By Brady Gervais, TwinCities.com

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.

“There is no doubt in (Negussie’s) mind he will be picked up from the airport and put in jail, maybe killed,” said Israel Gobena, the family’s attorney.

It is unclear when the couple and their oldest daughters Hawi, 18, and Alko, 17, will be sent back to East Africa. The fate of Biftu and Habi remains uncertain.

The friends the family has made since living in the United States are trying

to help. Members of their church have taken in the three youngest girls since the rest of the family was jailed on Sept. 17. Others are seeking the help of Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman and Rep. Betty McCollum.

It is up to the Bussas whether to leave their U.S.-born daughters behind or to take them with them, Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, wrote in an e-mail.

“We understand that the arrest of an illegal alien may be disruptive to members of the violator’s family,” he wrote. Yet parenthood doesn’t make one immune from having to comply with the law, he added.

By all accounts, the Bussas were a hardworking family.

Negussie Bussa was attending Century College in White Bear Lake with his daughter Hawi. They were studying to become nurses. Leyouwerk Tsegaye worked at a hospital as a nutrition aide.

They were “perfect” neighbors, said Dick Flesher, who lived next door to the family several years.

When Flesher fell ill a few years ago, Negussie Bussa shoveled his driveway. Flesher and his wife, Loretta, said the Bussas keep their home in top condition.

“I just feel absolutely that it’s important for them to be together and stay here, particularly if there’s a possibility their lives are in danger (in Ethiopia),” Dick Flesher said.

Should the Bussas leave their children in Minnesota, they have few options.

The girls could enter the child welfare system, or stay with someone willing to take them in.

The Bussas “have to find an adult who is willing to act as a parent and has the legal authority to do so,” said Dianne Heins, pro bono counsel for the law firm Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis. Heins is not involved in the Bussas case.

A petition would be filed with the local family court seeking an order transferring custody to a responsible adult, she said. The parents wouldn’t be stripped of their rights. They could resume custody should they return.

But the Bussas say they have no one to care for their children long term, said Gobena, their attorney.

They don’t have much family in Minnesota, said Bula Atomssa, a cousin-in-law who recently visited the family in jail. It would be difficult and expensive to take in the two girls, he said.

They’re bright students and can be “assets” if their family can remain here, he said.

CLAIMS REJECTED

Negussie Bussa moved to the United States about 17 years ago on a student visa to earn his doctorate at Iowa State University, he said. His wife and two oldest daughters followed one year later as dependents.

In 1994, Negussie Bussa filed for political asylum for his family. He fears persecution should he return to Ethiopia because of his role in the Oromo Liberation Front, his continued support for the group and his family’s ethnic background. Although the Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, they do not play a dominant political role in the country, according to the U.S. State Department.

A federal immigration judge rejected their petition and ordered the family to leave the country in 2000 after noting:

# The family’s asylum application lacked details about Negussie Bussa’s claimed abduction and detention.

# Doubts about Negussie Bussa trying to flee the government while he was employed at a government university.

# Leyouwerk Tsegaye claimed her hearing loss was a result of government abuse, though she tried to conceal she had prior hearing problems.

The judge’s decision was appealed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their case is still pending, though the court has denied repeated requests for a stay of deportation.

“I believe in the justice system of the United States,” said Negussie Bussa. “I don’t know why it didn’t work for me.”

There’s a disconnect between the court system and what is happening in Ethiopia, the family’s attorney said.

A 2007 State Department report on Ethiopia outlined several human rights abuses during the year. To name a few, abuses included: limiting citizens’ rights to change the government; unlawful killings, and beating, abuse and mistreatment of detainees and opposition by security forces; poor prison conditions; use of excessive force by security services in an internal conflict, according to the report.

FAITH IN GOD

A Minneapolis church has rallied around the family.

The three youngest daughters — Alko, Biftu and Habi — are being cared for by members of the Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church, senior pastor Melkamu Negeri said.

The church has raised around $4,000 to offset the costs of caring for the children, pay for food for the family at the jail and cover phone calls from the jail to the children, Negeri said. The congregation has also backed a petition requesting one of the parents be released to care for the children. Members regularly pray for the family, as well.

“Of course, we will do whatever we can to support them,” Negeri said. “They really do not hesitate to support each other.”

The family could despair given their situation, but their faith keeps them hopeful, Gobena said.

“These people are Christians, and they are treating the incident as good Christians would,” he said. “They are not hopeless. They are still hopeful that God has a way to let them be freed.”

The family still holds out hope they can remain in the United States, and together.

Hawi Bussa said she trusts God will not separate her family. And if they ultimately go to Ethiopia, she said, they “will be OK, somehow, some way. God will make a way.”

Brady Gervais can be reached at 651-228-2171.

HOW TO HELP
What: Fundraiser for Bussa family
When: 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: St. Paul Student Center, University of Minnesota, 2017 Buford Ave., St. Paul
What: Traditional Ethiopian and American food, open to the public