SENATOR’S BILL TO ASSIST STUDENT’S RESIDENCY FIGHT

Coalinga Record
June 11 2008
CA

FRESNO (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein is introducing a private bill
to try to keep the valedictorian at Fresno’s Bullard High School from
being deported.

Seventeen-year-old Arthur Mkoyan’s 4.0 grade-point average qualified
him to enter one of the state’s top universities. But he and his mother
were ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum failed.

The family fled from what used to be part of the Soviet Union and
has been seeking asylum since 1992.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave the family an extension until
June 20 so Mkoyan could attend his graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

Feinstein introduced a private bill Tuesday that would provide Mkoyan,
his mother and father with permanent residency.