Armenian valedictorian to be deported

Arthur Mkoyan, a 4.0 valedictorian, at Bullard High School in Fresno is being deported. He and his mom came to America via the old Soviet Union back in 1992. His mom wanted nothing more than to become an American citizen and for her son Arthur to have a good life and a good education.

Now here in America and out of the repression of the Soviet Union, it looked as her dreams would come true. Not so. The appeals for asylum ran out this year. Arthur and his mom will be forced to go back to Armenia. A country that he has not seen since he was 2 yrs old. He can not even understand the language when it is spoken to him.

"Hopefully, I can somehow stay here and continue my studies here," he said. "It would be hard if I go back."

A plea from a scared yet hopeful young man.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has allowed Arthur and his mother to stay until june 20th. Arthur will now be able to graduate and walk with his class.

"Our goal is to enforce these court orders for deportations," Virginia Kice from U.S. Immigrations said. But "if they come to us and they fully intend to respect the court order, we will work with them."

"There's something very wrong with the immigration laws when our government is deporting our best students," said Mark Silverman, director of immigration policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act or better known as "The Dream Act" was a proposed piece of legislation sent to both the house of representatives and the senate many times. This act would allow high-achieving, long term illegals to stay in America to attend collage or join the military. It never passed.

As the stands now, children brought here by their parents can not obtain citizenship alone. It must be through their parents or they must be sent back to their home country. They have no garruntee that they will ever return with citizenship. The ones that do must go through a very long process that can take up to 10 yrs.

Arthur does not have 10 yrs to wait. His future is now. He has already applied and been accepted to the University of California. He would like to get a degree in chemistry and later become a dentist or pharmacist.

"Arthur Mkoyan represents another reason why Congress needs to pass the Dream Act," Sen. Dianne Feinstein said. "It is in our nation's interest to provide talented students the incentive to take this path toward being responsible and law-abiding members of our society."

Even though he would be allowed to come back on a student visa. He would have to go back to his country, where he would apply for the visa and wait to be accepted or denied. This whole process has made his and his family's life extremely hard.

"I can't really concentrate on my studies. It's hard to focus, I'm still keeping my grade-point average high,"

Many of his school mates are holding their breath, wanting their fellow student to stay here in America and become a U.S. citizen.