Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Denver: Holding out for hope

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Denver: Holding out for hope

    Colorado Daily
    Dec 3 2004

    Holding out for hope
    By: JOSEPH THOMAS Colorado Daily Staff



    The American dream isn't supposed to work this way.

    The people who know Gevorg Sargsyan and his family the best say they
    embodied the American dream until a month ago when they were whisked
    away and placed in a United States Citizenship and Immigration
    Services (USCIS) detention center in Aurora, Colo.

    "They (the Sargsyan family) came here with not one single dollar, and
    built themselves up," said Patrick Edwards, a close friend of Gevorg
    and a CU-Boulder student. "They are working to support Gevorg - a
    dean's list chemical engineer major at CU-Boulder, while paying
    out-of-state tuition."

    The family came to America out of fear for their lives. According to
    friends of the Sargsyan's, the family lived in prestige in Armenia
    where the father, a former Soviet rocket scientist, was known and
    respected. They came to America as nobodies just trying to get by.

    "This former rocket scientist was pressing donuts all night just so
    his son could go to college," said Edwards. "That is what America is
    supposed to be about right? Apparently some people do not think so."


    A month ago the Sargsyan's were abruptly placed into a USCIS
    detention center. The visas the family obtained to come to America
    were student visas. Allegedly turned in to the Immigration and
    Naturalization Services by Gevorg's sister's husband, the Sargsyan's
    were instructed to go to a government office on Nov. 4 and have been
    detained ever since.

    "I found out about this in September, that there was a possibility
    that he could get deported," said Edwards. "So we started passing out
    petitions, but I didn't know anything was wrong until I was in class
    and picked up the paper and saw he was in jail."

    "That broke me," said Edwards.

    Gevorg's family moved to America when his sister, Nvart met Vaughn
    Huckfeldt, an American man in 1999. She married him and moved to a
    small home in Ridgeway, Colo. Nvart was granted permanent residence
    in the United States, although the Immigration and Naturalization
    Services (INS) has appealed her residency.

    The family came to the United States amid death threats from the
    Russian mafia.



    Huckfeldt allegedly conned people in the community into buying United
    States visas, charging each family more than 1,000 dollars a piece
    but never distributing any visas.

    Since Nvart was married to him at the time, families who were conned
    then blamed the Sargsyans. The families who were conned paid the
    Russian mafia to collect the lost money over the visas.

    With the possibility of death looming, the Sargsyans then sold
    everything and quickly relocated. Huckfeldt provided U.S. visas to
    the family, and told them that they were valid.

    They settled in Ridgeway, in Colorado's Western Slope, where the
    family gained a reputation as being smart and diligent, according to
    friends of the family.

    People close to the family say that Nvart's marriage turned sour and
    she filed for divorce.

    Huckfeldt then turned her family into immigration officials for
    faulty visas.

    "Gevorg is a dean's list chemical engineer; his brother is a honor
    student at Ridgeway and an all conference soccer star; his father is
    a former rocket scientist; his sister is a concert pianist and they
    are all locked-up with violent criminals and drug addicts," said
    Edwards.

    "The rights of aliens in the United States have been severely
    diminished since 9/11 in this administration," said Robert Golten,
    director of the International Human Rights Advocacy Center at the
    University of Denver. "It is harder to get into this country, and
    once you get in and you run afoul of the law, even for relatively
    minor offenses you are subject to deportation."

    Experts say that there is a chance for political asylum for the
    Sargsyans, but it depends on how the Armenian government is portrayed
    during the hearing.

    "If he can establish that if he goes back he will be persecuted by
    the government because of affiliation with political or religious
    group, or some social group that is being discriminated against,"
    said Golten.



    According to Golten, there is an argument that can be made that the
    government has an obligation to protect him from assassination or
    personal harm.

    "If he can establish that the government will not or is not able to
    protect him, then he can argue that that kind of persecution would
    entitle him to get asylum in the United States," Golten said.

    Meanwhile, Gevorg will live with in the same room with 45 other
    people until his case is decided. He stays in the same room for 23
    hours out of the day, and is allowed for one hour a day to go to a
    recreation room - which entails a ping-pong table and two weight
    machines that look as if they are from the 1970s.

    Instead of studying chemical engineering, Gevorg spends his day
    either watching television, reading, or crying.

    "Even though I don't have good memories about America, I do have good
    memories of Americans," Gevorg Sargsyan told the Colorado Daily from
    the USCIS detention center in Aurora. "Regardless of what happens to
    me, I will never hate Americans."

    Gevorg doesn't see friends regularly anymore, nor can he pursue his
    passion for soccer or attend the United States Kickboxing
    Championship that he was invited to participate in this month.

    Still, he said even that isn't the worst part of being detained. The
    worst part, he said, is not knowing what is going to happen and
    losing hope.

    "I have lost my hope quite a few times, where I didn't care what was
    happening and didn't have any regard for the future," said Gevorg.
    "You don't see anything out there, everything is restricted in here.
    I suppose it is the worst feeling you can have, losing your hope."
Working...
X