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Phanupong Khaisri, or Got, playing last year.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday he is granting permission for a 4-year-old boy -- used by a human trafficking ring to fool U.S. authorities -- to stay in the United States while his special visa status is worked out.

Phanupong Khaisri, whose nickname is Got, was only 2 years old when he was taken into custody by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in April 2000. U.S. authorities determined the boy was being used as a decoy in a scheme to bring women from Thailand to the United States to work as prostitutes.

INS inspectors discovered the man and woman traveling with Got and posing as his parents were in fact a smuggler and the woman he was trying to illegally bring into the United States. Got had been sold to the smuggler by his mother, a drug addict and trafficking victim in Bangkok.

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Ashcroft announced at a press conference he is granting "humanitarian parole" for the boy, which allows him to stay in the country temporarily without the threat of deportation.

Got has faced deportation by the INS on two occasions in the past 15 months, but each time the action was blocked by federal courts. Ashcroft's interim measure allows time for the INS to process the boy's application for a new type of visa, known as a Category T, specifically devised to help victims of human trafficking.

Ashcroft ordered the INS to "accept immediately" the boy's application, but since the T visa is a relatively new addition to U.S. immigration policy, the INS is still working on developing regulations for it. As soon as those regulations are effective, Got will have T-visa status.

Ashcroft made the announcement after meeting with leaders of the Thai community in Los Angeles and with Got himself.

"Human trafficking victims are too often people like Got. Too young, too frightened, and too trapped in their circumstances to speak for themselves," Ashcroft said. "This is a 4-year-old child. He's a shy, tender little boy."

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T visas can be issued in accordance with the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, which President Clinton signed into law last October. The new status allows Got to stay in the country legally for three years and makes him eligible to get refugee benefits such as health care and money for food, clothes, and schooling.

The boy's plight has been an emotional and contentious issue for the Thai community in Los Angeles and for human rights advocates nationwide.

Got was very ill when he arrived. He had a serious infection, chicken pox, and doctors later discovered he was HIV positive.

Representatives from Los Angeles-based Thai Community Development Center, who were appointed as the boy's temporary guardians, argued that sending Got back to Thailand would have been a certain death sentence, given the boy's health.

"Had Phanupong been deported to Thailand, in the summary fashion that the INS intended, he would have died within six months," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing Got.

Got sometime after he was rescued from the smuggler.

Schey, who is president of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, estimates there are hundreds of illegal unaccompanied children living in the United States with nowhere to turn.

"Today's decision," Schey added, "is a major step toward recognizing our moral, our legal, our constitutional obligation to respect and to promote and to observe the rights of little children -- unaccompanied minors in this country, and particularly children who face life-endangering situations."

Got's court appointed guardians claimed a major victory.

"We're extremely ecstatic, elated and overjoyed, because this is the day we've been waiting for, " said Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center. "Now Got will be able to finally be a normal 4-year old kid, who will basically have all of his essentials taken care of."

The boy's guardians are hoping to move the adoption process forward during the boy's three-year T-visa window. A Los Angeles couple is already trying to adopt the boy -- a move that would keep Got in the U.S. permanently.