The latest news in the Hotaru Ferschke immigration saga.

Sometimes the (immigration) debates are less technical and more personal. Sen. Jim Webb has just weighed in on a matter that is quickly gaining attention.

Meet Hotaru Nakama, who is from Japan. On July 10, 2008, she married U.S. Marine Sgt. Michael Ferschke. It was not your normal wedding with a church and a reception and a nice cake.

The couple married by telephone because Ferschke was already deployed to Iraq. The marriage came three months after the couple learned they would be having a child.

One month after the wedding, Ferschke was killed in combat — shot during a house search, The Associated Press reported.

Although the military recognizes the marriage, the Department of Homeland Security does not and her application for permanent residency in the United States has been denied.

Webb’s office says the problem is that the marriage was never consummated as required by a 1952 immigration law passed during the Korean War. The sergeant’s widow is currently staying in Tennessee with her son, now 8 months old, Michael “Mikey” Ferschke III. But her immigration status remains in jeopardy.

Webb has teamed with Tennessee’s two senators — Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker — to sponsor a bill allowing her marriage to the fallen Marine to be recognized without affecting broader immigration policy.

According to reports, this sort of private bill is rare, but all other judicial and administrative ideas haven’t worked.

In a floor speech, Webb had this to say:

“Every now and then, there comes an issue that tells us a lot about who we are, and how we live up to our promises, great and small — and particularly to the promises we make to those who step forward and place their lives on the line in order to carry out the policies that we create.”

Congress needs to move fast. Hota, who I must admit to being a facebook friend of her and her mother-in-law, will be returning to Japan in January unless her residency situation is resolved.  She  is employed at an American military base(Army I think) on Okinawa who was kind enough to give her a year’s leave.  Hota will lose that job if she doesn’t return in approximately 3 months time.

It shouldn’t come to that. Michael Ferschke Jr. died defending his country. To honor his and his family’s sacrifice, we the American people should honor his wife by allowing her to raise the dead Marine’s son in the United States. Anything else is a absolute disgrace.