Tears flowed, again, as Janina Wasilewski and her son, Brian, walked through O’Hare International Airport on Monday.
And, like on the day they left for Poland four years ago after an immigration judge ordered her out of the U.S., her husband, Tony, was a nervous, emotional wreck.
But this time, after a four-year campaign on the couple’s behalf that led to an unexpected reprieve by U.S. officials, the tears were joyful because the Wasilewskis were being reunited.
Hugs and cheers from a crowd of loved ones at O’Hare marked the end of an improbable legal journey that began shortly after Janina Wasilewski, a former Solidarity activist in communist Poland, was denied political asylum in the U.S.
“Always, I had hope,” she said, her husband beaming beside her as news cameras flashed and Brian, now 10, stared in amazement at the reporters, immigration activists and well-wishers crowded before them.
The Wasilewskis are one of thousands of families separated by U.S. immigration enforcement. A ramped-up effort has led to nearly 122,000 illegal immigrants being kicked out of the country since September, a campaign that pro-immigrant advocates argue has taken an emotional toll on children, parents and spouses.
It was Tony Wasilewski’s dark reaction to his family’s separation that sparked a light in their long ordeal. He stayed behind to tend to the couple’s home-cleaning business when Janina and Brian left for Poland and soon went into a bitter depression, a chain-smoking, beer-drinking cycle of frustration that led him to talk openly of suicide.
Tony Wasilewski’s condition worsened as he was forced to care for his cancer-stricken father and was beset by financial problems that forced him to short-sell the family’s house. The severity of his plight convinced U.S. officials that he was suffering from “extreme hardship,” according to the family’s attorney, Royal Berg.
As a result, the couple in June won a waiver of Janina’s 10-year ban from the U.S., begun in 2007 after she allowed a U.S. visa to expire and violated an order to voluntarily leave the country in the mid-2000s.
Berg said Monday’s celebration can be credited to Tony Wasilewski’s stubborn refusal to give up on reuniting his family. The campaign included his testifying before Congress about immigration reform, becoming a U.S. citizen and starring in a documentary about the couple’s plight.
“This is a man who has shown his courage, his perseverance, his love of his family and his belief in America, even when America treated him as horrifically as our country did,” Berg said.
Wasilewski, 42, and his wife, 45, learned of the decision by U.S. officials to let her back in the country during one of the 15 trips he made to Poland over the last four years.
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At the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw, they were handed a fax with the order allowing Janina to return, dated June 13, his birthday, Tony Wasilewski recalled.
“I said, ‘What?'” Wasilewski said. “My wife, she cried. She said: ‘Tony, I want to go back tomorrow.'”
Since she was here last, Tony Wasilewski’s life has changed dramatically. With jobs scarce in Poland, he had stayed behind in Schiller Park to tend the home-cleaning business the couple had built after marrying in 1993, sending her money at every opportunity.
“When you return from the U.S., nobody (in Poland) is going to hire you,” Wasilewski said. “People think: ‘Well, you have money. What are you doing here?’ My wife was looking for a job for the last four years.”
His business slowed in the sour economy, however, and soon there wasn’t enough money to pay the $1,800 monthly mortgage on the sprawling, bright house that was once filled with boxes of Brian’s toys.
Wasilewski was forced to sell the house last fall and move into a tiny one-bedroom apartment with an electric-blue kitchen. Brian’s toys were donated to a charity.
“I felt really bad,” Wasilewski said last week as he lit up a cigarette in his cramped kitchen. “It was the day before Thanksgiving. I asked the new owners (of his house), ‘Can I stay a day? I want to stay in my house for Thanksgiving.’ I slept on the floor and I cried.”
He drove around that holiday night, peering through the windows of other houses where families were celebrating.
“I said, ‘Hmm.’ I was ready to give up,” Wasilewski said. “Two or three times, I was on the highway and I was thinking: ‘You know? I should just kill myself now.'”
But he said the experience has made him a committed advocate for immigration reform.
Now, even with his family back together, he remains anxious about the future.
The couple will have to find a larger home, and Brian, who had become accustomed to his life in Poland, will have to get used to living in the country where he was born.
Standing before news cameras shortly after Janina Wasilewski and Brian landed, the couple participated in an airport news conference, with immigration advocates using the family’s story to bolster support for federal immigration reforms.
“We’re not going to give up,” said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., part of the airport crowd. “You’re a beautiful, wonderful American story.”
His words brought tears to Janina Wasilewski’s eyes, which her husband brushed away softy.
As Janina Wasilewski prepared to leave for her new home, she said, “We’re tired. I just want to go home and sit and talk, and play and do things like usual.”