Chornobyl child granted one-year visa extension
by Irene Jarosewich
JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Vova Malofienko, a 12-year-old boy from Ukraine who is in the United States for medical treatment and who's family faced imminent deportation as a result of the new immigration law due to take effect April 1, received a final hour extension of his visa on humanitarian grounds.
On Thursday, March 13, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) informed the office of New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who has been working on behalf of the Malofienko family, that Vova and his parents would be allowed to stay one more year.
The Malofienkos, originally from Chernihiv, Ukraine, an area heavily affected by radiation fallout from the explosion at Chornobyl, have been attempting to obtain legal resident status in the U.S. for several years. According to medical experts, Vova, in remission from leukemia, should remain in the U.S. where he can continue to obtain treatment and increase his chances that he remain in remission permanently.
However, under the new immigration laws Vova and his family faced deportation on April 10.
According to Dr. Laura Levin Mardyks, vice-principal of Millburn Middle School where Vova is an honors student, the one-year extension of the visa is only a "temporary victory. We need to keep mobilized."
For the past year, Dr. Levin Mardyks, and teachers at the school have been organizing parents and students, as well as the local Millburn community, to lobby for Vova's permanent status. The town council accepted a resolution at its meeting on Tuesday, March 18, supporting the effort of the community to obtain permanent resident status for the Malofienkos.
The goals of the continuing grassroots effort are to get a job and work permit for Vova's father and "green cards" (permanent legal resident alien status) for the family. However, since the process of obtaining a job and work permit under the new immigration law could take from 18 months to two years, a second track is also being pursued: to obtain a permanent special dispensation from INS for the Malofienkos.
"The efforts of the Millburn Middle School and the local community," said Dr. Levin Mardyks, "is to take to heart First Lady Hillary Clinton's theme 'it takes a village to raise a child.' This village is hoping to raise this child."
On Wednesday, March 19, parents from the school conducted a phone call blitz to several state and federal agencies to speed along the documentation that confirms the verbal promise of an extension so that the application process can move forward.
Vova and his mother Olha have been here for seven years, his father, Alexander, for four. Their visas allow for temporary employment; both Malofienkos have held numerous temporary jobs while in the United States, and Vova's medical treatments were covered through private donations. Mrs. Malofienko is taking courses at a community college to complete an accounting degree; Mr. Malofienko is a mechanical engineer by training who worked as a maintenance technician at Tetley Tea Co. in Tenafly, N.J.
The company originally sponsored Mr. Malofienko for a work permit, but due to a procedural technicality, the Department of Labor and INS refused the application. So the application process must begin again from scratch.
According to Dr. Levin Mardyks, Mr. Malofienko gets very high ratings from managers at Tetley. However, the company cannot re-hire him because the plant in Tenafly has closed down.
According to a spokesperson in Sen. Lautenberg's office, the publicity that has been generated around the case of Vova's visa has been encouraging. Many people have been calling, writing and e-mailing the senator's office, including job offers for Mr. Malofienko. The senator's staff is sorting through the information and will be working with the INS and the Malofienko family during the next year to come up with a permanent solution.
Those interested in helping Vova and his family in their effort, can do the following:
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 23, 1997, No. 12, Vol. LXV
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