DENVER (AP) – An Armenian family held in an immigration detention center in Denver for nearly five weeks has been unexpectedly released.
”I’m shaking. It happened so fast. It’s incredible. I feel like I’m in a dream,” said Gevorg Sargsyan, moments after he, his sister Meri, brother Hayk and father Ruben walked out of the center Thursday.
The Sargsyan family was taken into custody while their attorney was trying to obtain visas for them, based on their contention they were victims of a con man who trafficked in fraudulent visas. That battle is not over.
The family has lived and worked in the western Colorado town of Ridgway for more than six years.
Hayk is a senior honor student at Ridgway High School. Gevorg was on the dean’s list at the University of Colorado, where he was studying chemical engineering. Meri was well known for playing piano in local churches. Ruben, a space-optics scientist in Armenia, had been working multiple jobs to provide for his family.
His wife, Susan, and their daughter Nvart, who both work in Ouray and Ridgway, were not taken into custody because their immigration cases were being heard separately.
Ouray County residents have raised more than $30,000 for their legal defense, written hundreds of letters and e-mails and asked officials from regional immigration officials to President Bush to take another look at the case and allow the family to stay.
”We are very glad ICE made this decision,” said Pete Whiskeman, a Ridgway businessman who has helped lead the effort.
Carl Rusnok, a Dallas-based spokesman for the immigration division, said the Sargsyans were released on orders from Washington on Thursday.
”They were released because they are not a threat to national security and not a flight risk,” Rusnok said. ”Frankly, we can use the detention space for more dangerous criminals.”
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