AEGiS-Chicago Tribune: U.S. to grant Thai boy special immigrant status

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

U.S. to grant Thai boy special immigrant status

Chicago Tribune - May 13, 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With the blessing of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, the Justice Department has decided to grant semipermanent immigration status to a 4-year-old Thai boy who has become an international poster child for the ills of human trafficking, officials said.

The decision helps a Los Angeles couple acting as Phanupong Khaisri's guardians in their fight to keep him in the United States. The boy's grandparents seek his return to Thailand.

Lawyers for the Immigration and Naturalization Service are expected to convey their decision Monday to attorneys involved in the two-year battle over the boy, who is known as Got, according to a senior Justice Department official who asked not to be identified.

The official said the boy will be granted a "T" visa, which Congress created in 2000 as a special immigration status.

"T" visas allow victims of human trafficking to stay in the U.S. if they can convince immigration officials that they would face "extreme hardship" if returned to their native countries. Got will be one of the first people granted that special status, the official said.

Got arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in 2000, accompanied by two adults who authorities say were using him as a decoy to smuggle a female prostitute into the country. The adults were expelled to Thailand, but the question of what to do with the boy set off an international debate.

The boy's father killed himself not long after Got was born, and his mother, who has worked at a bar in Bangkok, was a drug addict. Got is HIV-positive.
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