Strict Visa Regulations Keep Ecuadorian Woman from Visiting Comatose Brother

Gladys Tacuri faces personal turmoil as United States immigration laws prohibit her from visiting her dying brother in New York City, according to New York Daily News. Leonardo Tacuri was the victim of a hit-and-run accident back in April and is currently in a coma at Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center, reported the source.

Currently residing in Ecuador, Gladys has a stable home life – with a husband, three children, and a beauty salon – and has no intentions to move to the United States, but is still unable to obtain a temporary visitor visa. Tacuri has twice been denied by the United States consulate in Guayaquil, where authorities claim she has no way to prove that she will not overstay her time in the country.

“What I want is to see my brother for what could be the last time,” Tacuri said in a phone interview, as reported by the New York Daily News. With no relatives living in the United States, Leonardo lies alone in the hospital connected to a respirator.

Lutheran Medical Center’s chief of Trauma and Critical Care Services, Dr. Fausto Vinces, has been helping Tacuri’s case by writing letters to the Guayaquil Consulate asking to allow her to enter the U.S. to be involved in Leonardo’s well being. Personnel in Guayaquil suggested that Tacuri contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regarding Humanitarian Parole, which can be granted to bring someone to the United States who would otherwise be denied due to a “compelling emergency.”

Though Tacuri pleads with social workers at the hospital not to do it, Lutheran Medical Center wants to send Leonardo back to Ecuador if Tacuri is unable to come to the United States.