BILL HALTS DEPORTATION OF HIGH SCHOOL VALEDICTORIAN
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Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA
June 12 2008
The father of the Bullard High School valedictorian who had faced
deportation to Armenia will be released Thursday from a detention
facility in Arizona so that he can be reunited with his family in
Fresno, federal officials said Wednesday.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a Senate bill Tuesday
evening that halts the deportation of Arthur Mkoyan, 17, his mother
Asmik Karapetian and Ruben Mkoian, Arthur’s father.
Arthur, a 4.0 grade-point average student, learned of Feinstein’s
bill shortly after his graduation ceremony Tuesday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ordered Arthur and
his mother to leave the United States in late June and return to
Armenia. Arthur’s 12-year-old brother, a U.S. citizen, would have
had no choice but to leave with the family, family members have said.
Ruben Mkoian is in a detention facility in Eloy, Ariz., but because
of the bill, he will be released Thursday, said Virginia Kice,
a ICE spokeswoman.
"We are preparing to release him," Kice said.
The private bill would grant permanent legal residency, but private
bills rarely pass. As long as the bill is pending or is reintroduced,
however, it protects its beneficiaries from deportation.
Arthur’s family, who entered the United States on tourist visas,
had fled the former Soviet Union and had been seeking asylum since
1992. Ruben Mkoian’s application for asylum was rejected.
Mkoian, who spells his name differently from his son, appealed to
the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The court
rejected his appeal, saying he hadn’t demonstrate that Armenian
officials would be unwilling to protect him or that he would be
tortured if he returned to Armenia.
Once Asmik Karapetian learned her husband was coming home, she said
she was in shock.
"Everything is happening so fast. Oh, my God. It’s like a dream,"
Karapetian said.