KNOXVILLE — Legislation to help a Japanese widow of a Tennessee Marine who was forced to return to her native country has stalled.
Members of the U.S. House and Senate acknowledged earlier this month that legislation that was supposed to grant permanent residency to Hotaru Ferschke and allow her to be with her in-laws has been put on hold and is unlikely to be approved.
“I don’t think they understand how much this is affecting us,” said Robin Ferschke, the Maryville mother of Sgt. Michael Ferschke, who died in Iraq in 2008.
But lawmakers told The Knoxville News Sentinel that they still are determined to help and were looking for other ways to allow her to stay in Tennessee.
“Every idea is on the table,” said Patrick Newton, spokesman for U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., R-Knoxville.
The couple wed by proxy while he was in Iraq and she was in Japan, but U.S. immigration law doesn’t recognize the marriage because the marriage was not consummated after they took their vows. He died about a month after the proxy marriage and about five months before their son was born.
The family has been fighting a Cold War-era law that was enacted to guard against sham weddings. Hotaru Ferschke was given a temporary visa that allowed her to live with her in-laws in Maryville, but had to return after it expired.
Lawmakers filed private bills to grant her permanent residency, but more than a half-year later, the bills seem unlikely to pass.
“It is our understanding that the Senate has put a hold on all private bills,” Newton said.
And the House subcommittee that is handling the measure won’t push for legislation that is going nowhere in the Senate, he said.
Duncan now is looking at the possibility of attaching the measure to a larger bill or working to change the law retroactively, Newton said. “We’re not going to let the Senate hold up this effort,” he said.
But the success of any such effort is uncertain.
“If this law doesn’t get changed, I’ll never have my grandson here,” said Robin Ferschke. “As the years go, I’ll get a visit either there or here. But the expense is just unbelievable.”
If this doesn’t pass, we would get to see him just once a year. And we just can’t do that.”
Robin talks with her daughter-in-law and grandson on Skype and is planning for them to visit Maryville for a one-week visit this summer.
“I’m looking so forward to seeing them,” Ferschke said. “I am not looking forward to saying goodbye.”