THE SARGSYAN FAMILY STORY, PART II

This chronology begins with an original article draft that Nancy Lofholm, reporter for The Denver Post, submitted for publication on August 20, 2004. This original draft shows a complete version of the Sargsyan family story and is published here with Nancy’s approval.

1. Nancy Lofholm's draft of 8/20
  
RIDGWAY-The six despondent Armenians crowded together on a rose-colored couch in their small Western Slope town don't exist.

In the bureaucratic view of the Department of Homeland Security, they are aliens with no passports, no green cards, no visas and no right to stay in America.

By the end of September, 2004, a family that has fought years through every costly and convoluted immigration channel to become legal residents, is due to be torn apart. Two members of the Sargsyan family are being deported to Armenia. There they face persecution and possibly death at the hands of the Russian mafia because they have been blamed for the scam of an American con man. The remaining family members have a little more time. They still have appeals to work through, but even if they win, a family bound tightly in the past decade by tragedy, will be split by political boundaries.

So the Sargsyans wait through the painful countdown.

"It was three months, then it was two, then it was 45 days, now....."

Nvart, the eldest Sargsyan daughter can't finish because the tears start. She has just had to tell her father, Ruben, that he has lost his job as a middle-of-the-night baker because of the political ramifications of their plight. The 62-year-old former space-optics scientist who speaks little English, looks confused and tears roll down one cheek. Mother Susan Indinyan, sits by with red-rimmed eyes. Eldest son Gevorg, a 20-year-old freshman on the Dean's list and on the soccer team at the University of Colorado, excuses himself to go around the corner and comes back wiping his eyes.

"It's like life has stopped," he says.

Their pain is being keenly felt in the one-stoplight Western Slope community the Sargsyans have called home for the past five years. Townspeople here are rallying to try to beat seemingly insurmountable odds and keep a family they say are hardworking and high principled - assets to their community and to America.

"To me they are better citizens than most of us citizens," said Rob Hunter, minister at the Ridgway Community Church.

The saga that landed the Sargsyans' in western Colorado and in an immigration limbo began in 1994 when eldest daughter, Nvart Indinyan, met an American in their hometown of Yerevan. She was 19, and by her own admission, naïve.

Vaughn Huckfeldt was 54, intelligent and worldly. He was a professor at the American University of Armenia who also claimed to be a well off minister with a nice home in America. He wore a clerical collar and a large cross. He asked Nvart to marry him on their third date.
Huckfeldt seemed like a bright future in a country going through a severe economic downturn after gaining its independence from Russia. The two married.

Huckfeldt began telling other Armenians he could obtain visas for them to go to the United States, the Sargsyans said. He collected more than a thousand dollars each from 10 to 15 families, they said, then left the country, taking along an 8 ½-month pregnant Nvart.

That was when the Sargsyans' lives turned hellish, both in Armenia and America.

Huckfeldt had no home. Nvart gave birth in his daughter's trailer in rural Texas without a doctor's care. Then he moved his wife and infant son to a decrepit Ridgway trailer he bought for $2,000. It was unheated because he refused to buy propane. Nvart, who spoke little English at the time, said he treated her like a slave, taking away any money she made as a waitress while he did not have a job.

Back in Armenia, people who had given Huckfeldt money were hounding Nvart's family, accusing them of being part of the scam and demanding the Sargsyans pay the money back. They money represented fortunes because the average annual Armenian salary was the equivalent of $300.

A family that had been well respected became pariahs, according to letters to American courts from a neighbor, a relative and a former employer in Armenia. The Sargsyans repeatedly called Huckfeldt for help, but he did not repay the money. They began selling their possessions, even Susan's wedding ring, to pay Huckfeldt's debt.

Eventually they were living in an empty shell of a house, they said, but Armenians who were still owed money, hired the Russian Mafia to collect more.

"We had nothing left," Susan said. "Still people were coming."

Ruben, the father, was beaten up at his work. Gangsters told Susan they would shoot Gevorg and her other son Hayk, then 13 and 11, in front of her. The Sargsyans took the two boys out of school and moved, with the boys and daughter Meri, to Ruben's brother's home to hide.

This went on for three years while Nvart pleaded with Huckfeldt to obtain visas for them. When he did, they sold their home, paid off more of the debts and left Armenia, with a single dollar bill, in the middle of the night.

