By It’s 16 months since Marine Michael Ferschke died in Iraq. At the time of his death, Michael had a Okinawan born wife named Hotaru. Hotaru, or Hota for short, was pregnant with the couple’s first child when her husband died in Iraq.
Hota has since given birth to a baby boy named Michael Harvey Ferschke III. Mikey as he is known, will turn one-year-old next month.
Michael Harvey III sleeps peacefully under his father’s memorial, Sgt. Michael H. Ferschke Jr.,- February 2009
Not long after her husband died, Hota’s immigration troubles began. She and her husband were married by proxy while Michael was serving in Iraq. Hota was pregnant at the time. Proxy marriages are recognized by the United States military and she and Mikey are receiving survivor benefits.
Except Hota isn’t being given permanent residency status by immigration officials. The reason? A 50-year-old law that required Michael and Hota to consummate the marriage after the ceremony. That Hota had a baby fathered by a dead marine don’t count.
The marriage wasn’t consummated because Michael Ferschke died serving his country and protecting his fellow Marines.
More than 150 Marines, Ferschke’s parents, his widow and infant son gathered in the chapel to remember the 3rd Reconnaissance Marine killed Aug. 10 in Iraq.
The 22-year-old from Maryville, Tenn., was killed during a firefight in Salah ad Din province. He was credited with saving lives by drawing enemy fire to himself when his recon team entered a building where insurgents had holed up.
Now the country he died for is not honoring a fallen Marine’s wish for his wife to raise their son as an American.
Simply outrageous. I’ve written multiple posts on this subject. Click here, here, here, here, and here for more details.
It should seem a simple matter to grant Hota residency status(Mikey Ferschke while born in Okinawa is a United States citizen) but immigration is sticking to the letter of the law. There is even a recent law supposed to protect immigrant relatives of Soldiers and Marines killed in action. But Immigration doesn’t recognize Hota’ as Michael’s immigrant spouse because the marriage wasn’t consummated and therefore not legitimate. Do any of these idiots who refuse Hota residency realize that only because Michael Ferschke died serving his country, that the same country is using that reason for the denial?
I have heard few people who know the story of Hota Ferschke who don’t believe she should be able to raise her son in the country of his fallen father. Most people are actually appalled at what is happening.
After the birth of Mikey Ferschke, Hota was granted a tourist visa to come to the United States. Since late February of this year, she has been living with her in-laws in Tennessee.
Hota has an excellent relationship with the Ferschkes. Michael’s parents have welcomed Hota into their home and treat her like a daughter. Don’t forget Michael Ferschke Sr. and Robin Ferschke have also suffered a terrible loss. One that will be made worse by their daughter-in-law needing to take their grandson and leave the United States together.
This year a private bill was presented to Congress. It’s House sponsor is Congressman John Duncan, the representative for the Tennessee congressional district the Ferschkes live in. On the Senate side, Senators Webb from Virginia introduced the bill and both Tennessee Senators are also sponsoring it. Almost six months later, both the House and Senate have done nothing about the bill. Hota’s handful of backers in Congress have worked very hard for her.
It has been known from the time Hota arrived, that she had less than a year to get her immigration status settled. Hota was given a tourist visa to come here, and it was renewed. In Japan she is on a one-year leave from her job at Kadena AB. If she wants to keep that job, she needs to return to Japan in early January. She and Mikey are flying home on January 4th and at this moment nothing can be done to correct the injustice being done to Hota and the Ferschke. Maybe when our lazy Congress and President Obama get off their asses and go back to D.C. to do their work instead of vacationing right now, something will be done for Hota. Nobody knows when that will happen, if ever.
On Sunday Hota wrote at Facebook-
8 more days then I have to leave… ;(
Robin Ferschke replied to a email of mine today-
Hota and Mikey are leaving on Jan. 4th. Nothing has been done to the bill since Senator Webb introduced it on the Senate side. We are very upset that they are leaving. We tried so hard to get them all to understand the time line but I guess with the government they care about other things more. We still need many letters to the Senate and Congressmen. Right now I don’t know anything else to do.
Can’t you feel the pain tin what that mother has written? She lost her son, now she’s losing her daughter-in-law and her grandson.
Note- I’m a Facebook friend of Hota, Robin, and another close friend of the Ferschke family named Irene Cooper. Because of my support for Hota and the Ferschkes and the many blog posts I’ve written, the producers of online military documentaries contacted me last summer. Ultimately I wasn’t interviewed.
Below is the documentary in question. It is called ‘Second Battle‘ It tells Hota’s story and that of another wife of a soldier. The illegal alien spouse in ‘Second Battle’ eventually got her deportation stopped. Hota, a person who tried to legally enter this country for the purpose of raising her United States citizen son, will have to leave. Where is the justice in that?
3:07 pm on December 31st, 2009 1
Bill, I am interested in this. What can we do?
This is a bloody shame.
3:34 pm on December 31st, 2009 2
I never thought I would ever say I was ashamed to be an American. Today I am.
11:52 pm on December 31st, 2009 3
How incredibly sad, what makes it worse is that stopping this only takes a phone call or two from a senator.
1:30 am on January 1st, 2010 4
Well, it took more than that. Here is my guess as to what has happened. The bill which is to grant Hotaru and Mikey residency is probably tied to the immigration bill. The Democrats decided to put the immigration bill off until the health care business was done. This is because the immigration bill is likely to have some form of amnesty and people covered would be able to take advantage of the benefits (such as they are) of health care legislation. Basically, the Dems held off immigration (and the Ferschkes) to keep the apparent price of health care reform down.
