Armenian sisters in ‘unusual’ case are called flight risks

By Timothy Pratt

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005 | 9:35 a.m.

Federal immigration officials on Tuesday said the case of the teenaged Armenian sisters threatened with deportation is "highly unusual" and said the teens haven't been released to their father because they are considered a flight risk.

The Sarkisian sisters' case is one of only several dozen of the more than 10,000 cases in a year at the Los Angeles regional office that are drawn out due to a federal court-issued stay, said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gloria Kee, Los Angeles field office director for the immigration office's detention and removal section, also said the girls have not been released to their father, Rouben, in Las Vegas, while the court case is pending because they are considered "a flight risk."

Although the girls' father is a legal U.S. resident and runs Tropicana Pizza in Henderson, the teens' mother is in the country illegally and "is an absconder," Kee said.

"There is quite honestly a concern -- will the family actually cooperate in bringing them back?"

In the vast majority of cases in which deportation orders are issued, immigrants are usually sent out of the United States immediately, Kice said.

But Tuesday was the 12th day Emma, 18, and Mariam Sarkisian, 17, were held in Los Angeles by federal authorities, pending a Las Vegas federal magistrate's decision on arguments for and against their deportation.

During that time, as publicity about the case has spread, public support has grown and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, sent a letter dated Jan. 24 to the federal office urging "strong, humanitarian consideration for deferred action" in the case.

The magistrate's decision may uphold the federal government's order to send the girls to Armenia, a country that is so foreign to them they don't even speak its language, having been brought to the United States when they were under 5 years old.

Kee said the Sarkisian family knew the day would come when the sisters would be sent back to their birthplace since an order for their deportation was issued in 1993.

Rouben and Anoush Sarkisian arrived to the United States in 1991. Three more daughters were born in this country. They were divorced, and Rouben gained the status of a legal resident -- the step below citizenship -- when he married a U.S. citizen. That marriage later broke apart.

Anoush never obtained legal U.S. status, Kee said.

During the 1990s each parent attempted to gain legal status for their two older daughters, Kee said.

"On two occasions, the family came close to obtaining some sort of benefit. But it was discovered that they could not once it was revealed they had earlier orders of deportation," she said.

Rouben has said in recent days that he thought otherwise and attempted to obtain proof of the girls' status in July, only to be told of the deportation order. It took until some time shortly before Jan. 14 for immigration authorities to obtain travel permits for the girls from the Armenian Consulate in Los Angeles, at which point the girls were detained.

But the family's lawyers won a stay against their departure while a federal magistrate reviews the team's arguments and those of the federal government.

The government filed its argument Tuesday.

The family's lawyers are hoping the government will allow Rouben several months to become a citizen, at which point he could petition for his daughters to become residents.

Another reason the case is unusual, officials said, is Emma is an adult, while Mariam is a minor. This means Mariam is not what is known as an "unaccompanied minor," and an agreement forged in April between immigration authorities and the Department of Health and Human Services regarding the care of such minors does not apply, they said.

That agreement includes provisions for the medical care of a minor and their educational and other needs, according to Gregory Chen, director of policy analysis and research at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

Kee said that although the detention of the girls "was meant to be temporary," a nurse is available to them if they have any health problems. She said that immigrants awaiting resolution of their cases are examined within 14 days of the date they are detained.

But, Kee said, the system typically doesn't wind up having to spend so much time taking care of people who have been ordered deported.