The Sargsyans didn't know what awaited them. They didn't know that Huckfeldt had been abusing Nvart, an allegation corroborated by Nvart's coworkers, neighbors, the former marshal of Ridgway and a victims' advocacy counselor. But when the Sargsyans arrived at Denver International Airport in January 1999, they did not recognize Nvart.

"She was dead with her eyes open," her mother said.With the support of her family, Nvart filed for divorce and within days, Huckfeldt wrote to immigration authorities claiming the family was in the country fraudulently on student visas – visas that he had arranged for them. The Sargsyans, who didn't speak English and knew little of American laws, said he had told them they didn't need to attend school as long as they were working.
Their immigration nightmares began.

The Sargsyans now have gone through dozens of hearings in a snarl of cases split up between different judges. They sought asylum based on the fact that they could be harmed or killed if they return to Armenia. Nvart also had to go through a bitter custody battle for her son, Joseph, before Huckfeldt vanished leaving her with no way to collect child support. Former Ridgway Marshal Sherm Williams has a thick investigative file on Huckfeldt that includes unpaid loan complaints, bad check allegations and numerous small claims court judgments.

Attempts to locate Huckfeldt through relatives and former associates were unsuccessful. An ex-wife said he is living in Latvia.

The Sargsyans' have spent thousands of dollars of their hard earned money on their attempt to become legal, money the whole family earned. Susan, who has a master's degree in business, cleaned offices. Ruben fried donuts in the middle of the night. Meri, a classical pianist, played at local churches. Gevorg and Hayk did yard work and cleaning.

"They are some of the hardest working, finest people I have ever known," said Deadra Paxton, a waitress who has known the family since they came to Ridgway.

Tightened immigration restrictions following the 9/11 terrorist attacks made the Sargsyans' case more difficult. The options ran out for two of them the summer of 2004 when the last appeal for Ruben and Meri was denied after counsel for the Department of Homeland Security argued that the Sargsyans aren't entitled to asylum because they failed to show that they would not be able to remedy their financial difficulties through civil courts in Armenia.
The Sargsyans counter that the Armenian government is corrupt and that the Armenian police have no control over the Russian mafia.

Susan's appeal was set to be heard in October, 2004. The two boys were adopted by Nvart's new husband, Max Noland prior to their 16th birthdays, and have a chance of gaining citizenship on those grounds. Nvart is in the best legal position because she is married to a U.S. citizen, but she is still trying to obtain a green card.

Friends in Ouray County said they didn't know how dire the Sargsyans' situation was until Susan recently broke down in tears as she informed Ridgway businessman Pete Whiskeman she wouldn't be able to clean for him anymore.

Whiskeman and friend Kelvin Kent jumped into action and a town joined them. They wrote and called their congressmen. In just one day, they donated $1,500 to a family that had never asked for handouts throughout their entire ordeal.

"Unfortunately, I think what we have here is a prime example of overzealous and work-burdened federal judges operating under extremely harsh and generalized rules of Homeland Security," said Kent.

Sen. Wayne Allard and Rep. Scott McInnis have tried unsuccessfully to find solutions. Blair Jones, a spokesman for McInnis, said it's too late to attempt an option that has been used on rare occasions in similar cases - passing a bill to legalize aliens' status.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do," Jones said. "But we are in complete sympathy on this."

As they count down the family's remaining days together, Susan can't seem to stop crying. Ruben sleeps little and has panic attacks. They suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a psychologist who has examined them. Hayk is having a difficult time preparing for his senior year at Ridgway High School. Gevorg is heading back to CU, but with a heavy heart.

Meri has turned down suggestions that she marry an American because she says it is wrong even though it could be her only salvation. Nvart obsessively walks the flower-lined paths she has built around the home she long dreamed of having.

They say they still have a hard time believing that in America there won't be justice, even though they know the judge who turned down Ruben's and Meri's appeal deported a Guatemalan teenager earlier this year who said he would be killed by gangs on his return, and was.

"We are waiting for a miracle," Gevorg said, "like we were waiting for a miracle in Armenia."

2. Pete Whiskeman's Update

The following picks up the family’s history with their struggle to gain legal status in the summer of 2004. It continues to February 1, 2005. The history is written by Pete Whiskeman, a friend of the family and a member of the family’s support team in Ridgway.

