Mina Manzano is the sole breadwinner in her Azusa household.
She supports a disabled husband, an elderly father and a teenage son with a rare genetic disorder. At 4 in the morning, she rouses to administer her son’s first tube feeding of the day before heading to her nursing job caring for developmentally disabled adults.
Her youngest brother in the Philippines has offered to give her much-needed respite. Like thousands of immigrants across Southern California who’ve petitioned for loved ones to come to the U.S., her family has been anxiously waiting for his visa application to come through.
“I’d have someone to help me in order to survive,” Manzano, 52, said.
It’s now been 10 years since his application was submitted. A huge visa backlog, only exacerbated by the pandemic, has forced applicants to wait years, sometimes decades — a limbo that some policymakers say is unduly cruel and is renewing calls to revamp the visa system.
Manzano’s family is in particularly dire straits. Her mother, who petitioned for her brother, died. He had cleared all the application hurdles and only had an interview left to do at the U.S. embassy. Now the family was back at square one, all those years of waiting seemingly amounting to nothing.
Limited spots, lost hope
Mina Manzano works as a licensed practical nurse taking care of developmentally disabled adults.
Courtesy of Mina Manzano
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Manzano’s…
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