Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - Tuesday, June 5, 2001
U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said that deporting the boy, who is HIV-positive, to Thailand would be a "death sentence" because he would have no access to adequate medical care there.
"Over here, the young man has a chance to make it," Tevrizian said.
The judge also said that Phanupong Khaisri's paternal grandparents in Thailand, who are vying for his custody, are unfit guardians because the grandmother has a conviction for heroin trafficking.
"There is absolutely no reason why this child should be turned over to his grandparents," the judge said.
"Can you imagine the headline: `Federal judge turns child over to drug dealers'?" the judge asked.
A lawyer for the grandparents argued that the boy would be well cared for in Thailand, where the couple already has legally adopted him.
Sumalee Khaisri was released from a Thai prison in 1995 after serving about 12 years. She later obtained a government pardon, authorities said.
Attorney Dorothea Kraeger said the grandparents did not learn of the boy's plight until April 2000.
That was when U.S. immigration officials detained the boy at Los Angeles International Airport when he arrived with a trafficker who was helping a Chinese woman enter the country illegally.
The two adults, who were posing as a couple on vacation with their son, were returned to Thailand.
The judge made his decision after learning that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had denied an asylum request that had been filed on the boy's behalf.
In accordance with the ruling, the federal government will continue to grant the boy humanitarian parole, an INS spokeswoman said.
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