On June 30, 2004, two members of this family, Ruben (the father) and Meri (the youngest daughter) lost their appeal with the Board of Immigrations Appeals (BIA) in Virginia. The sons, Gevorg and Hayk, were attached to Ruben's case, but the family assumed that they would be protected as a result of Max's adoption of them. The four members of the family prepared for this deportation, which could occur as early as 9/28/04. At the time, Susan, the matriarch of the family, was actually having her case proceeding through the Immigration Court in Denver with a different judge. Nvart's case was proceeding with a third judge at the Immigration Court in Denver using a similar defense and logic and the family was optimistic that the judge would rule in her favor.
 
About five weeks before their deadline for deportation, Susan was at our home doing some work for us with Ruben when she came up to my office crying. When she told me what was going on, I and a few others in the community who know the family well, put together a plan to assist them - legally, politically and financially.

We did some research and retained one of the top immigration attorneys in Colorado, Jeff Joseph, in Denver. We started a petition drive and collected 1,500 signatures. These signatures came from Ouray County, a county of only 4,000 residents. We started a fund for the legal defense of the family and had collected well over $70,000 by the end of 2004.
 
Prior to the 9/28 deadline, Jeff filed comprehensive Motions to Reopen for all of the cases except Susan’s. He also filed applications for T and U Visas. These visas are for people like the Sargsyans who have been victimized by a criminal and brought into this country in servitude - as this family was. The T Visas are basically for victims of Human Trafficking and the U Visas are for immigrants who have been victims of criminal activity. We believe that the Sargsyans are victims of both. All of these applications were filed legally and on time. The family’s attorneys were finally focusing on the fact that these family members were victims of a criminal! 

For Susan’s case, her previous attorney had filed an appeal with the BIA. The BIA reversed the Immigration Judge’s decision and remanded it to the Immigration Court for a full hearing on its merits.
 
Nvart had divorced the person who had brought them here and who was the perpetrator of all of their problems. She had met Max Noland, a Ouray resident, and they were subsequently married. Max then adopted Gevorg and Hayk. Max taught both boys English as well as many other things that were critical for the boys to begin to assimilate into American culture. Gevorg graduated from Ridgway High School with honors and many local scholarships. He has been an honor student at CU and is in his sophomore year at CU. Hyak is now a senior at Ridgway High and a good student and outstanding soccer player. He plans to go to CU or possibly Colorado College in the fall of 2005.
 
In October, 2004, the family discovered that Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) was questioning the boys' adoption. Jeff has filed the motions to reopen these cases so that he can proceed with the I-130 applications and get their status adjusted by means of the adoption.
 
In mid-October, the family received their deportation letter for what they thought was Ruben and Meri. They were to report to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Denver on 11/4. They believed that they were going to another hearing on the case since they knew that the Motions to Reopen, the I-130 adoption applications and the applications for the T and U Visas had been submitted in a timely fashion. They believed that they would be given the time for these to be adjudicated.
 
At the same time, our support team was working with Senator Allard's office to get him to intervene in the detention. Travelling to Allards office in Grand Junction, we delivered copies of the petitions with the more than 1,500 signatures supporting the family. Jeff also gave copies to the ICE District Office in Denver. The timing for all of this was awful as everyone was involved in the election and nothing came through in time.

At the 11/4 appearance, the ICE office took the four members of the family into custody and sent them off to the detention center in Aurora.
 
This action took Hayk out of high school and Gevorg out of college. Gevorg in particular could only lose a few days without seeing his entire semester go up in smoke along with the associated costs. In the detention center, Meri was in depression and not doing well. The family was separated into a women's detention area and a men's detention area. They were in prison uniforms. This facility is a prison. They were detained with prisoners who were handcuffed. Visitors, even family, were only able to talk to them through a glass window over a phone on their visits. When visitors came, it was the only time Meri could see her father and brothers! Visitors could only come three times a week and for a brief period. It is an amazing tribute to the support and love for this family by our community that, in the approximately five weeks they were in this prison, there was hardly a day that they could have visitors that at least one member of our community was not there to see them. By way of reference: Ridgway is over 300 miles from the detention facility in Aurora.
 
It is the opinion of all of the members of our community that the family did not deserve any of this. From the beginning, they have been victimized by US Citizens. First it was Vaughn who caused all of the family to have to flee Armenia and sell their home of 30 years to help settle Vaughn's debts - debts that the family had no responsibility for. Then Vaughn put them in servitude and, when they rebelled and escaped his clutches, he turned them into the INS.
 
