American trapped in Haiti for 30 years comes home to Rockland County
"Can you imagine, at 2 years old, coming to Haiti?," Nagurska said in French. "I spent all this time in Haiti. America never looked for me, and it's like they never acknowledged that I was in Haiti and I was from the United States."
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An American citizen is back home in Rockland County, after being trapped in Haiti for 32 years.
Nagurska Ducasse, 34, is adjusting to life in her birthplace, Rockland County, after a long and dangerous 30 years in Haiti.
Ducasse, an American citizen, was born at Nyack Hospital in 1990.
At age 2, her mother brought her to Haiti to stay with family.
Her mother, who returned stateside and had her passport and Social Security card, went missing shortly after.
Nagurska was stranded and oftentimes, surrounded by violence.
She explained how she was kidnapped and held for ransom twice, and her uncle was murdered in front of the American Embassy following one of the family's many attempts to get Nagurska out of Haiti.
"Can you imagine, at 2 years old, coming to Haiti?," Nagurska said in French. "I spent all this time in Haiti. America never looked for me, and it's like they never acknowledged that I was in Haiti and I was from the United States."
Her aunt Daniela Ducasse wrote and called the U.S. Embassy in Haiti's capital Port-Au-Prince several times over the years, providing copies of Nagurska's birth certificate, baptism certificate and photos taken when she lived in Rockland the first two years of her life.
The family almost got Nagurska out following the 2010 earthquake.
"We reprinted everything," Ducasse said. "They didn't want to let her to board with the other U.S. citizens who were living in the country after the earthquake."
Everything changed once Ducasse reached out to Sen. Chuck Schumer at the suggestion of a LoHud reporter who first covered Nagurska's story.
Schumer's team vetted Nagurska and called the American Embassy in Port-Au-Prince to vouch for her.
Two weeks later, Nagurska was issued a passport and was on a Spirit Airlines flight home.
"We were finally able to connect Nagurska to the right agencies and resolved the issue," Sen. Schumer said at a press conference Wednesday with the Ducasse family.
Nagurska said she feels some relief having arrived home, but still feels a void.
Her husband and four children are still in Haiti.
She and Ducasse are trying to navigate bureaucracy to bring her immediate family to live in Rockland.
She is now learning English, looking for a job and considering studying to become a social worker, like her aunt.
