Four-year-old US-born girl stuck in Haiti
MIAMI - As the crisis in Haiti continues to get worse, a former South Florida family is in a difficult immigration situation.
The entire family lives in Haiti, but one of its members was born in the United States and they want her emergency evacuated.
Brianna Nehemia Prevalcin is stuck in limbo. She was born in Miami while the family was on a tourist visa which ran out.
With this latest unrest, her parents who are Haitian want her out of one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince.
Prevalcin Nehemy is Brianna's father he says she wants to come to her home. "She told me every day that I want to go back to my country, but I said I can't, I can't send you. I can't, her mother can't also and we can't, she can't go alone."
Brianna has a US passport and her parents want desperately to use it to get her and at least one of them out. They live less than a quarter of a mile from this police station that's seen some of the worst violence.
Nehemy says, "In this area, people shoot everywhere, every day and some people die also. They kill people also."
Brianna has not been able to go to school or go outside and be a normal four-year-old.
While the US State Department has been evacuating US citizens from Haiti, they want their daughter added to the list.
Prevalcin says he's tried, "I already asked American Embassy information to, to make a request, request a visa for my wife, for me but they always said that we, we have a lack of personnel for the time being and wait for when the embassy get up to to make the request."
Vanessa Jospeh is an Immigration Attorney for Catholic Legal Services. She says, "I think under the laws of immigration, which if we're following just that it's, it's hard to say that the US would recognize that it owes the family anything even though it, the US may acknowledge that it owes this child safety and refuge."
Jospeh does not represent this family. She says while Brianna's situation may seem dire to her parents, without documents her family may have to try a humanitarian program. "As an immigration attorney, I also understand that this country has laws and programs that we have to consider before we think about how do we get her out of Haiti, especially in these times."
Prevalcin says what he cant do, is let her go without one of her parents. "I can't send her alone someone, her mother or I one of one of can go with, with her."
The family has also reached out to their congressperson for an emergency visa. They are still waiting on that response.