From the beginning, the family has attempted to obey all laws and customs here in the US, without so much as a parking ticket. There was only one instance where they missed an appearance. When their cases were originally filed by Vaughn, he filed them in Texas despite the fact that they were living in Colorado. They never received any notice of the hearing and thus missed it. The family believes that Vaughn gave an incorrect address to the INS. Later, they were able to get the cases reopened and moved to Denver. However, the INS in Dallas made a finding that Nvart had committed marriage fraud in her marriage to Vaughn. The Immigration Judge in Denver found that Nvart had NOT committed marriage fraud! It is important to note that the Immigration Judge’s finding did NOT make the INS’ finding moot. This is why she was not able to get a green card based on her marriage to Max – because regardless of the Immigration Judge’s finding, the fraud charge remains in her INS (now CIS) file. The Immigration Judge has no jurisdiction or power over CIS.

The family has never asked for help. Our community came to them and offered it. They have not been a financial burden on anyone or any social service and have all worked hard to sort out their situation.
 
Senator Allard’s office told us that he could not intercede on the deportation issue as that is considered to be in the judiciary process and the legislative branch cannot interfere until the cases come to closure one way or another. We did ask that he consider sponsoring private legislation to give this family permanent status as has been done in other situations and is currently being done for a family with similar circumstances in Taos, NM. Despite the fact that this would NOT be a violation or interference with the judicial process, so far, Senator Allard has refused to assist. This process is something that "he does not believe in", his staff has told us. If he would introduce such legislation, the deportation process would halt immediately while it was being adjudicated.
 
In early November, there was a further rising up of the community by the students and teachers at Ridgway High School where Hayk is a senior, and at CU where Gevorg is a sophomore. Inspired by this, there was an organized protest rally at the detention facility in Aurora on Saturday, 11/13/04. There was a busload of students from Ridgway/Ouray, van caravans of many adult residents of the county and CU students and faculty members all in attendance. Members of our support team were there as well as one of our attorneys. We arranged coverage of the rally by the Denver Post and the Denver NBC and CBS TV affiliates. Both The Denver Post and the Denver NBC TV affiliate did stories leading up to the protest.

This story has been also been covered by the Voice of America. One of the family’s neighbors in Armenia called Susan Sargsyan and said that she had heard the broadcast. Additional media interest pours in daily as various outlets pick up pieces of the story.

On Wednesday, 11/17, Nvart won her case in Immigration Court in Denver.

With Nvart's court win, several actions were put into place. Nvart now would have permanent status in the US and will get a green card as quickly as the process can move through the system. ICE had the option to appeal the court ruling within 30 days.
 
In the interim, as mentioned earlier, the BIA has reopened Susan's case. If she prevails, that automatically protects Ruben as her spouse. The problem here was that, given the time it might take to hear and rule on Susan's case, Ruben might be sent back to Armenia at some point in the interim. He could then be brought back as soon as Susan prevailed if he could stay safely in Armenia. But, his staying safe in Armenia is problematic for the reasons stated earlier in Nancy Lofholm’s Denver Post article.
 
Meri is the most at risk at this time through this chain.
 
In parallel with all of the above is the pursuit of T or U Visas for Meri, Susan and Ruben. As stated, these applications were filed on 9/28/04.
 
At the Federal Government level, we were connected to the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services (HHS) and State, all of whom have task forces very concerned about trafficking and its victims. We were also pursuing Homeland Security. Due to the turnover with the Secretaries of these departments, this was a difficult task. We did connect to a contact in HHS that was very helpful. He put us in touch with the Legal Aid Foundation in Los Angeles. This foundation is funded by Congress through HHS to assist the attorneys of the victims of Human Trafficking in their pursuit of T Visas for those victims. They have been very helpful to our attorneys in this process.

Among the various media contacts that the family’s support team was making was the Denver Bureau of the New York Times. On December 8, 2004, they sent a reporter to Ridgway and Ouray to investigate the story. The reporter spent an entire day in the community and spoke with many friends and supporters of the family. He also visited the high school where the students were preparing Christmas cards for the four members of the family that were still imprisoned in Aurora. He was touched enough to visit the family members at the prison. He flew in a photographer from New York to help cover the story he was writing. We had to obtain permission from ICE in Denver for this. On December 9, 2004, Jeff called ICE at approximately 11:30 am and made the request. Suddenly and with no warning or calls to the attorneys, the four members of the family were released prior to 4:00 pm that very day!

