Fresno Bee, CA

Armenian student to attend Fresno City College

By Vanessa Colón

The Fresno Bee 07/04/08 23:07:31

The Bullard High School graduate and valedictorian who had faced
deportation to Armenia plans to attend Fresno City College instead of
the University of California at Davis, because he doesn’t qualify for
state or federal financial aid.

Arthur Mkoyan, 17, and his parents were allowed to stay in the United
States when Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced a private bill
on Arthur’s behalf last month. The bill, which halted their
deportation, can lead to permanent legal residency

Like other students who are not U.S. citizens or don’t have green
cards, Mkoyan is ineligible to obtain state or federal grants for his
university education.

"I would’ve gone to Davis, but financially I’m stuck," Mkoyan
said. "Every scholarship I saw you had to have legal residency."

Annual fees and tuition at UC Davis were $8,925 this past school year,
according to the university’s Web site. At Fresno City College, the
annual cost is $514, assuming a student takes 12 units of course
credit each semester. Mkoyan said he hopes to transfer eventually to
UC Davis, where he has been accepted.

Under the law, federal and state college grants and loans require
students to be either U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents, said
Rina Campbell, director of undergraduate admissions at Fresno Pacific
University, a private institution. "They don’t qualify even if they
are in the process of trying to obtain citizenship or permanent
residency," Campbell said.

Private scholarships can provide financial assistance to students who
are undocumented, but Mkoyan said the ones he looked into required
citizenship or a green card.

Mkoyan and his mother, Asmik Karapetian, were ordered to leave the
United States in late June for Armenia. Arthur’s 12-year-old brother,
a U.S. citizen, would have gone with them, family members have
said. Arthur’s father, Ruben Mkoian, who spells his name differently
from his son, was released from a detention center in Eloy, Ariz.,
after Feinstein introduced her bill.

Arthur’s family had entered the United States on tourist visas after
fleeing the former Soviet Union. They began asking for asylum status
in 1992. Ruben Mkoian’s application for asylum was rejected. Mkoian
appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco,
but the court rejected his appeal.

Now a private bill keeps the family together in Fresno, but they
remain in limbo.

As long as the bill is pending or is reintroduced, it protects its
beneficiaries from deportation. Mkoyan’s bill is in the Senate
Judiciary Committee, according to Feinstein’s office.

Mkoyan said he doesn’t regret seeking help from Feinstein, because at
least his family is all together.

"It definitely could have been worse," he said. "[But] it’s kind of
sad I can’t go straight to Davis."

The reporter can be reached at vcolon@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6313.