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Three Kids in Mercer County are in Jeopardy of being Deported
Posted 8/5/2006 09:48 PM

The children are from Africa and they've been living in Southern West Virginia for the past three years.
Story by Liz Kravitz Email | Bio

A community is coming together to fight for three Mercer County children to be able to say in the United States.

16-year-old Dashi Johnson, 13-year-old Mashi Johnson and 10-year-old Tahj Johnson have been in Mercer County for three years.

On Thursday the Small family was forced to hand the kids over to federal custody.

Right now they're being held by the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago waiting for a custody and deportation hearing.

They're in danger of being deported back to their homeland, the African Country Sierra Leone.

The Small family wants to make the boys part of their family. And the Woolwine's are helping them achieve that goal. "I couldn't love them no more than I could love my own and we love them and we wish we could just keep them here," said Michael Small, one of the men fighting for the boys.

The boys grew close to the families during the past three years.

The boys were able to live in the United States with their stepmother, who is a U-S citizen. But their father is not a citizen.

The families fighting for the boys said the boys father, Edmund Johnson, recently told them he was going back to Africa and gave the Small family temporary custody of the boys.

The Small family said they also have documentation from the boys biological mother giving them custody.

She still lives in Sierra Leone, Africa.

But last week ICE took the boys from the Small family.

The Smalls said that's because the boys stepmother signed for documents and never passed them along to anyone else.

Kim found out through letters when she took the kids into her residence permanently which was in March of this year that the kids had actually missed a court hearing that would have ultimately granted them permanent residence in the US" says Eric Woolwine, one of the men fighting for the boys.

Now these families say they have two options: Fight for the boys in court, or convince West Virginia Senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller to step in and help.

"We see no need to send them back when you have two willing stable both financially, emotionally, physically, families that are willing to take these kids in and raise them as if they were their own," said Woolwine.

Both families said they won't stop fighting until they can adopt the boys or they become U-S citizens.

The families have organized Project "Send Up a Wish". They're asking people to sign a petition asking to keep the kids from being deported.

For more information you can call Eric Woolwine at 304-922-4452.