Speaking from a federal jail cell in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon, 18-year-old Emma Sarkisian said one way she has kept up her spirits since being taken into custody Friday by federal agents in Las Vegas was watching her little sister's impersonations of "bad 'American Idol' singers."
She laughed. Then she cried, blurting out, "I miss everybody and want to go home."
Using a 12-minute calling card to speak to her mother in Henderson at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Emma had just been told by a Department of Homeland Security official for the second time in five days that she and her sister, Mariam, had been granted a reprieve from being put on a plane to the Republic of Armenia -- a land that, despite being their birthplace, is so foreign to both that they don't even speak its language.
Emma graduated from Palo Verde High School in June. Her sister, who's 17, is set to do the same in 2006. Their father, Rouben, runs Tropicana Pizza at Pecos Road and Wigwam Parkway.
The Sarkisian family is now wrapped up in a case that their attorney Jeremiah Wolf Stuchiner -- who worked 26 years for the Immigration and Naturalization Service before opening a private law practice 23 years ago -- called "absolutely ridiculous."
Stuchiner compared the case to that of Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy in 2000 who also was taken by armed federal agents from his relatives in the United States.
And though a small crowd of Armenians and Russians burst into applause at Tropicana Pizza 3:30 Wednesday afternoon when they heard the news that the Sarkisian sisters had gained another day on U.S. soil, only three hours before the flight was scheduled to leave Los Angeles, Stuchiner said the case was far from over.
The family's odyssey began in 1991 when Rouben and his wife, Anoush, came to the United States with their two young daughters on a tourist visa from Ukraine.
Anoush applied for political asylum as the Soviet Union was about to break up. The application was denied.
The couple split up after having three more daughters in the United States in the next three years. Rouben married a U.S. citizen and thereby became a resident, the step below citizenship.
That marriage also broke apart.
Rouben has lived with his five daughters and shared raising them with their mother for about five years.
In July, Stuchiner said, Rouben took his two oldest daughters to immigration officials in Las Vegas to inquire about their status, since he understood that they also should have become residents.
He was told they should be deported. However, when U.S. authorities called Armenian authorities, they were told that the sisters had been born in a country that no longer exists, since the Soviet Republic no longer existed.
They were Soviet citizens, but not citizens of the Republic of Armenia. So the Armenian government wouldn't accept them.
Immigration authorities issued an order of supervision, meaning the daughters had to visit local federal offices each month.
Meanwhile, Stuchiner waited for an appointment to be granted for their father's citizenship exam, but that date never came. Once Rouben becomes a citizen, the whole issue of his daughters' status becomes moot, since he can petition for them to become residents, Stuchiner said.
When the Sarkisians showed up for their monthly visit Jan. 14, immigration officials told them that Armenia had decided to issue the daughters passports. They could now be deported.
The girls were sent on a plane to Los Angeles that same day, but not before a Las Vegas official said to Stuchiner that their flight out would not be until Tuesday.
On Monday, the attorney got a call from the girls.
"They said, 'They're putting us on a plane.' " he said. It was 5:45 p.m. The plane was scheduled to take off at 6:45 p.m.
Stuchiner said he called an official in Los Angeles and got him to contact the official in Las Vegas who had promised the sisters would remain in the country until Tuesday.
Ten minutes before the flight left, the girls were taken back to their cell.
On Tuesday, the flight was full, Los Angeles officials told the attorney.
On Wednesday, Stuchiner filed a writ of habeas corpus with attorney Troy Baker at the George Federal Courthouse.
Again, the flight was scheduled for 6:45 p.m. At 3:30 p.m., the magistrate handed down a decision to grant the stay.
But Los Angeles officials wouldn't release the girls Tuesday, a development Stuchiner saw as "madness."
"What are they afraid of?" the attorney said. "It's not like they're public enemy No. 1. This is a girl missing high school, for God's sake."
Stuchiner will be back in court today to file an emergency order requesting immediate release of the sisters.
Then he will argue that the federal government should allow Rouben to obtain his citizenship and petition for his daughters, on humanitarian grounds.
He also said that members of Nevada's congressional delegation could step in and pass what's known as a private bill, which would also grant the girls residence.
Stuchiner said the system -- a system he knows from the inside -- has become more rigid and entrenched since Sept. 11, 2001.
"(The attacks) have caused the most compassionate nation in the world to not have compassion with a couple of teenage girls," he said.
Meanwhile, the youngest of the five Sarkisian girls, Patricia, has decided to go straight to the top.
The 10-year-old wrote a letter to President Bush Tuesday asking a series of questions about her sisters.
Why are they in jail? she asks.
"Why can't they come home?"
"I mean they didn't do anything wrong like drugs or even smoke."
"I'm asking you these questions because you are the only person that can answer these questions."
She signed the letter, "Just a kid, Patricia Sarkisian."
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy