A person passes by a destroyed constructing following a Russian assault within the middle of Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, March 24, 2022. A month in the past, Ganna Harrison was hiding in her condominium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as Russian forces started shelling town. Now she’s lacking, final seen on the U.S.-Mexico border. Efrem Lukatsky, Related Press
A month in the past, Ganna Harrison was hiding in her condominium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as Russian forces started shelling town. Now she’s lacking, final seen on the U.S.-Mexico border.
And her husband Bradley Harrison says the officers with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol who detained her are in charge.
For days, the usAir Pressure veteran has been holed up in a resort in Tijuana whereas his legal professional hounds officers from CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement attempting to determine the place and why his spouse is being detained.
No person is aware of the place Ganna is.
“She’s most likely in a jumpsuit and shackles, for all I do know,” Harrison stated on Monday, occurring 88 hours of silence from border officers.
It’s a “nightmare” ending to a harrowing month for Ganna and the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Sofia.
The mom and daughter have been in Kharkiv when Russian forces invaded — Bradley left about 10 days earlier. Like many in Ukraine, the household thought if there was a battle, it will be remoted to separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk within the east.
However on Feb. 24, the bombs began falling and Bradley watched in horror, hundreds of miles away, as a large invasion unfolded.
For 3 days, Ganna and Sofia hid of their condominium, the shelling so intense that they couldn’t make it to a bomb shelter.
However Ganna ultimately sensed a lull. Round 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 27, she and Sofia left the condominium, taking with them a 70-year-old mom and stepson from a neighboring condominium, then assembly up with Harrison’s sister and brother-in-law.
What adopted was a tense, six-day journey throughout central Ukraine. The group drove over 12 hours every day, avoiding predominant roads and massive cities, and texting associates across the nation for updates because the invasion ramped up.
Ganna and Sofia ultimately met associates on the Romanian border, who drove them to Bucharest. For nearly three weeks the 2 stayed there as refugees.
Sofia is an American citizen — so is Bradley. And Ganna was within the ultimate levels of making use of for a visa.
Bradley had approached his state senator and legal professional in Utah, Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, weeks earlier than the Russian invasion started, for assist with the immigration course of.
McKell referred the household to immigration legal professional Mari Tsosie, who helped Ganna submit her kind I-130, step one an eligible relative of a U.S. citizen takes earlier than acquiring a inexperienced card.
All she wanted was to interview on the U.S. consulate in Ukraine, however the Russian invasion upended all the pieces. As a result of she had no visa, Ganna couldn’t purchase a airplane ticket to the U.S. However she may purchase one to Mexico.
So Ganna and Sofia left Romania, flying into Mexico Metropolis, then to the border metropolis Tijuana.
Bradley drove in from San Diego, the place he met his spouse and daughter. Earlier than they even tried crossing the border, they obtained letters of help from Utah Republican Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, and McKell.
Tsosie says the household had a boilerplate argument for being granted humanitarian parole. If it was denied, she may apply for asylum.
The household packed into Bradley’s automobile and acquired in line on the port of entry. “My spouse desires to request humanitarian parole,” Bradley informed the border patrol agent. They have been ushered right into a secondary space, the place brokers confiscated Ganna’s telephone, then introduced her right into a room whereas Bradley and Sofia waited.
“She got here again crying about 10 minutes later, saying that they have been going to maintain her for one or two days,” Bradley stated.
Now, Tsosie says each CBP and ICE don’t know the place Ganna is.
CBP’s jurisdiction ends 125 miles north of the border, and the company can’t detain many individuals in its facility close to San Diego, says Tsosie. ICE can, so she checked with them. She hasn’t been transferred to ICE custody, they stated, and the company doesn’t know who or the place Ganna is.
Then on Monday she heard again from an legal professional with the Workplace of the Assistant Chief Council for U.S. Customs and Border Safety.
“I can’t discover your shopper in CBP custody,” the legal professional wrote. “So I’m unsure if CBP can be in a position that will help you.”
“She will’t be misplaced within the system. That is fully unconstitutional ... this can be a nightmare,” stated Tsosie. “At this level, I’m not asking to even launch her, I’m asking to only inform me the place the spouse of this U.S. citizen, and the mom of this U.S. citizen youngster, is. You possibly can at the least inform me the place she’s at, and I can go from there.”
Bradley says he’s in shock. Ganna was denied entry to the U.S. final 12 months after attempting to enter on a guests visa, however she wasn’t deported — that’s the one factor he and Tsosie suppose may trigger a hangup on the border.
However that doesn’t clarify why Ganna, who has no legal historical past, is being detained. Or why she’s being denied entry to her legal professional. She could possibly be sick, and is probably going affected by PTSD. “And now she simply all of a sudden disappeared,” Bradley stated.
“She escaped the Russians solely to be captured by the People,” he stated. “She escaped the Russian gulag, and now she’s in an American one.”