desperate to come home ever since they were taken into federal custody two weeks ago and sent to a Los Angeles detention center to wait out the deportation process.

"You have no idea what it was like," said Emma, who was surrounded by a welcoming family soon after she called to tell them where she was. "Every day, it just got harder. If I hadn't gotten out, I would have had a nervous breakdown."

The two girls, born in Armenia when it was part of the former Soviet Union and raised in the United States, discovered in July that they were illegal after trying to obtain documentation for their licenses to drive.

Until then, they were under the mistaken belief that they, like their father, had successfully obtained legal residency status. The girls' residency applications had been received and accepted by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1997, but were voided when Rouben Sarkisian divorced his American wife. The three emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Sarkisian, who is legal and is pursuing U.S. citizenship, said immigration officials did not inform him of his daughters' change in status. When the error was discovered, the girls were placed on a fast track to deportation, headed for a country where they don't speak the language and have no resources for support. They would have left behind their father and three U.S.-born younger sisters.

That process came to an abrupt halt Thursday night, after Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge intervened at the request of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and deferred action on the case against the girls.

"Senator Reid is thrilled that the girls got to go home," said Reid's spokeswoman Tessa Hafen. "We hope this works out for the best for them."

Rouben Sarkisian opened the pizza parlor early Friday and staged a homecoming party for his girls, complete with singing, balloons, flowers and their favorite kinds of pizza. Emma, the younger sisters said, favors pineapple and ham. Mariam, they laughed, eats everything. Sarkisian bustled proudly among his children, repeatedly laying a hand on Emma's arm or touching Mariam's hair as he passed by them, partly to reassure himself that they were really home.

"It's wonderful," Sarkisian said, laying his hand on his heart. "I am so happy."

Mariam Sarkisian, a senior at Palo Verde High School, joyfully hugged her sisters and clowned around with them, doing her best imitation of "American Idol" stars, a routine that won her an audience among the Los Angeles detention officers. Emma, who was overtaken with bouts of tears as she watched, said her sister's zany performances helped break the ice while they were among strangers in Los Angeles.

"We went from being detainees to being Emma and Mariam," Emma said. "One officer, who was Armenian, asked me if she was like this all the time. I had to tell him yes."

Both girls said they believe they were treated fairly while imprisoned, but painted a dismal picture of life in a detention center. Guards woke them at 6:30 a.m., when they were taken out of lockdown in a hotel room to the detention center cells. They spent 11 to 13 hours a day sitting on metal benches or standing around with other women and children detainees.

"I'm still in shock," Mariam said. "It's like it was all a nightmare, and I just woke up."

The worst part, Emma said, was the lack of access to any kind of information. They woke up each day not knowing if they would be deported. Often, guards would tell them they were being deported that day. Twice, authorities tried to place them on a plane, only to be stopped by the intervention of defense lawyers.

"Nobody will tell you anything," Emma said. "We couldn't find out anything. You just had to try not to think about it."

The sisters said they clung to each other, becoming so dependent that when Emma was taken briefly to see a doctor, Mariam nearly lost it.

"When I came back, she was talking on the phone to nobody," Emma said.

The comfort they derived from each other was something U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston sought to preserve on Thursday, when he had to rule against an order of release that would have freed the girls until their status is resolved.

Johnston directed immigration attorneys to make sure the girls were kept together as much as possible and directed them to ensure the family had access to the girls. Rouben Sarkisian was not told for more than week where his daughters were detained.

Johnston's ruling was a mental blow to both girls, and they realize that they would still be in detention if some of the nation's most highly placed government officials hadn't come to their aid.

Both Mariam and Emma said they will express their thanks to Reid as soon as they're eligible to vote. And they said they were surprised and grateful to all the people who championed their cause.

"I was shocked that people would come together to help me, someone they don't even know," Mariam said. "It's amazing."

The girls are still technically illegal, and will have to regularly check in with immigration officials. But the deferment means that the father will be given time to obtain citizenship. Once he has that, he can sponsor both his daughters for legal residency.

"I'm going to help him study," Emma said. "I don't want to ever go through this again."