Jorge Gonzalez with his mother, Paulina Schilling, and his daughter, Valerie Gonzalez. (Courtesy: Paulina Schilling)
WEYAUWEGA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Weyauwega family that lost four siblings to a suspected drunk driver last month is still trying to get the only surviving sibling to the United States. Jorge Gonzalez’s second application for an emergency visa was denied earlier this week.
“For whatever reason, if you’re illegal it’s easy and if you’re not it’s a nightmare.” That’s what Kurt Schilling has to say about the immigration process to get his wife, Paulina’s, only surviving son, Jorge Gonzalez, into the United States. He currently lives in his homeland of Ecuador.
Paulina’s four other children, Daniel, Fabian, Lilian, and Daniela Gonzalez died last month following a crash with a suspected drunk driver.
According to Schilling, “We’ve been violated, we’ve been stripped of what is our normal life, our home and our loved ones.”
Gonzalez originally filed for an emergency visa in order to come to Wisconsin, to be with his mother to grieve, but that was denied. Schilling said, “He missed the funerals, so I think we’re looking at long term care for my wife and her emotional well-being and her actual grieving and healing.”
The family is now switching focus and wants Gonzalez to get a green card – enabling him to travel back and forth between the U.S. and Ecuador. It’s a process that he originally started four years ago, but has learned moves very slowly.
After having no luck with the emergency visa, in their time of need, the Schilling family is looking for help expediting the green card process.
“We don’t want to get frustrated anymore with a broken system. We’d rather have somebody who has authority, get involved, and to the level that we need them to which is to talk to the superiors out there who report to the U.S.,” added Schilling.
The Schilling family has been working with Congressman Mike Gallagher’s office on the immigration issue. While Gallagher has said he can’t talk specifically about this case, he’s sympathetic to the Schilling’s situation and agrees the system is broken.
Rep. Gallagher said, “In an ideal world the system would be more efficient and so it wouldn’t require intervention. It wouldn’t require me calling the Secretary of State to adjudicate some of these issues. Happy to do it, but I think the system could be way more efficient than it is.”
The Schilling and Gonzalez families want to follow the law as they try to get Jorge into the U.S.. They’re just asking for a little bit of help during an unimaginable time.
“Show mercy and compassion. This can be done, there’s no doubt about it, this can be done,” said Schilling.
Scott Farmer is the man accused of causing the crash that killed the Gonzalez siblings. He’s facing multiple felonies, including four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle for each of the four deaths.
Farmer is being held in the Waupaca County Jail.
He is scheduled to appear in court next week for his initial appearance.
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