In 2002, my son Danny and his wife Mary Jo had begun trying to obtain a visa for Aaliyah, Danny’s Filipino stepdaughter, for nearly two years, but to no avail. It was very frustrating since Danny was an active, career U. S. Army Sergeant.

Upon returning from over a year of deployment in Iraq in 2005, Dan and his family were reassigned to a tour of duty in Germany. While in Germany, they continued to apply for a United States visa for Aaliyah at the state department in Frankfurt. No luck.

It was then that they asked Peggy if she and I would try to contact politicians at home to plead for Aaliyah’s visa. Peggy first contacted the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. She was told that the parents must call them.

Her next step was to contact our congressman, as well as West Virginia’s two U. S. Senators. She was given the run around by the congressman and both senators’ offices.

Peggy even called the U.S. Embassy in Frankfurt, Germany from our home in Wheeling for help. The person on the other end of the line was very condescending and rude, finally hanging up on her.

She continued writing letters and calling anybody and everybody she could think of who might be able to help. All her pleas were ignored.

Finally, we learned that President George W. Bush was going to visit Wheeling for a town hall meeting in March of 2006. Peggy and I thought maybe we could somehow make President Bush aware of Aaliyah’s visa dilemma.

Then Peggy said to me: “Why don’t we contact the Wheeling paper?”

I was a close friend of the newspaper’s venerable editor, Mike Myer, having written many articles for the paper. It was then that Peggy further suggested that I write a “Letter to the Editor.”

“Maybe we could have it published this Wednesday when President Bush arrives, and pray the President will read it and take action,” Peggy added.

I called Mike Myer at home on Sunday evening. I told him of Dan’s and Mary Jo’s problem, what we have done, and what we wanted to do.

After explaining our son’s predicament and what we wanted from the paper, Mr. Myer exclaimed, “This is front page news; forget the letter to the editor.”

“I have a young, ambitious reporter, Adam Townsend, who I want to interview Peggy and you on Monday. That will give him time to research the matter further and put together a potent article for the Wednesday paper. We’ll run it with a photo of Aaliyah right next to the president’s arrival article. Hopefully, the president will be prompted to assist one of his soldiers.”

“Mike, that sounds like an outstanding idea. Thank you so much.”

Monday evening Peggy and I welcomed the reporter, Adam Townsend, into our house and began to tell him all the facts that led up to this final course of action and public outreach on Aaliyah’s behalf.

Both Peggy and I were at work while the president’s town hall meeting was taking place.

That Friday night, after federal office hours, Mr. Emilio T. Gonzalez, U.S. Director of Immigration, called Peggy and told her that the visa for Aaliyah was ready at the U. S. Embassy in Frankfurt, Germany.

Gonzalez further informed Peggy that Danny and Mary Jo could pick up Aaliyah’s visa on Saturday morning at the Embassy.

We were elated!

In reality, it’s totally unconscionable that a member of the military had to go to such extreme lengths to get results in a few days that previously took over four years to accomplish, contacting the proper authorities that did nothing, or even cared.

As for the Welker family’s plight, Peggy and I couldn’t thank President Bush enough in a letter we sent to him a week after Dan and his family’s visa request for Aaliyah’s reached fruition.

By the way, Aaliyah is now serving in the U. S. Air Force, vitally contributing to her new home – America.

Yes, my late wife, Peggy, made it all happen. She completed her mission of motherly love.

I’m sure you can imagine how the Welker Family felt when the Biden Administration opened the borders. It was ludicrous. And it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out why the Biden Administration did it.

Drugs freely flowed into our country (killing our youth), along with criminals of all types. And American citizens paid dearly for it.

With that being said, I do feel sorry for the sincere immigrants who wanted to start a new and prosperous life in America. In a way, they were also victimized by the Biden Administration, who illegally allowed them to come into America without going through the proper citizenship channels. I pray that they will someday become American citizens via legitimate immigration procedures.

In closing, those of you who are anti-ICE individuals are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. ICE wouldn’t be vigorously searching for illegals (many who robbed, harmed and killed American citizens) if the Biden Administration had abided by the immigration laws of America.

It was a travesty.