CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — On Mother’s Day 1991, longtime Hanahan resident Michael Chiaromonte returned to the United States after serving in the Gulf War. 35 years later, his wife Rosalba, a mother of four who immigrated to America in 1971, spent Mother’s Day in an ICE detention center 300 miles away.
Rosalba “Rose” Chiaromonte came to the US from Fondi, Italy, a city nestled halfway between Rome and Naples, when she was just three years old. Over the last five decades, she gained legal permanent resident status, married Michael, and raised four children, one of which, as a US Marine, was awarded two Purple Hearts. Her husband lives with post-traumatic stress disorder and Gulf War illness, which the US Department of Veterans Affairs defines as a prominent condition that can contain multiple chronic symptoms including fatigue, headaches, joint pain, and more. Rosalba is his primary caretaker, or as Michael puts it, his “copilot.”
He said that immigration officials sent his wife a letter that stated she needed to come in for an appointment as part of the renewal process for her green card, which he added was not supposed to expire until 2028. “We just thought maybe they were doing something because of everything that’s been going on in the country, that they wanted to get a head start because it’s usually a six month time frame,” he recalled…