Bill, you seem to be in good contact with these poor people. Even if Hotaru and her son are back on Okinawa, the bill could still go through and they could come back. Is there any possibility we could pitch in to get them a plane ticket to bring them back? Ive seen paypal donation set ups for such things.
2:48 am on January 1st, 2010 5
Geez, this is such a ridiculous shame. Being a half-Korean American, my family has also experienced some serious problems with immigration law. Current immigration law does not help to keep multi-racial American families, such as the Ferschkes, together. Believe me when I say it tries to take these American families apart.
3:15 am on January 1st, 2010 6
All this boo hoo hand wringing over a widow….
Am I the only one who thinks this is an absolutely strange woman who is trying to live with a family of a dead husband? Did she marry her husband or his family? She should go on with her life, meet another person, get married and have her own family instead of giving up on life just like that. She has some serious psychological problems there, if you ask me.
As for all these hand wringing over reaction based more on nationalism than anything else… laughable.
3:40 am on January 1st, 2010 7
Jeez, Tom do you have to always be a (editor note: you used a cuss word that is why it was put in the spam que)?
This has nothing to do with nationalism. Most of us here are or were in the US armed forces just like Hotaru's late husband. He is our brother and he wanted his son to grow up in America. Hotaru is our sister (or sister-in law) and she wants to honor her husband's request. Also, many of us have foreign born wives and this could have happened to us. So this mess kind of hits home with many of us. We just want to help one of our own.
I will say Hotaru's comments seem hokey. I agree to some extent with your assessment she should "move on". But you know what? Its her choice, dude! And consider this. "Moving on" back in Okinawa essentially means finding another US service member as Japanese men are prone to reject women who have Amerasian kids. I can just see the likes of you bitching about "some whore shacking up with white men". Bottom line is it is her choice.
And lets talk about nationalism a little more. Would you have posted this if instead of this being Nakama Hotaru, it was Choi Hee Jin?
4:08 am on January 1st, 2010 8
The strange person with psychological problems is you Tom. You have so much hate for a person you don't even know.
4:30 am on January 1st, 2010 9
I had a pretty long winded post about the bonds of brotherhood and honoring moral covenants. It seems to have not posted for some reason. No biggie. I doubt Tom would understand and for the rest of us, these are obvious.
Tom, my wife's parents got smacked around real bad during the Japanese occupation. Despite that, she has it in her heart to feel for this poor family. If she can, you should too. And if you can't it would be nice if you could just shut up.
5:02 am on January 1st, 2010 10
Any Japanese woman in her right mind would – given the choice – opt to raise a half-half kid in the US vs Japan. I would be willing to bet that first and foremost in her mind is the well being of her son.
Where else should she go (at least initially) when coming to the US? How is she supposed to support her and her son? On the pittance that she'll be getting from the military?
Instead of sitting in front of your computer all day, you need to get out in the world a little more and learn how things actually work.
5:25 am on January 1st, 2010 11
Chris in Dallas, you have no credibility with me whatsoever (especially in light of the fact that you bragged about shagging Korean women while married to your current wife), so please don't try to lecture me on honor and moral covenants. Hypocrite. Unfortunately you're not the only one here.
5:45 am on January 1st, 2010 12
Not about Nationalism. Any further words would be wasted on you.
6:03 am on January 1st, 2010 13
Quit twisting my words, twit. I have never had an affair of ANY sort while I have been married. The comments you are referencing involved my activities BEFORE I even met my wife.
I would suggest you get some training in English reading comprehension before crawling back under your rock.
1:13 am on January 2nd, 2010 14
Actually, a phone call or two from some senior senators to the appropriate people at the State Department has done near miraculous things in the past. Why not now?
Anyway, if anyone can form some kind of trust or whatever for Hota's return flight I would be willing to contribute a few bucks, and maybe a few hours trying to get the word out to others.
As for Tom, the word that comes to mind is "troll".
4:14 am on January 2nd, 2010 15
George, if this were a situation where a good residency application was languishing in bureaucratic hell, a call to a Congressman could do wonders. But that is not the situation. Sgt Ferschke and Hotaru were married through an unconventional method (over the phone half a continent away from each other). For the marriage to have been valid in the immigration realm, Sgt Ferschke would have had to have come back to Okinawa and spent the night with Hotaru. Tragically, that couldn't happen. No American politician could fix this by slinging around his/her power.
The plan was to short circuit the law by making an exception for Hotaru and her son. It appears Congress had other things on its collective mind.
5:23 pm on January 2nd, 2010 16
Thank you Bill, for speaking on behalf of what is right, and as always, your support is deeply appreciated.
The Private Bills sponsored for Hota in both the Senate and the House, are currently "in committee" and the US House is waiting on a report for the Department of Homeland Security.
If ANYONE has a suggestion on how to get that report released from DHS and delivered to the House Subcomittee, it would be wonderful.
Thank you!
4:18 pm on January 3rd, 2010 17
Tom,
How dare you.This is my daughter in law. We love her so much and she wants to HONOR her husband, my son, who we all love so much. She will get on with her life, with us. All we have left of my son is our grandson and Hota. She is such an amazing girl. Something I don't think you would know by you comment. She will move on someday and we will be there to support her and help her through anything. She will forever be loved by us, Her family. The pain we are all going through is just the most horrable pain anyone can go through. I hope you will never have to feel the pain that we have all been going through.
Sgt. Michael Fersche's mom