United Press International - Monday, July 23, 2001
Hil Anderson

Four-year-old Phanupong Khaisri, nicknamed "Got" by the members of the Thai immigrant community in Los Angeles who have been acting as his guardians, had been the object of an international tug of war between his grandmother in Thailand and the activists who feared that sending him back to Thailand would lead to the deterioration of his health and possible death.

"Got was not their child, but was a helpless victim, rented by his birth mother for use in a human trafficking operation," Ashcroft told a news conference at U.S. District Court after meeting with the boy's guardians in downtown Los Angeles.

Got was detained at Los Angeles International Airport on April 11, 2000, when he was 2 years old as the woman and a suspected male alien smuggler arrived on a flight from Asia. The smuggler reportedly had paid the boy's mother -- who has since given up her paternal rights -- to use the sick child as a prop to help him enter the United States with an alleged prostitute posing as his mother.

Got arrived in the United States desperately ill, suffering from not only his untreated HIV status, but an ear infection and chicken pox. He is now thriving and is in relatively healthy condition, according to his guardians.

Ashcroft said that, as attorney general, he had the authority to settle the custody dispute and selected the Los Angeles activists over Got's grandmother, who he described as "a convicted heroin trafficker."

While he said he would generally defer to the wishes of the parent in immigration matters involving children, Ashcroft said Got's case was "an extremely unusual and tragic circumstance that does not lend itself to the ordinary application of this important principle."

"This is a child who is 4 years old and came here as a 2-year-old," Ashcroft said, his voice softening. "I have a grandson who is between the ages of 3 and 4."

Aside from the heart-tugging personal circumstances of young Got, Ashcroft portrayed his intervention on the boy's side as a blow against the practice of human trafficking, a particularly cruel aspect of the United States' illegal immigration problem in which people are smuggled into the United States and then forced to work as drug couriers, prostitutes or housekeepers kept as virtual slaves with little or no pay and no freedom to return home.

The practice has been expanding since the mid-1990s and now victimizes around 700,000 people worldwide per year -- including 45,000-50,000 in the United States, according to a study issued July 12 by the State Department.

The T visa being sought for Got has been designed to allow possible victims of human trafficking to stay in the United States rather than face deportation to their homelands where they could face the wrath of the smuggling rings.

"Under a case-by-case basis, the attorney general has the authority -- on a humanitarian basis -- to exercise his right to parole individuals in this country," Ashcroft said. "The totality of the circumstances ... and the unique aspects of this case are why I chose to do this."

The Justice Department said the regulations governing T visas were still being worked out in Washington, including a definition of who is a victim of human trafficking and who is a more run-of-the-mill illegal immigrant who would be sent back home.

The issue spills over into the long-running illegal immigration issues along the Mexican border where scores of would-be immigrants cross into the United States every day, including some who end up being brutalized, abandoned or held for ransom by illegal alien smugglers.

Immigration reform advocates have used incidents of human trafficking to call for a loosening of the rules restricting entry to the United States.

Ashcroft said U.S. and Mexican officials have been engaged in an increasing number of discussions on the issue of immigrant safety.

"We are very concerned about border safety," Ashcroft said. "We have had very serious discussions about how we can provide safety for these individuals. ... I think there is a developing consensus that smuggling is a very serious threat to human safety and human dignity."
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