Walter Polovchak
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Walter Polovchak (born 3 October 1967) is a Ukrainian-American who, as a child, became the center of the legal case Polovchak v. Meese after refusing to leave Chicago, Illinois and return to Ukraine in the Soviet Union with his parents when he was 12.
The case became a Cold War cause célèbre after the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) allowed him to stay against his parents' will. Polovchak and his 18-year-old sister Natalie went to live with a cousin during the dispute, and he received temporary political asylum. A sympathetic Reagan Administration helped drag out court procedures until Polovchak turned 18 and was no longer a minor.
Since becoming a U.S. citizen, Polovchak visits the now-independent Ukraine every second year on average, and has re-established relations with his parents.
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- Shipp ER. Soviet boy to be a "free man" today. New York Times, October 3, 1985, Section A, Page 18, Column 1.
