- Deported parents face a hard decision

Deported parents face a hard decision

Pioneer Press - Oct 31, 2008 - Negussie Bussa and Leyouwerk Tsegaye must decide: Leave their two youngest daughters behind to an uncertain future when they are deported, or take them to the couple's native Ethiopia where they fear possible death.

The Roseville couple and their four daughters face the possibility of being split after federal courts rejected the parents' asylum claims. The Bussas and their two oldest girls immigrated in the early 1990s and settled in the Twin Cities. The two younger girls, Biftu, 13, and Habi, 11, are U.S. citizens and can stay behind.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," Negussie Bussa said recently as he sat in the Sherburne County jail waiting to be deported. "I don't want them to be harmed, but I have no options for where to leave them."

The father, a member and current supporter of the Oromo Liberation Front, says back in his home country he had been jailed, mistreated and tortured, according to a petition in federal court. But the family's asylum request was rejected as implausible by immigration and federal judges, who ordered they be sent back to Ethiopia. Read More.