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FREE AT LAST
By Denise Dick
Boardman family rejoices as son is freed from jail by government
Video
The family thanked neighbors, The Vindicator, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and others for help in securing Chip’s release.
THIS TIME, THEY CRIED TEARS of joy. After nearly 11 months behind bars and charged with no crime, Virgil Ciprian Gilea, known as “Chip,” is a free man.
“I’m so excited,” Chip, 30, said. “There are no words. It’s like having a second life.”
“I’m so excited,” Chip, 30, said. “There are no words. It’s like having a second life.”
Chip, who immigrated from Romania when he was 15, was arrested Dec. 27, 2007, by agents from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement while at work at Energy Development Inc., Poland Township. The agency said Chip had stayed in the United States longer than he was authorized and would be deported.
He was in jail — in Mahoning County, Seneca County and then Maple Heights — until Friday, when the agency let him go on supervised release. He must call immigration once per month.
Chip will get his visa Dec. 1. Then, the process to secure his permanent resident status, and ultimately citizenship, will begin.
The family doesn’t anticipate any further problems with immigration authorities.
“We are an even stronger family now,” said Virgil Gilea, Chip’s father.
Chip had faced the threat of returning to Romania, where he hasn’t lived since he was a teenager, and not being able to return to the U.S. for 10 years.
“This is where my life is,” Chip said. “This is where I belong.”
Attorneys for the family repeatedly asked immigration to reopen Chip’s case, but up until this week, officials refused.
A New York attorney formerly retained by the family had missed a filing deadline and didn’t inform Chip about an order requiring him to leave the U.S.
An immigration judge ordered deportation in 2003, but neither Chip nor his family knew of the order.
He and his parents, Virgil and Minerva; sister, Bianca; and fiancee, Cindy Zaborsky; said they believe coverage by The Vindicator as well as work by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and the Romanian Embassy in Washington, D.C., prompted immigration authorities to change their minds and reopen his case.
“Once they looked at it, they saw that I didn’t do anything wrong,” Chip said.
After the first Vindicator story ran Oct. 23, the news was picked up by media outlets in Romania, the family said.
Virgil and Minerva came to the U.S. from Romania on Thanksgiving Day in 1990. Chip, then 15, and Bianca, then 12, followed four years later.
They learned English, and both children graduated from Boardman High School and Youngstown State University — Chip with an electrial engineering degree, and Bianca, a degree in international business.
“My mother cried every day,” Bianca said of the family’s long wait. “She’s very emotional.”
But they shed only happy tears Friday as Chip sat on the sofa in his family’s township home between his mother and fianc e. His dad and sister sat at each end of the crowded couch.
“It’s like Christmas when you’re a little kid,” Zaborsky said. “You wanted a gift, you get it and then you have to keep looking at it to make sure it’s still there.”
Neighbors who supported the family throughout the ordeal stopped by in the afternoon to visit Chip. Both Jeanne Hanuschak and Melissa Ellis embraced Chip upon seeing him. Cake and champagne marked their reunion. Hanuschak initiated petitions to lawmakers to get Chip released.
Bianca spent hours researching immigration cases and talking on the phone with lawyers as she tried to help her brother.
“She did a wonderful job,” Chip said.
After so many months of not being able to touch their son, brother and fiancée, Minerva, Bianca and Zaborsky made up for lost time, hugging Chip, holding his hand, stroking his face.
“I just want to thank my family, my neighbors, our church and people I don’t even know,” Chip said.
The family received phone calls and letters of support from total strangers.
They also listed Atty. Abraham Kay, of Cleveland, and the office of Cleveland Atty. Margaret Wong as those instrumental in Chip’s release.
“We will never be able to say thank you to everyone enough,” Minerva said.
Chip said he had faith that he would return home.
“I have faith in God,” he said. “I did nothing wrong, and I knew that God would take care of it.”
After hugging and kissing his family upon his return, the first thing Chip did was take a shower. He planned to spend Friday night at his parents’ house before going to his Austintown home today.
He also looks forward to driving his Mitsubishi Evolution. He enjoys car shows and working on the vehicles. Today, he’ll watch Ohio State University take on chief rival University of Michigan in football.
His parents kept his house and car payments up to date, initially using Chip’s savings and then their own. Their legal bills topped $100,000.
As it marks their arrival on U.S. soil, Thanksgiving has always been a special holiday for the Gilea family. This year it will be even more significant.
“When we came here on Thanksgiving, we were hopeful,” Virgil said. “Now at this Thanksgiving, we have hope again.”
denise_dick@vindy.com