John Schirmer, editor of the Nashville Leader, provides the final chapter in the story of a Nashville college teacher denied readmission to the U.S. after a mission trip to Central America and forced to go back to her native India. She arrives in Little Rock tonight. The Leader’s story:
More than one month after being denied re-entry into the United States following a mission trip, Molly Sirigiri is on her way back to Nashville.
Sirigiri, 33, is expected to land at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock tonight (Friday) at 11:30. Joe and Beverly Starr of Nashville will pick her up for the final portion of her trip back to Nashville.
Sirigiri was detained at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston July 8 while returning to the United States from a mission trip to Guatemala. The next day, she was sent back to her home in India because of issues with her visa. Her employer, Cossatot Community College University of Arkansas, has worked with the offices of Sen. Mark Pryor and Sen. John Boozman to secure her return to the United States.
Brad Vines, who led the Guatemala mission team from First Baptist Church of Nashville, has talked with Sirigiri several times since her detention and subsequent return to India. He said today that she “cannot wait to get back home and see her church family Sunday.”
Sirigiri is a biology teacher at CCCUA and missed the first week of school. Other teachers have covered her classes, according Chancellor Dr. Steve Cole.