Nun to share Congolese woman's story Church hosts immigration talk

Sister Josephe Marie Flynn always wanted to be a writer.

She put that career on hold while she served the Catholic Church as a teacher at various levels.

Then she met Regina and David Bakala and everything changed. Nothing was the same after that first encounter.

"Now at 70 years old, I'm starting a whole new career," Flynn, of Milwaukee, said.

Her new career has taken off, highlighted by the publication of "Rescuing Regina: The Battle to Save a Friend from Deportation and Death."

The Bakalas story includes pain and suffering, but also triumph as they fought for their lives against the Congolese government and the injustice of the United States' immigration system and its arbitrary asylum process system.

Flynn will share this story at an immigration forum "Rescuing the Broken U.S. Immigration System" Saturday morning at the Ascension Lutheran Church in Waukesha. Regina will also being on hand to discuss her family's trials and tribulations.

In addition, Joseph Rivas, an attorney and an expert on immigration law, and Sister Barbara Pfarr, the director of the WISDOM Immigration Imitative, will speak at the forum.

Denied asylum

The focus will be on Flynn and Regina as the two friends will be side-by-side just as they have been ever since they met in 2000 when Regina and David wanted to join St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hales Corners. That's when Flynn learned the couples' unbelievable story.

She learned how Regina was tortured, raped and imprisoned for voicing her democratic beliefs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after organizing a democratic movement. She managed to escape and immigrated to the United States in 1995.

David was incarcerated as well but didn't escape until two years later.

"I asked them to give a history about themselves, and each told me their story and my jaw dropped," Flynn said. "I then ran out to the library to see what was going on in Congo."

The two reunited in the U.S., found work and petitioned for asylum, where Regina made a payment to an attorney to handle her request.

When the judge denied asylum, she retained another lawyer to file an appeal. While they waited for the results, they moved from North Carolina to Wisconsin and tried to purchase a small house. However, they were asked to get updated work permits and when the government denied Regina a permit, she was informed that her asylum had been denied and the grace period for opening her case had expired. Regina called her lawyer, who said everything would be fixed.

Nothing got fixed. It got worse and Regina was arrested in 2005 when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at her family's apartment and was detained in front of David and their two young children. Before leaving, she told David to call Flynn for help.

Facing execution

"It's a movie," Flynn said. "It's an absolute movie, how they both got out of Congo and everything seems so well and the whole system turns against them."

That moment is where the book begins and Flynn did exactly what Regina asked. She rallied parishioners at St. Mary's and others for the "Save Regina" media campaign and raised more than $50,000 for legal and other services.

Ultimately, Regina and David received a joint application for asylum by a Chicago immigration judge two years later. Without it, Regina would have faced execution for her past involvement with the democratic movement.

"Somehow it brought about a miracle," Flynn said. "There was no hope, but we stayed totally positive."

During the entire process, Flynn documented the events that were happening in the case - Regina was locked in detention centers - and then sat down with the two afterward to flush out all the devastating details that surrounded their life before coming to the United States.

"When I first heard their story, I looked at them and said, 'This is a book,' " Flynn said. "When Regina was in jail, she said 'you write this' and I saved everything. We were preserving history. I was saying, 'What can I do to help this family.' As I learned more, I became more horrified. I felt privileged that they opened up to me."

Fix the system

She finished the book in 2008 and it took another three years to edit and publish it.

Since the book came out, she has traveled the state to discuss immigration issues and also gave the opening talk at a refugee conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and has since left parish ministry to focus on leading the Archdiocesan Justice for Immigrants Committee.

Flynn wants people to take a valuable lesson away from her talk on Saturday.

"I hope for the most part they learn that we have to reform the entire system," Flynn said. "Not only is it dysfunctional but it is contradicting American values. This is an ongoing issue. It hasn't gone before Congress and what we need to have is a genuine comprehensive reform."

Regina also speaks at different forums and will probably get emotional this weekend.

"The memories are still raw and still raw for the children," Flynn said. "It's not something that never goes away. We're seeing that with our military. Regina is a faith-filled woman, and even though she can't get the memories out from the post-traumatic stress, she speaks about it."

For Flynn, her career as a writer is probably finished. But her new job is just beginning.

"I'm an advocate for all the other Reginas and Davids out there," Flynn said. "But I don't see this as a book. I see it as a mission."