Meridian -- Ten Americans detained in Haiti over the weekend for trying to take 33 children out of that quake-ravaged country will appear in court Tuesday.
The group from Meridian’s Central Valley Baptist Church says it was inspired by God.
Laura Silsby and four other parishioners left for Haiti more than a week ago.
Since their arrest this weekend, we have heard very little from them.
This Monday, an NBC interview with Silsby was released.
"Your name? Laura Silsby."
She spoke through what appears to be a Haitian jail cell.
You can hear the chaos: police sirens and guards bantering in the background.
Despite this, she speaks calmly.
"We had a conversation with the chief of police last night and it was very encouraging, he basically indicated that he believed we would be out soon," Silsby said.
She thinks the group of 10 Americans will be released.
Their plan was to take Haitian children from Port-au-Prince across the border to the Dominican Republic where a place had been set up to get them adopted, possibly even to the U.S.
"We came here to help the children who had no one else, children that kind of were on the streets or in orphanages that were not in line really for other types of aide," Silsby said.
Since the arrest, Silsby says their requests to call home have been denied.
"We have not had a chance to make any phone calls which has been challenging. We have been really eager to call our children at home and our families," Silsby said.
The story that's now making international news headlines began like this: Silsby and the group were headed toward to the Dominican Republic with 33 children.
At the border, they were told they lacked paperwork and were forced to turnaround.
When the group arrived in Port-au-Prince to retrieve other documents, they were arrested for child trafficking.
The children that were with them--some of them seen here --are now at another orphanage.
Silsby called it all a mix-up and said the group is not guilty of any crime.
"We did have documents we had approval from the Dominican government to go over to, to take these children over to the Dominican Republic. We had we believe that we were getting conflicting information on what was required and we understood that Pastor Sandil wrote us a statement and then indicated that he...," Silsby said.
Moments later, the camera goes dark.
Silsby and the others are expected to be in court tomorrow morning.
The Haitian government has suggested their case be moved to the US because much of Haiti's government is not working right now.
But the U.S. embassy says the U.S. has no jurisdiction.
