Features

LOS ANGELES — An AIDS-stricken Thai boy used as a prop by immigrant smugglers will stay in the country and become the first applicant for a new kind of visa for victims of trafficking and violence, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday. 

The decision blocks – at least for now – any efforts by relatives or the Immigration and Naturalization Service to return 4-year-old Phanupong “Got” Khaisri to Thailand. 

“This case presents an extremely unusual, unique and tragic circumstance,” Ashcroft said in announcing he has granted the boy humanitarian parole to keep him in the country as he awaits a visa. “Got is a confused and isolated figure adrift in a complex legal system.” 

Ashcroft said that because of the singularity of Got’s case he decided to make the boy the first candidate for the so-called T-visa created by the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. 

Got was 2 years old, malnourished, HIV-positive and suffering from a severe ear infection when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in April 2000. He was accompanied by a man and woman who claimed to be his parents, but officials determined he was being used in a scheme to smuggle the woman into the country – a purpose his own mother, a heroin-addicted prostitute, had rented him out for. 

Fearing Got’s AIDS would go untreated in Thailand and he would be pulled back into immigrant trafficking if he returned, local Thai activists have been fighting to keep him in the United States. The INS denied him asylum, but his advocates won a victory last month when a federal judge refused to order his return. 

However, the judge’s order was subject to appeal and litigation was continuing, so that Got remained in limbo before Ashcroft’s announcement. 

“We’re extremely ecstatic, elated and overjoyed, because this is the day we’ve been waiting for. I think we can actually claim victory today,” said Chanchanit Martorell, one of Got’s guardians and executive director of the Thai Community Development Center. “Now Got will be able to finally be a normal 4-year-old kid.” 

But Got’s guardians and attorney had some reservations, mostly because the government has not yet finalized the regulations needed to implement the T-visas, a process that will have to be completed before Got can get one. 

Peter Schey, the attorney who is representing Got as president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, accused the INS and Department of Justice of foot-dragging, and called on Ashcroft to move forward immediately in issuing the regulations. 

At a press conference outside the federal courthouse where Ashcroft made his announcement, Schey said he plans to amend Got’s lawsuit against the federal government to seek class-action status on behalf of all unaccompanied minors apprehended by the INS, and to request an injunction ordering immediate implementation of the T-visas. 

Sharon A. Gavin, an INS spokeswoman, said the regulations are in development. 

“They’re being worked on even as we speak,” Gavin said. “I don’t have any time frame right now.” 

Presuming Got is granted a T-visa, it will be good for three years, after which Got will become eligible to adjust to resident status, Martorell said. 

Got’s mother has given up custody and his HIV-infected father committed suicide. His paternal grandparents say they adopted him under Thai law, and were seeking to take him back to Thailand. 

Got is healthy now, but only because he takes a three-drug “cocktail” every 12 hours. The boy splits his time between his guardians and a Silver Lake couple that is seeking to adopt him.