Girls’ plight sparks community support

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 11:02 a.m.

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.