KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — How do you tell your daughter that her father was detained by ICE agents? Sofia Karunenko, a naturalized U.S. citizen and Knoxville resident, learned the hard way.
Her husband, Andrey Kalyakin, who is in the process of applying for legal status, was detained after a March traffic stop. Karunenko is fighting to have her husband released from an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.
At first, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her daughter Emily what happened.
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“I was telling her that he is still working. She was very upset when I tell her that her daddy is in jail, basically, but he did not commit any crime. And I just don’t know how to explain to her, what he did wrong,” said Karunenko…