(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

CHICAGO - Weighed down by her husband's ruinous debts, Wanda Borowski left Poland 25 years ago to find work in the U.S., unaware it would mean two decades without seeing the son she left behind.

Poland is among the few European Union countries left out of a U.S. waiver program that allows people to travel to the U.S. up to 90 days without a visa. While Poland is a key U.S. ally in many respects, it's not included at least partly out of concern that Polish visitors will stay on as illegal immigrants - the reason Borowski's son Jaroslav has never been allowed to visit her.

"I'm extremely disappointed and confused," Borowski, 62, said in a tearful conversation at her suburban Chicago home, where she cares for her ailing husband. "I want someone to explain why my son cannot come here for just three weeks."

Stories similar to Borowski's led U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois to take up the visa-waiver cause, an issue dear to the million residents of Polish descent in the Chicago area. After an emotional trip to Poland, he was campaigning to have Congress extend the waiver to Poland when he suffered a stroke last month that forced him to undergo emergency surgery and prepare for lengthy rehabilitation.

Other devoted campaigners are pushing ahead on the issue. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat, reintroduced a bill to expand the visa waiver program to Poland and a few other countries on Jan. 31, about a week after the 52-year-old Kirk's stroke.

But Quigley and others say Kirk played an important role. His willingness to reach across party lines to support the effort made him an invaluable proponent at a time of divided government in Washington, Quigley said.

"That's a big deal in and of itself," Quigley said. "He's also someone who can talk to the Republican leadership about why this matters beyond the obvious, you know, why it matters for other issues relating to relationships with Poland in diplomatic and military (spheres).

"Others will have to pick up the slack until he's back in the jump seat."

It's unclear when Kirk can return to work, but initial rehabilitation could take more than a month. Doctors are confident he will make a full mental recovery, but expect he'll have some limited movement on the left side of his body. On Friday, he left the Chicago hospital where he has been treated in the three weeks since his stroke and was transferred to a rehabilitation centre.

Kirk's staff and Senate colleagues have picked up most of his routine legislative and constituent duties. But his absence may be felt in other areas, such as efforts to funnel federal dollars to the state for transportation and other job-creation projects.

The senator's desire to hear from Polish leaders himself on the visa issue prompted him to organize a four-day trip to Poland in January. He met with President Bronislaw Komorowski and Lech Walesa, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning founder of the country's anti-communist Solidarity movement, among others. The trip included an emotional visit to the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

Kirk's office later released a statement noting that Poland's a strong ally, plays a critical role in NATO military operations in Europe and the Middle East and "its citizens should be afforded the right of visa-free travel" to the U.S.

"He was very emotional about everything he saw ... and about the history of Poland and what is happening now economically," said Bozena Zweig, a member of the Polish American Association's board of directors who joined Kirk on the trip. "So, he was very involved, passionate about the matter."

The visa waiver program currently extends to 36 countries with good relationships with the U.S. Quigley's legislation would expand it to include Poland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Taiwan. Tourism officials also have taken up the issue, arguing for an easing of U.S. visa rules adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001.

Without the waiver, Poles and others can wait months for word on whether they've been approved for visas, and have to travel to U.S. embassies and consulates in a time-consuming and, for many, costly process. A visa itself can cost hundreds of dollars, sometimes more.

Opponents of expanding the visa-free travel program argue it could make it easier for terrorists to enter the U.S., noting that some al-Qaida members have used passports from countries like Britain and France to get in without applying for visas. Others say countries like Poland could be a source for a large number of illegal immigrants.

But Poles, who joined the European Union in 2004, say the risk of visitors remaining illegally is lower than it once was because there are more jobs closer to home in the United Kingdom, Germany and elsewhere. They say the visa requirement is all the more offensive because Polish troops have fought and died alongside American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Borowski said her son, Jaroslav, 30, has been denied a visa twice because U.S. officials determined he would likely stay on illegally in the U.S. But she said he's working for a car assembly plant near Krakow and takes care of his ill father, her ex-husband.

Borowski was herself in the United States illegally for 20 years, doing cleaning work to send money home for her children before remarrying and gaining U.S. citizenship through her new husband, an American of Polish descent. She had planned to return home to visit her family, but her husband suffered a stroke in 2010 that left him needing her constant care.

It again dashed her hopes of seeing her son. She takes comfort, though, in being able to see him on video calls through a computer.

"I left him in Poland when he was 6 years old. When I saw him for the first time online he was 26," recalled Borowski, speaking in both English and Polish through a translator. "I couldn't believe it was him. But it was also like I never left.

"I'm just hoping for a miracle."