Grand Junction Sentinel, CO
Dec 12 2004
Armenians out of state custody
By DANIE HARRELSON
The Daily Sentinel
Ouray County residents on Saturday welcomed home the family it lost
last month and still could lose to deportation. Armenian transplants
Ruben Sargsyan and his children, Meri, Gevorg and Hayk, spent the
last five weeks locked up in a Denver immigration detention center.
They were unexpectedly released Thursday.
`They community is elated to see them back,’ said family friend and
Ouray resident Kelvin Kent.
The small western Colorado communities of Ouray and Ridgway, home to
the Sargsyans for six years, cheered and embraced their newly-freed
friends and neighbors Saturday afternoon at the town park in Ridgway.
The two towns have rallied to make sure the family stays put. Only
800 and 500 strong, residents raised $16,000 at a dinner last month
to cover exploding legal bills. They’ve been working the phones to
let everyone from Denver to Washington, D.C., know of the Sargsyans’
plight.
Immigration agents took the family into custody in early November
while their attorney was trying to obtain visas for them. The
Sargsyans contend they fell victim to an American con man who duped
others into paying him to obtain fraudulent visas to the United
States.
Ruben Sargsyan and his children may no longer be locked up, but they
are not home free.
`The government’s position is still exactly the same,’ said Lloyd
`Max’ Noland, who married Ruben’s eldest daughter, Nvart Indinyan,
about five years ago. `The government’s contention is that these
people were a flight risk, so what they are saying is they want to
keep them in jail so they won’t leave the country so they can deport
them.’
Immigrations agents did not take Nvart, and her mother, Susan, into
custody because their cases were heard separately.
Noland said the family is trying to determine who ordered their
release.
`We’re curious to see who finally saw the light,’ he said.
Hayk, a star soccer player and senior honor student, attends Ridgway
High School. Gevorg studies chemical engineering at the University of
Colorado and was on the dean’s list.
Noland said school district officials assured him Saturday they would
work with Hayk to ensure his five-week absence does not delay his
high school graduation in the spring. CU administrators offered
Noland similar assurances that Gevorg’s absence would not count
against his academic record and he could return to campus when he was
ready.
`The most amazing thing is that this small mountain community in
southern Colorado is making the government listen,’ Noland said. `I
haven’t seen anything like this. We would have been nothing without
the community behind us.’
The Sargsyans remain cautious about their release because it does not
affect their ongoing case.
Each of the four family members must check in with immigration
officials in Denver twice a week by phone and once a month in person.
`There is extreme elation now, but we’re going to continue the
fight,’ Kent said. `They’re just good, clean wholesome people.
`They’re the type of people America wants and needs.’