As last-minute appeals fail, Karnaoukh family is deported back to Ukraine (02/19/06)

As last-minute appeals fail, Karnaoukh family is deported back to Ukraine

by Camilla Huk
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

RUTHERFORD, N.J. - It was a very cold weekend in New Jersey. We had a blizzard Saturday - but it was even colder in Kyiv, when the Karanoukh family formerly of Little Falls, N.J., arrived there at 4 a.m. on Saturday, February 11.

Despite the very best last-minute emergency appeals before the Federal Immigration Appeals Board in Virginia, their motion to remain in the United States was denied for the entire family. All four - Vassili (the father), Maria (the mother) and their two sons, Igor and Sviatoslav - were flown to Ukraine. The situation is particularly tragic for Sviatoslav, who turned 22 on February 13 - he was only three months from graduation from Stevens Institute in New Jersey, with a degree in mechanical engineering. For him a bright future with a medical device manufacturer, for whom he was already working, was destroyed.

There were reports all day between Bob Braun of the Star-Ledger, who spent the entire day at the Detention Center, and Ollie Hawkins from Prosecutor Ted Romankiw's office. I was calling the Karnaoukhs' attorney, Vladislav Sirota, who was out of the office most of the day.

Mr. Braun was hoping, as we all were, that the boys would not be responsible for their parents' legal woes. He reported that Sviatoslav, known as Sviat, was sure that he and his 20-year-old brother would be allowed to remain in the U.S., and, even as he was being processed for deportation, when his state and U.S. ID cards were taken from him, he fought futilely to keep at least his Stevens Institute ID card. For this effort, he was handcuffed. He kept assuring his grandmother in phone calls that they would probably let him off the bus on the way to the airport.

Later, as we would learn from Sviat's e-mail from Kyiv, on the way to the airport, their weeping mother asked the driver of the van to please turn down the loud music. In response, he laughed, and turned up the volume.

Though they were promised that they would have an opportunity to see their grandmother, perhaps for the last time, as she is in poor health, it was a mute promise. The Karnaoukhs were kept in the van, with the motor running, locked in with all the windows shut, before they boarded the plane. Nauseated, they asked for fresh air - to no avail, Sviat reported.

Frantic about their safety, the grandmother, Olga Khoma, finally had a chance to say at least a short good-bye to her daughter, when Maria was able to call her mother from the plane on someone's borrowed cellphone. And it was not until they arrived in Kyiv, and after being questioned individually for an hour regarding Vassili's political asylum application in the U.S., that they were able to call their grandmother and talk, Sviat reported.

The family arrived in a city that is very different from the one they left 15 years ago. It is very, very cold. They are from western Ukraine; they are lost and they are crying, they told Mrs. Khoma.

There was no housing ready to accept them, save for the expensive tourist hotels. They had only enough money to pay for a week's stay, possibly in a youth hostel. Thanks to the efforts of a local family, they were invited to stay in a private apartment. From the U.S. we called and appealed to Michael Heretz of St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Society, who found housing at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy when the Karnaoukhs move out of their temporary quarters with a private family. We have to wait to hear from the family. Here, the grandmother frets and worries. The Karnaoukhs are not reachable.

* * *

We spend Saturday afternoon at my home, going over the past and the future, over and over again. I get calls from fellow Ukrainian Americans; most offer solace and support, and ask questions.

Some have asked me why I think returning to Ukraine is such a tragedy. "After all, Ukraine is now a democratic nation," they argue.

"Ukraine has a long way to go yet," I tell them, "and these people have been away far too long. The children did not study in Ukrainian institutions, their language skills are not those of natives. They are Americans. They can't "catch up."

Furthermore, I tell them, the Karnaoukhs had no choice in the matter of their lives, their destinies. If someone wishes to return to Ukraine, bless you - I offer you my support. But everyone should have a choice. Since you speak Ukrainian so well and think it's a great opportunity, perhaps it's one you'll consider for yourself, I suggest to those who continue to argue.

* * *

The greatest tragedy is for us as Americans, because this deportation was based on bureaucratic malfeasance, poorly prepared legal submissions and a merciless INS. The Karnaoukh family can do well anywhere, because they are bright and hard-working people, who have never asked for assistance. It is our loss - for they had much to contribute here, just as they had over the 15 years of their stay.

It is also a lesson and eye-opener for our community, which is so shocked by the methods used to take this family to the deportation center in Elizabeth on our Christmas Eve (January 6), when 10 security guards burst into their home that morning. Family members were searched, handcuffed and led away - like criminals. Their crime: wishing to be Americans, to contribute to this country, just as we and our forefathers have. They were immigrants from Ukraine whose immigration paperwork had gone awry.

It is time our community recognized that we need to know who is taken away this way. We need to stand firm in protecting them and their rights as human beings.

I have heard from more detainees in these facilities. They are told that they will be candidates for organ donation. They are intimidated. Polish women deportees from other facilities claim that they were raped just before being taken onto planes. Who would stand up for them? Who would believe them once they returned to the land of their birth?

The Polish Consulate General visits each Polish citizen so detained. No one in the Elizabeth facility was visited by anyone from Ukraine's Consulate.

We Ukrainian Americans need to visit the detainees. We need to establish ways to help them legally. To this end, Branch 18 of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America in Passaic-Bergen is working on a free seminar on immigration: what to do and what not to do. With the support of local activists of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America we will hold the seminar in the Ukrainian Center in Passaic. As soon as details are finalized, we will make sure to announce them so everyone can plan to attend.

It is also encouraging that God blessed us with the likes of Brian Donohuem and Mr. Braun of the Star-Ledger and State Sen. Ray Lesniak, who helped us establish contacts. And there are those within our own community, like Bohdan Domaradsky, who first brought this matter to my attention; and the proactive outreach by people like attorney Bohdan Vitvitsky, Union County Prosecutor Romankiw and his assistant, Ollie Hawkins, who all worked to support the efforts of the family's last attorney, Mr. Sirota.

In addition, there are people who got the story out and got support from Seton Hall University for future efforts. The support of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Passaic, led by its Pastor Ihor Roik, and Father Joseph Szupa of Elizabeth's St. Vladimir Ukrainian Catholic Church, who helped with the prayer vigil held at the detention center on Sunday, February 5, was something our community can be proud of. Even people who didn't know the family came to pray, to support them, to join the efforts of the students of Stevens Institute, classmates of Sviat, and Sviat's boss, Frank Occidentale, in demanding their release.

Iryna Kurowyckyj, national president of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, reached out to her contacts to find support. Others, like Lidia Kramarchuk, continue to work to help the family abroad.

* * *

In the meantime, if readers have any information they wish to share or need help with, please contact Camilla Huk: 138 Vreeland Ave., Rutherford, NJ 07070; telephone, 201-933-2580.

Remember Sviat's appeal: "We hope that this story will help to reshape the American immigration system and enable it to see a human being in everyone, no matter what passport we hold. ... Please don't forget about us because we really need your help.'

Let's pray that we don't.

| Home Page |