Thread: IL-Till deportation do us part

Till deportation do us part
Film fest offering highlights couple's heartbreak, American style

Tony Wasilewski sat in his Schiller Park backyard, exhaling cigarette smoke along with the bitterness he sometimes feels towards his adopted country.

Nearby, a patch of garden his wife Janina tended before she was deported to Poland in 2007 lay barren and hardened. Their son Brian's trampoline sat in a neighbor's backyard — given away by Wasilewski after the now 9-year-old boy left the country with his mother.

"I'm all alone here," said Wasilewski, 41, who has slept on a couch in his empty house for three years. Both his marriage bed and his son's bed have become shrines, decorated with news articles and other keepsakes neatly placed there the day the family was torn apart.

"Physically, mentally, financially, I'm really destroyed," Wasilewski said.

How he reached this point is captured in "Tony and Janina's American Wedding," a documentary that premieres Sunday at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Issues central to the debate over immigration reform — which Congress avoided taking on again this year — are laid out for festival-goers in the Wasilewski film and in "Minutemen," another immigration documentary.

"Tony and Janina's American Wedding" was directed by Oak Park-based filmmaker Ruth Leitman. Several early scenes depict the hope millions of U.S. immigrants share.

Home videos from the early 1990s show family get-togethers at Northwest Side banquet halls, the Wasilewskis' wedding day and a succession of birthday parties for their adored son. One bittersweet scene shows Tony Wasilewski being sworn in as a U.S. citizen, four months after his wife was deported.

The Wasilewskis' once happy story took a dark turn when Janina's application for political asylum as a former Solidarity movement activist in communist Poland was denied.

Though she says her application was turned in shortly after she arrived in 1989, it wasn't processed until 1994, a year after her marriage. By then, Poland's communist government had fallen, and a U.S. immigration official determined it was safe for her to go back.

In 1995, an immigration judge ordered Janina to leave the U.S. She claims her limited English kept her from understanding that ruling, which she failed to follow. Her decision to stay took firm hold after she and her husband launched a successful home cleaning business and Brian was born.

Now, under a 1996 law meant to discourage such violations, Janina is barred from the U.S. for 10 years following her deportation, keeping her out of the country until at least 2017.

She and her son live with her mother in a two-room apartment in the village of Nowe Miasto Lubawskie.

The family has repeatedly sought and failed to get the 10-year bar on her return lifted, their attorney, Royal Berg, said. The documentary is part of a campaign to win clemency, as well as a call for federal immigration reforms. Tony Wasilewski is seen in the film speaking before Congress and at rallies.

Several scenes underscore the family's contention that their separation has caused extreme hardship on Tony Wasilewski.

During a stress-filled farewell at O'Hare International Airport, Brian is told he's merely going on a vacation. That night, Tony Wasilewski weeps over lying to his son. As time passes he smokes incessantly and drinks more, part of a lifestyle that contributed to a heart attack during one of 13 trips he's made to Poland.

One late night in Schiller Park, Wasilewski laughs as he shows how he might hang himself in his garage.

The film also shows the toll the family's separation has taken on Brian and Janina. While she complains of how the case has left her in limbo, Brian becomes increasingly angry. In one scene, the boy's voice is heard over the phone screaming at his crying mother for not buying him a bike.

The film does not explain why Tony Wasilewski remains in the U.S. instead of joining his family. He attempted to answer that during the interview in his backyard.

Business is slow, he said, and, with all his trips to Poland, debts have piled up. Most notably, the couple's charming brick home on a pristine corner of Schiller Park is in foreclosure proceedings.

"What am I going to do?" asked Wasilewski, who is searching for a rental home. "I can't get a job in Poland. My wife cannot find a job over there, so I have to support her from here."

Exhaling another stream of smoke, he concluded, "I am trapped."

aolivo@tribune.com

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...,2950244.story

I found this to be such a sob and sad story, it makes me want to cry…

Maybe the guy would have more money if he stopped the cigarettes and booze?

I also don’t understand why she can’t work in Poland.

As one commenter said, “Did she ever hear of "English as a second language" classes?â€

dont bash the polish, or any anglo "eurotrash". theyre isnt 40 million of them threatening to jack our USA southwest, AS THIER OWN TERRITORY. the used to be comblock folk that made it here are not the same threat. they aint no saints, but not the same hostile latin american communists.

It must be hard for him to understand why his wife was deported from Chicago while the city serves as a santuary for thousands and thousands of illegal Hispanics.

There are millions of Hispanic illegal alens here that ICE and Homeland Security refuse to deport because they are not "threats". But they do go out of their way to make sure 1 or 2 European illegal aliens get deported. Why is that?

Originally Posted by butterbean

There are millions of Hispanic illegal alens here that ICE and Homeland Security refuse to deport because they are not "threats". But they do go out of their way to make sure 1 or 2 European illegal aliens get deported. Why is that?

Great question BB! Could it be because they are in fact European and white? How else are we supposed to interpret this action on the part of our government when just recently, an illegal invader house keeper in CA went on national television and admitted to committing numerous felony crimes( in addition to being here illegally) and nothing is done to her?

while his story is sad , it's one that we hear several hunred thousand times a year ... and this excuse must be the most used EVER

"She claims her limited English kept her from understanding that ruling, which she failed to follow"

i think this is going to be a great movie for america , every time an IA lover screams racism i'm going to say , "what are you talking about ? look up movie XYZ and see how we deport EVERYONE "

This woman is nothing more than a visa over stayer , and she dropped an anchor baby on top of that .. well it didn't work ... bye bye so sad too bad ...

This is an example of the broken immigration system which I think all sides in the debate agree needs fixing. Why did it take the gov't 5 years to process here application? This is outrageous. Before the President and the Congress consider changing immigration law they should determine why the government cannot efficienctly administer the current law.