SEQUIM — Artist Oliver Strong and his wife, Penny, have made their mark on the community in the past 10 years.
Now the Sequim immigrant couple and their five children are fighting to stay.
On Thursday, Department of Homeland Security agents came to their house, took Oliver Strong into custody and transported him to an immigration detention facility in Tacoma, where he is being held without bond.
Penny Strong was allowed to stay with their children.
But she was served with an order of supervision and told that the family has 45 days to leave the United States and return to her native South Africa.
But going back to South Africa is something they don’t want to do, Penny Strong said Saturday.
“We need the community’s support,” she said. “We have no other home. This is our home.”
Oliver Strong, who specializes in bronze and steel sculpture, is best known for the large elk signs he designed that flank U.S. Highway 101 at the east and west entrances to Sequim.
Arrived in 1991
The couple have lived in the United States since 1991, and in Sequim since 1994, where they have owned two businesses, formed close friendships, raised their children ages seven months to 13 years, and are recognized in the community, Penny Strong said.
Their visitors’ visas expired in the early 1990s, she said.
In February 2002, while trying to obtain citizenship, the government took them to immigration court for overstaying their visas.
The Strongs filed for cancellation of their removal and were denied by a judge. With a lawyer’s help, they appealed in 2003 but never heard a response, Penny Strong said.
Until Thursday, when her husband was taken away.
