When Arthur Mkoyan was two years old, his family fled Armenia to escape the climate of Soviet Union rule. They’ve been working since 1992 to claim asylum in the United States while their son has excelled in the classroom. This week, the Fresno-area high school senior with a 4.0 GPA should be focusing on final exams and his Valedictorian speech to his fellow graduates; instead, he and his mother are facing deportation while the father sits in a migrant worker concentration camp in Arizona.
“Our goal is to enforce these court orders for deportations,” Kice said. But “if they come to us and they fully intend to respect the court order, we will work with them.”
Mark Silverman, director of immigration policy at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco, said Arthur Mkoyan’s case illustrates why Congress should have passed the Dream Act. The act would have allowed students who excelled in school and stayed out of trouble to become permanent residents and attend college or enlist in the military
“There’s something very wrong with the immigration laws when our government is deporting our best students,” Silverman said.
The Mkoyans are just one more example of the complexity of the situation many migrant worker families face in this era of stagnation when it comes to an overhaul of the immigration system in the U.S. They have a 12 year old son who was born here, therefore a citizen of this country, and a 17 year old eldest son who is top of his class and has already been accepted to UC-Davis in the fall to study Chemistry.
They are collateral damage to a government system that has dragged its feet over the years to unclog application processing, figure out what to do with mixed-status families, and diversify their procedures for treatment of migrant workers who don’t have criminal backgrounds. The default position of the U.S. government at this time is to either lock them up in a concentration camp where some are being killed through mistreatment, or deport them immediately regardless of family unity issues. This is inhumane and unacceptable.
Fortunately, local communities are banding together to exercise all legal options to keep these human rights violations at a minimum. In the case of Arthur Mkoyan, the media attention his case has received has initiated a wave of support.
On Monday, Arthur said, he was showered with questions and offers of help from students and teachers at school, who hadn’t known of his plight. His home phone has been ringing off the hook as friends and supporters called. Television news reporters were trying to get an interview most of the day, Arthur said.
The shy 17-year-old with a 4.0 grade-point average said he is overwhelmed by the sudden attention.
“It makes me feel good people care,” he said.
The family has also reached out to Senator Diane Feinstein to see if she will support a private bill that, if passed, would give Arthur a green card and the ability to stay in the U.S. and finish his education. Even if it does not pass through Congress, though, the deportation order would be halted immediately upon submission of the bill. Please call her office, as well as the other listed public officials and ask them to support this worthy effort:
Fresno Office: (559) 485-7430
DC Office: (202) 224-3841>
Senator Barbara Boxer
Fresno Office: (559) 497-5109
DC Office: (202) 224-3553
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
DC Office: (202) 225-0100
And in this episode of Why Elections Matter, it should be noted that the Congressional Representative, George Radanovich-R (CA-19), has basically told them, “Tough Shit.”
“He doesn’t feel he should be able to pick winners or losers and who should on an individual basis stay or leave,” said Spencer Pederson, Radanovich’s press secretary.
It should also be noted that Arthur Mkoyan’s deportation would be a non-issue if the Governator hadn’t vetoed California’s version of the D.R.E.A.M. Act (twice). The federal version of it is still languishing on Capitol Hill because lawmakers are too afraid to do anything substantive in an election year that might be construed (the horror!) as helpful to migrant workers and their families. I recommend bookmarking the group blog A Dream Deferred for updates on the bill’s status.
Also available at The Sanctuary and Latino Político
What a nightmare…
This is what happens when you empower xenophobic idiots by putting them in positions of authority.
yup. not to mention the hyrdra that’s on teevee and talk radio.
consider it done manny, l’m also going to forward that article to sen. salazar.
dropping a dime on madame speaker pelosi and senate majority leader reid is probably worthwhile as well.
this cannot…will not stand.
thanks, dada. I’ve added speaker pelosi’s phone number to the diary.
Yup. Wouldn’t want someone that bright to remain in our country, would we.
Certainly not! Plus he has crazy ideas to learn other languages besides American™
I had a student go through a very similar situation a couple of years ago. There were many who wrote letters on her behalf – to no avail.
It’s frustrating to no end that good students see their options ripped away from them by politicos who are either malicious or indifferent to their plight.
Hi Many, I read about this the other day and had the same gut-sick reaction.
A bit of good new on the home front. We found out a few months ago that Imogen’s job in the Department of the Environment was axed as a cost cutting measure by the new Labor government (so much for the Australian “left” having better environmental policies). Yesterday she got offered a job in the Department of Immigration, where she will be working with the Multicultural Affairs, Citizenship & Settlement Branch. Many of her clients will be humanitarian refugees and I couldn’t think of a better person to have in their corner.
Also, a week from today I will officially become an Australian citizen (there’ll be a ceremony with our local mayor in full robes {wacky English cultural hold-over}). It’s been five years in the works and it will be a considerable relief to know that I can now stay in Australia no matter what (plus, I get to vote). I don’t ever think of this process, which has been frequently complicated and expensive, without acknowledging that if I wasn’t white and English-speaking (and educated) how many more hurdles I would have had to clear. Hurdles that prove to be walls for far too many people. To celebrate, tomorrow I think I’ll go buy something from the shop in Hobart run by our African refugees.
wow! congats keres…l’m extremely pleased to hear that very good news.
l’ll tip a toast in your honor.
Thanks you. But not a Fosters, no one here actually drinks that.
nevah…we have some nationallyrenowned micro-brewers here, and l support em.
salut! to you both.
Sigh, micro brews, how I miss them. Have an extra one of for me.
On both Imogen’s new job and your upcoming citizenship. Happy days all round.
A sheynem dank!
I’ve been threaten with gifts of a pavlova and some vegimite. Possibly a lamington. Have I mentioned I don’t like gooey cream-filled backed goods, which most Australians just love.
ah vegemite … years ago I had an Australian boss who thought that was a taste I ought to acquire. Having actual good taste, I didn’t. If eating that stuff was requirement of citizenship, I’d never make it. 😉
Yegemite tastes like salty charcoal to me. That said, just a touch on buttered toast isn’t half bad. But no “real Ausralian” would do less than slather it on.
Amazing news!!! Hearty congratulations to you both, sounds like lots will be changing in the near future.
Thank you.
If the change in Imogen’s job didn’t come with a significant pay cut, we’d be a bit happier. But it’s hard to complain when there are so few good jobs in this state and at least Imogen’s new position is better than most salary wise. It’s one of the prices you pay to live on an gorgeous little island south of nearly everything. Imogen could have had a dozen job offers in Canberra (Australia’s capitol), but there’s no way we could have continued living in the boonies with our own woods just out the back door.
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Compared to the size of its national population, the United States had only one asylum seeker per 1,000 inhabitants, while the average in the European Union countries was 2.6 asylum seekers per 1,000 inhabitants.
Sweden saw a 50 percent increase in the number of new asylum applications, from 24,300 in 2006, to 36,200 last year. This large increase was caused primarily by the arrival of large numbers of Iraqi asylum seekers.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."