Saturday's visit may be last for Gileas

BOARDMAN — Members of jailed Romanian immigrant Virgil Ciprian “Chip” Gilea’s family will be able to hug, kiss and touch their son and brother during a visit Saturday that may be their last for many years.

“They have told him he’ll have a contact visit,” said Minerva Gilea, Chip’s mother. “He said whenever someone has had a contact visit, they’ve been deported the next day or day after.”

Chip, 30, is a graduate of Boardman High School and Youngstown State University. Agents from the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him Dec. 27, 2007, at his job at Energy Development Inc. at the Allied Waste carbon limestone landfill in Poland Township.

He’s been in jail ever since, currently near Toledo.

His parents, Virgil and Minerva, and sister Bianca, 27, make the roughly three-hour drive each week to visit him. Chip’s fiancee, Cindy Zaborsky of Austintown, accompanies the family when she isn’t working.

A pane of glass separates Chip from his loved ones, but on Saturday they’ll be face-to-face for the contact visit — their first since his arrest.

Cleveland Atty. Abraham Kay, who was recently retained by the Gilea family, has asked immigration officials to reopen Chip’s case and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter to ICE officials last week, asking that the case be given full consideration.

They haven’t received a response.

For the full story, read Friday's Vindicator or Vindy.com.