Deportation Stopped

When people come together and fight for justice, we see these kinds of results. Good Luck to Arthur and may his future be full of success along with his family.

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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.