It’s a rare case in which a deported immigrant is allowed to return, but this is what happened yesterday to Janina Wasilewski, a Polish immigrant who was deported four years ago, leaving her husband in Chicago and returning to Poland with their then 6-year-old U.S. citizen son.
She and her son flew back to Chicago yesterday, this time with a visa in hand that will allow her to stay permanently. Under normal circumstances, Wasilewski would have been barred from re-entering the United States legally for 10 years following her deportation, which occurred after the onetime anti-Communism activist lost her long-sought bid for political asylum here.
How did this family manage to overcome the obstacles that keep so many others separated after a deportation? Tony Wasilewski, Janina’s husband, was granted a hardship waiver after long battle to obtain one, and some true hardship that included a heart attack and having to sell his family’s home at a loss so he could support his wife in Poland, where she couldn’t get work, according to a story yesterday in the New York Times.
A tenacious lawyer and legislators helped, too. Perhaps most helpful of all, though, was filmmaker Ruth Leitman’s 2009 documentary, “Tony & Janina’s American Wedding,” which followed the couple during and after her deportation, including a wrenching airport scene as the family exchanged goodbyes.
On her website, Leitman wrote:
I met Tony and Janina Wasilewski on the worst day of their lives. Janina had just found out that her stay of deportation had been denied and she was going to have to leave her partner of 15 years within the next 48 hours. Tony and Janina’s story had taken a hold of my heart and would not let go.
According to Anthony Kaufman of the ReelPolitik film blog, Leitman is planning a new epilogue for the film, this one incorporating the happy ending.
