See Year Delay Before Quake Victims Can Be Reunited

The Amaya family, torn apart by an earthquake in Colombia, will have to wait at least a year before its remaining members are reunited with their father and two sisters in Jackson Heights.
A spokesperson for Congressman Joseph Crowley said that the official met with Immigration & Nationalization Service (INS) Commissioner Doris Meissner on March 18 to help pave the way for the reuniting of Emilio Amaya with two remaining daughters in Colombia.
Unlike Jenny, who lost her leg when the earthquake struck her home killing her mother, and her sister Maritza, now living with their father in Jackson Heights, the two remaining daughters are Colombian citizens.
Both Crowley and Congresswoman Nydia Velasquez vowed at a news conference last week at Elmhurst General Hospital that they would work toward gaining INS permission for the family to be reunited in Queens.
Crowley’s office reported INS chief Meissner said she would try to help expedite the family reunion in Queens through a humanitarian visa.
"But it might take as long as a year," the Congressman’s aide said.
He also indicated that efforts are underway to give Amaya legal resident alien status so that he can remain in the country. That, however, must be finalized by an INS judge.
Elmhurst General Hospital officials said that Jenny has been fitted with a prosthetic leg and is receiving treatments on an outpatient basis.
She had been trapped in her home and watched as debris from the earthquake crushed her mother. She lost her right leg which had to be amputated in a Colombian hospital.
Jenny and Maritza were brought to the U.S. by Crowley and Velasquez to live with her father who they had not seen in six years. Amaya is a textile worker in Queens.