Kelly Rutherford involves the White House in her custody battle

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Kelly Rutherford's kids stuck in France with ex-husband?

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Actress Kelly Rutherford has taken her battle for her two children to the White House. A petition has been filed with whitehouse.gov seeking a federal order to allow her young children, who were ordered by a judge to live in France with her estranged husband, to move back to the U.S.

“This is a political issue now,” Rutherford told Page Six, adding that her children’s “constitutional rights should have been put before our parental rights,” meaning that as American citizens, her kids should not have been deported.

She explained she is appealing to the White House for “political support and help to bring my kids home.”

The “Gossip Girl” star famously lost custody of her kids Hermes, 8, and Helena, 5, to her German businessman ex-husband Daniel Giersch, who moved the children to France. He later took them to Monaco, where they have citizenship.

Rutherford and Giersch, who split in 2010 after four years of marriage, had a contentious battle over custody. In 2012, a California judge ordered that the children live with Giersch in France after his work visa was revoked, preventing him from living in the U.S. Rutherford appealed but lost, and now has to fly across the Atlantic to see her kids.

Rutherford told us that a friend launched the petition this week seeking a federal order, which would allow the children to move back to America. The petition says Giersch has never shown proof that he couldn’t return to the U.S., nor has he applied for a visa to return here.

“The children’s appointed counsel said they should remain in the U.S., but the judge sent the children to France solely because the father claimed he could not return to the U.S., even though NO evidence has been produced from any American official stating that the father was EVER denied entry into the U.S.,” the petition states.

Giersch could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post's Page Six.

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