The official word from ICE was that it had come down from their Washington, D.C. office that they no longer considered the family a flight risk.

Late on the afternoon of December 14, 2004, ICE filed a Notice of Appeal for Nvart’s case. The family still believes that Nvart will prevail, but, unfortunately, this will bring about a delay of anywhere from 6 to 12 months before Nvart can rest easy that she will be safe and gain her permanent status.

On 12/30/04, the preliminary hearing and date setting for the reopening of Susan’s case was heard in Immigration Court in Denver. The date for the hearing was set for October, 2005. Since then, our attorneys have arranged to trade court dates with another case and move Susan’s hearing up to May 16, 2005.

The final backup for the T Visas was submitted on 1/12/05. The backup for the U Visas and for the I-130s (the boys’ adoption approval) was submitted by 1/18/05. On all of these applications the family must now wait for the CIS’ response.

While we are waiting, our focus will be on our US Congressmen and Senators to become involved and support and sponsor private legislation to give the members of this family permanent status. We are also looking into other avenues where they may be able to help the family.
 
As mentioned, Senator Allard's office has previously said that there is nothing he can or is willing to do. Recently, due to the actions of the faculty and administration at CU, we have engaged Congressman Mark Udall’s office to see if there is anything that he can or will do. CU is in his district and faculty, administrators and at least one Regent have contacted his office asking for his help for the family. Jeff contacted the immigration liaison for Congressman Udall in his Denver office about this possibility. He was told that Congressman Udall did not get involved in these types of immigration cases because it was too difficult to determine who is deserving and who isn’t. We believe that our community has already done that work by getting over 1,500 signatures on a petition in support of the family, over 40 articles in newspapers throughout Colorado, in the New York Times and over 10 stories on TV news programs in Montrose, Grand Junction and Denver.

We have become aware of a similar story that has been developing in Taos, NM, where a Palestinian family of eight has been fighting deportation. There are some similarities with the Sargsyan case, with supporters gathering over 1,700 signatures on a petition and concerns over splitting up the family. In this situation, Mark Udall’s brother, Congressman Tom Udall (Taos is in his district) and both US Senators from NM, Jeff Bingaman (D) and Pete Domenici (R) have come together in bi-partisan support for the family. By agreement with the other two, Senator Bingaman is sponsoring private legislation for permanent status for the family and Congressman Udall and Senator Domenici are supporting it. Why is it that the Congressman and both US Senators in NM see this as their job and, in Colorado, Congressman Udall and Senator Allard do not? Especially with the media attention that this case now has, we will be asking Congressman Udall and Senator Allard to reconsider their stances.

We are also working with contacts close to newly elected Congressman John Salazar from our district and his brother Ken, newly elected to the US Senate from Colorado, to have them become involved and perhaps co-sponsor private legislation with Senator Allard and Congressman Udall in the spirit of bi-partisanship. We are researching other avenues where our senators and congressmen may be able to assist the process.

We have also recently learned that the family’s first attorney conceded to the initial INS charges that the family had committed fraud by participating with Vaughn in obtaining the fraudulent visas. The family vehemently denies that they were involved in the obtaining of these visas. By that time, Vaughn had left Armenia with Nvart and both were living in America. Vaughn said that he would get them visas to escape the threats that they were receiving from people that he had taken money from and from the Russian Mafia that was pursuing them to collect those debts. These were debts that the family members had not been involved in at all. The family was fleeing for their lives and believed that they had no choice but to trust that Vaughn was obtaining the visas properly. Unfortunately, because of these actions by their prior legal representation, this claim of fraud by the family still shows as a blight in their case files and is very difficult to remove from their record. We have been told by the staff of one of our US Congressmen that this is likely the reason that our politicians have been reluctant to help. We are preparing a letter to our US Congressmen and Senators to correct this misunderstanding.

But, as of this day, February 14, 2005, we will wait for the adjudication of the T and U Visa Applications as well as for the I-130s for the boys’ adoption. All of our community joins with the family in the hopes that the granting of at least the T Visas for Meri, Ruben and Susan and the approval of the adoption for the boys will be finalized shortly and that the long nightmare for this family can move towards a swift and happy conclusion.
-- Pete Whiskeman

Their Story Pt. I: Timeline Description

To donate to the Sargsyan Aid Fund, please send a tax-deductible check to:
Sargsyan Aid Fund
P.O. Box 774
Ridgway, CO 81432