SENATOR TRIES TO KEEP VALEDICTORIAN FROM DEPORTATION
Chuck Afflerbach
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CNN
June 12 2008

Plans to deport an Armenian high school valedictorian in Fresno,
California, were put on hold Tuesday after Sen. Dianne Feinstein took
steps to make him and his family legal U.S. residents.

While 17-year-old Arthur Mkoyan celebrated at his Bullard High School
graduation ceremony, the Democratic senator introduced a bill on his
behalf in the Senate.

"I’m just excited," Mkoyan said. He hopes to study medicine at a state
university in the fall. "It’s really amazing they’re going to do this,
because it’s going to stop everything."

The family arrived in the United States in 1995 on six-month tourist
visas, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Settling in Fresno, Arthur’s father, Ruben Mkoian (he and his son spell
their last names slightly differently), worked as a truck driver. The
teen’s mother worked in a jewelry store, and the family set about
living their lives, which soon included a younger brother for Arthur.

Mkoian believes that if they were to return to Armenia, his family
would be subject to reprisals because of his attempts to expose
corruption at the government agency where he worked.

After the family’s visas expired, they applied for U.S. residency. That
application was denied, Kice said.

Immigration wheels turns extremely slowly. An immigration judge finally
ruled in 2002 that the family had no legal right to remain in America.

Don’t Miss Academic plans threatened by deportation The family
tried again by applying to the Board of Immigration Appeals; that
was rejected, also. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year
denied their petition for a hearing.

"I would remind people that this family had ample access to due
process," Kice said. "The case has been in litigation for more than
10 years. Immigration experts on every level determined that they
had no legal basis to be in the United States."

Mkoyan doesn’t know much about Armenia. He feels like an American
teenager.

"I haven’t been in Armenia since I was 2, so I don’t really know
anything about the place," Mkoyan said. "All I’ve seen is just videos
my mom has watched on the Internet." Watch the teen talk about how
much he wants to stay in the U.S. "

Mkoyan and his mother, Asmik Karapetian, learned that Feinstein
was fighting for them when they returned home from graduation. The
senator’s office left a message on the family’s answering machine.

"It gives you a little hope that maybe it will pass and maybe we can
stay," the teen’s mother said.

Both houses of Congress would have to pass the bill — and President
Bush would have to sign it — for it to take effect. However, the
bill’s introduction is enough to halt deportation, which was scheduled
for June 20.

"As a matter of policy, we won’t proceed with a deportation as long
as a private bill is pending," Kice said.

But the odds remain long against the family staying in the United