Polish Immigrant will be deported from Connecticut USA

Polish Immigrant will be deported from Connecticut USA

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Man's deportation leaves wife's transplant at risk
August 30, 2008
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. - A Connecticut congressman has stepped in to advocate for a New Britain woman who risks losing her chance at a kidney transplant if federal officials follow through with plans to deport her husband to his native Poland. Vivian Nowakowski, 43, who has been on dialysis for 14 years, says doctors have told her she cannot have the transplant unless her husband, Andrzej, will be home to care for her during her long recovery. However, 43-year-old Andrzej Nowakowski sits in a federal prison awaiting deportation to Poland after being arrested earlier this year after applying for a new green card. The federal government says Andrzej Nowakowski violated terms of his residency in the U.S. because he was convicted and imprisoned over the years on robbery and drug possession charges, most recently in 2005.
The Nowakowskis appealed the deportation decision, but learned Friday that the appeal had been denied. Without her husband at home as the family's primary caregiver, Vivian Nowakowski said she is trying to handle her own health issues while taking care of her 69-year-old diabetic father. "My father wants to disconnect from dialysis and die," she said. "When my husband was here, at least we were able to pick him up." Federal officials say immigration laws are very clear, however. "When you become a permanent resident, you have to fulfill the laws and regulations. When charged and convicted of crimes, you may very well be deported," Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said earlier this month. The family's situation has drawn sympathy in New Britain, which has a large Polish population. "Immigration is so cold-hearted," city Alderman Larry Hermanowski, one of the officials trying to help the family, said of the federal process. U.S. Rep. Christopher Murphy, D-5th District, met last week with Vivian Nowakowski and sent a letter on their behalf to federal officials. He said although her husband obviously did something wrong, her life is at stake if he is forced to return to Poland. "Without her husband, Mrs. Nowakowski may be unable to obtain this life-saving transplant she desperately needs," Murphy wrote, asking federal homeland security officials to consider "the scope of this case's humanitarian impacts." In the worst-case scenario if Andrzej Nowakowski is deported, Murphy said, his office will do whatever it can "to help Vivian with other options to pursue the lifesaving care she needs," he said. Vivian Nowakowski, who visited her husband at the federal prison in Central Falls, R.I., on Friday, said she is acting as her husband's appellate lawyer after dismissing their original attorney. ___ Information from: The Herald, http://www.newbritainherald.com