A suburban Pittsburgh, Penn-sylvania school district is rallying behind a Taiwanese student who faces possible deportation from the US.
Gary Tsai -- a student-athlete who gets good grades at Quaker Valley High School west of Pittsburgh -- may soon face deportation because immigration officials determined his father no longer needs to stay in the US for medical treatment.
"It's kind of at the point that immigration officials could come any day and say, `Pack up,'" said Mary Fazio, a Quaker Valley School District spokeswoman. Fazio and Holly Voelp, a guidance counselor, are spearheading efforts to keep Tsai -- and, they hope, his family -- in the country.
Tsai, 18, came to the US 10 years ago when his father, then here on a student visa at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, developed a severe liver disease.
Tsai's father received a liver transplant but had to give up his studies because of the disease -- losing his student status in the process.
Immigration and Naturalization Service officials have since allowed Tsai's family to remain in the country despite their "illegal alien" status. That's because the INS evaluates certain hardship cases on an annual basis and determined Tsai's father couldn't receive the medical treatments he needed in Taiwan.
But those regulations have been tightened, and INS officials now believe Tsai's father has improved enough to get proper treatment in Taiwan.
As a result, the INS has advised Tsai's family it can be deported -- although the agency has taken no action to do so, said George R. Hess, the INS agent in charge of the Pittsburgh office.
But Tsai and his family fear such action could be taken any day, although deportation proceedings often take up to a year.
"I have always been proud to be a part of this country," Tsai said in a statement released by school officials.
"I believe in the United States Constitution, in its written words of unparalleled equality for all who choose to live here. If I can get to college and work, I will have the chance to contribute to the society that has provided so much for me in the past."
Under normal circumstances, he might have applied for his own student visa so he could attend college in the US. But US immigration law allows visas only for students who can prove they have a residence in a foreign country that they won't abandon -- something Tsai doesn't have.
Tsai could also try for a work visa -- but Hess said that's a long, difficult process.
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