Hopes to keep Steve "Shing Ma" Li in the United State have dimmed in the wake of a ruling from immigration officials denying the student's request to delay his ordered deportation to Peru.

The two-page, Friday afternoon fax from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Li's lawyer, Sin Yen Ling, may have slammed the door shut on the 20-year-old Li, a San Francisco City College nursing student who arrived in this country with his parents when he was 11 years old.

Most of the message dealt with Li's immigration background, with the bad news saved for the end, Ling said today.

"The last paragraph said deportation is always hard on family and friends and the community but unfortunately the application for Steve does not rise to the level that warrants deferred action status," she said. "There was really no analysis whatsoever, no response to the arguments that I laid out."

Li and his parents were arrested in San Francisco Sept. 15 because they were only allowed to stay in the United States through the end of 2002. His parents, who were born in China but moved to Peru in the 1980s to escape the government's one-child policy, were released and wear electronic ankle bracelets, while Li remains in custody in Arizona.

ICE officials could not be reached today for comment.

On Friday evening, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an e-mail that the congresswoman is "working with other members to recommend that ICE grant deferred action in this case."

A private bill from politicians like Pelosi, or California senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein is "the next and only strategy, really," to keep Li from being deported, Ling said.

But some supporters are switching gears to help Li prepare for the worst if he gets put on a plane to a country where he has no friends or family.

"We did everything we could and we just have to move on from here and figure out how to help Steve best," said Sang Chi, Li's Asian American Studies professor at City College.