http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/2 ... visas.html


Ronnie Polaneczky | He risked life for U.S., yet kin can't get visas
JOHN TAGGART/For the Daily News
Thanh Nguyen holds photo of one of his daughters and her daughter. MORE THAN 30 years ago, when Thanh Nguyen was a very young man in Vietnam, he stepped up in a big way for Uncle Sam. Trained as a Navy Seal, he worked with Vietnamese and U.S. intelligence experts to search out and kill Viet Cong before they could attack Army or Navy bases.

In one maneuver, he took a bullet in the leg and recovered in just enough time to be airlifted out of the country when Saigon fell. If he'd stayed, he would have been labeled a traitor and killed.

Thanh left behind his parents, eight brothers and sisters (a ninth sibling had died in battle six months earlier) and a baby he'd fathered with a woman he'd lived with and supported. But the chaos of war scattered them, and for a long time Thanh didn't know their whereabouts.

He made his way to the United States, became a citizen and married a fellow Vietnamese refugee. He found a trade - he is a newspaper pressman - and his union salary and benefits allowed them to send two sons to college.

Over the years, Thanh was able to locate relatives, but he thought his daughter, Xuan Huong, was lost for good. But last year, she tracked him down while he was in Vietnam for his mother's funeral.

During their emotional reunion, he learned that Xuan Huong, now 34, was married and a mother of two. He also learned that the woman he'd once loved in Vietnam had been pregnant when Saigon fell. The child to whom she gave birth, Ai Phuong, was Thanh's. Ai Phoung was now 31 and a single mother.

"It was overwhelming," Thanh says, dabbing at his eyes. "My one daughter is alive, she looks just like me. And I have another daughter and grandchildren."

Before Thanh returned to the U.S., his daughters begged him to stay in touch. "They tell me, 'You left us once. Please don't leave us again.' "

Since then, Thanh has made them a promise. He will bring them and their families to live with him and his wife in East Norriton. He wants to support them as they build better lives for themselves here, the way he did.

But first he needs Uncle Sam to step up for him, as he once stepped up for Uncle Sam.


For every illegal immigrant buzzing below the radar in this country, at least as many U.S. citizens are playing by the rules to try to bring their families here.

But the time it takes from initial visa application until they can embrace their loved ones at the airport has become so long, it's no wonder some families don't even try to go legit.

Last fall, when Thanh petitioned for visas for his daughters and their families, he learned it would take 10 to 15 years for the applications to be processed. That's similar to the wait others are enduring.

The wait is having an impact on Mexican-border crossings, says Alyce Keshishian, a Center City immigration attorney.

"It's no longer just Mexicans crossing the border illegally," says Keshishian. "I have a Yugoslavian client who flew to Mexico and crossed the desert with his wife and two small children.

"I'm certainly not saying it's right to break the laws of this country. But families find out they have to wait years to be with their loved ones, and they become desperate. Is it any wonder they enter illegally?"


Thanh Nguyen doesn't want to break the laws of the country whose soldiers he once put his own life in danger to protect. But he thinks his visa request deserves special consideration, given that his aid to the United States cost him three decades of fatherhood to daughters he only recently has come to know.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter initiated an inquiry to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Thanh's behalf, but recently told Thanh there's nothing he can do.

U.S. Rep. Jim Gerlach is considering introducing a private relief bill to bring Thanh's family. But it's been months since their initial conversation, and Thanh has become frantic, as would anyone in his position.

"I can't give up on my daughters," he says. "I wasn't there for them all those years. I want to be responsible to them now."

By the way, he says, he has no regrets about his service to America three decades ago, even though it cost him his family.

"I'd go to Afghanistan tomorrow," he says.

" Fighting for America is the right thing to do."
He just wants his country to do the right thing for him, too.