Valedictorian Faces Deportation

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A high school valedictorian's plans to study medicine at a California state university have run headlong into the federal government's attempts to return him and his family to Armenia. "I haven't been in Armenia since I was 2, so I don't really know anything about the place," said Arthur Mkoyan, 17. "All I've seen is just videos my mom has watched on the Internet." Mkoyan's long-term plans were turned upside down one morning in April when two immigration officers arrived at the door of his family's house. "They took both of my parents, and they released my mom because she had to take care of us, since me and my brother are minors," he recalled. "But instead they took my dad away to a detention center in Arizona." Mkoyan, who has a grade-point average above 4.0 -- extra credit for Advanced Placement cl***es makes that possible -- is set to graduate next week from Bullard High School in Fresno, California. Ten days later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport him and his family to the Armenian capital city of Yerevan, the same city his family fled in fear 16 years ago. The academic skills he has displayed in Fresno may not easily translate to college in Armenia. Arthur said he understands only a few words of Armenian.