After navigating the legal labyrinth of U.S. immigration law for 16 years, Sah and his wife, Sarita, are being deported back to India.

"The reason I'm in trouble now is because I've been honest all along," Ken Sah said. "I've followed all the laws. They know where to find me. That is why I'm in the corner I'm in."

Their 12-year-old American-born son, Kunal, has little choice but to join them, even though he never has been to India. An A student, the boy was one of two youngsters to represent Utah last month at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

"It's the wrong thing to do to us," the eighth-grader said. "We haven't done anything wrong."

Ken arrived in 1990 on a student visa and subsequently applied for political asylum. That application was pending until immigration officials ruled against him in 2000. Since then, he has remained here legally while appealing. But so far the courts have turned him down.

Sen. Orrin Hatch could be the Sahs' last hope. The senator's staff has helped guide Sah through the immigration bureaucracy. But, given the political climate surrounding immigration, Hatch may be unwilling to take the rare step to press special legislation to keep the family in the United States.

"Senator Hatch could do it," said the Sahs' Salt Lake City-based attorney, Steven Lawrence. "But he might see it as political suicide."

Ken and Sarita must be out of the country by July 1 or arrest warrants will be issued in all 50 states. They will leave behind two motels that they own and operate in Green River. Although the properties have been on the market for the past nine months, there have been no takers.

"It's very scary. We can't even sleep." Sarita said. "We could lose everything."

A Hindu, Ken came to the United States in 1990 via a student visa to study aircraft mechanics in Oakland, Calif. In 1991, he applied for political asylum because Hindus were being mistreated, beaten, even killed in his home state of Bihar, where Muslims hold a significant majority in the largely Hindu country.

Although Ken graduated from mechanics school in 1992, he was unable to find work after bankruptcies and layoffs rocked the airline industry.

About that same time, Sarita obtained a visa and joined him from India. The couple took numerous jobs in fast-food restaurants and motels, scrimping in hopes of buying their own business.

In 1997, the small Budget Inn in Green River came up for sale, so the couple dug into their savings and moved to Utah. The Sahs added to their holdings in 2001 by building the 46-room Ramada Inn in Green River.

"We have lived in this country legally and invested money and created jobs. And we have paid a lot of taxes," Ken said. "We have done everything ourselves. We work around the clock."

Although the Sahs do everything from check-in to laundry at their motels, they also employ 10 workers, eight of them immigrants.

The national immigration debate is something Ken finds ironic, if troubling.

"If they were taking all the immigrants out [of the country], and we were taken out, too, I wouldn't feel as bad," Ken said, referring to the millions of undocumented workers. "We don't deserve to be deported because we followed the law."

But current events and history have conspired against the Sahs, their attorney explained.

Although Ken got no response to his asylum request for almost a decade because of logjams in California, immigration officials quickly ruled against him on the same day as his July 2000 hearing - 31 days short of his 10th anniversary in this country.

"That was very unusual," Lawrence said.

If Ken had been in the United States a full 10 years before the hearing, he could have applied for legal residency on grounds that deportation would be a hardship on his son, an American citizen.

After that ruling, Lawrence sought to "adjust" the Sahs' status, like many others were doing through the immigration system, based on his business ownership. But the possibility of modifying his status evaporated after Sept. 11, 2001, when tourism dropped off precipitously. For a time, he could not carry 10 employees as is required under business ownership status for immigrants. Although he now has 10 employees, it's too late to qualify.

"The terrorists blew up his dream," Lawrence said.

In January 2003, an immigration judge ruled against Ken's appeal. The Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed a second petition in May 2004. Then, in August 2005, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled against his latest appeal.

Sah could petition the U.S. Supreme Court, but it's unlikely the justices would render a different verdict, even if they agreed to hear the case, his attorney said.

"Ken's mistake was that he played by the rules," Lawrence said. "Because he applied for asylum, he got into the immigration process. Once in, there are only two ways out: You get benefits [of residency] or you get deported."

Green River's former mayor, Dale Johnson, sides with the Sahs. "They are good people. I have watched them work their tails off," he said. "They have earned the right to stay."

After a decade in Green River, the Sahs have been embraced by the community - and they have done the same. Ken is active in the chamber of commerce, volunteers at the Green River museum and helps lead a volunteer emergency response team.

Despite that community activism, the Sahs' only possibility now is special legislation from Utah's congressional delegation, Johnson said.

"They don't want to get involved with this personally," he said. "It scares them."

Hatch's staff has worked through the years to extend the Sahs' stay - as they have with others, including Manuel Carias, an immigrant from Guatemala now living in northern Utah's Hyrum.

Nonetheless, it appears unlikely the senator will sponsor legislation to ensure legal residency for the Sahs, said spokeswoman Heather Barney. That, she said, is reserved for rare life-and-death situations.

"He's got a compelling case, and we're trying to do everything we can to help him," she said. "But we have to do it through existing law."

As time runs out, that's little solace to the Sahs. "It's a personal tsunami. We have to leave and find out where we can live and what we can do," Ken said. "This is like someone smashing your life."

csmart@sltrib.com