11-Year-Old Cumming Girl Fighting Deportation

A family is fighting an immigration mix-up that may force them to send their 11-year-old daughter back to Poland.

The Forsyth County girl, whose father is a U.S. citizen, could be deported if she doesn’t leave the country by July.

Ewelina Bledniak hasn’t been in Poland since she was 2 years old, but now immigration officers are ordering her to return and wait a year before she can come home.

“I was really sad because I’m going to have to leave so much,” said Ewelina.

The 11-year-old, who goes to school in Forsyth County, is seen as an illegal immigrant by the feds.

“She has to leave (the) country before July 23, if not, she’ll be deported. If she stays here and they deport her, she will not get back here for 10 years,” said Agnes Bledniak, Ewelina’s mother.

LORI GEARY: 11-Year-Old Cumming Girl Fighting Deportation

“It was a mistake of my previous attorney,” said Hubert Bledniak, Ewelina’s father.

The news came as a shock to Ewelina’s parents. Her mother has a green card and her father is a U.S. citizen. Hubert Bledniak said they just found out their attorney missed a deadline in 2001 that would have allowed Ewelina to apply for her green card while in the United States.

“It’s going to be about a year,” said Hubert Bledniak.

It will be a year that Ewelina must spend in Poland. She doesn’t remember much about her home country because she hasn’t been there since she was a toddler.

“It’s going to be really sad because I’m very comfortable speaking English,” said Ewelina.

“She spent most of her life over here. She came here when she was not even two and now she’s 11,” said Hubert Bledniak.

Agnes Bledniak said she will stay with her daughter as long as she can in Poland. As a business owner, Hubert Bledniak said he can’t leave for that long and faces the possibility of not seeing his daughter for a year because of the paperwork mix-up.

“I don’t think that this is moral…just to separate families like that,” said Hubert Bledniak.

“I changed schools before. It wasn’t that bad but this is going to be very different,” said Ewelina.

The Bledniaks have a new attorney, but are not optimistic this will be worked out by the July 23 deadline, so they’ve already bought their plane tickets to Poland.

Ewelina will stay with her grandmother in Poland until she gets her green card.