The sister of a long-time Los Gatos resident made it out of Kyiv, Ukraine, on the last train to Lviv, but is now stuck in Tijuana, Mexico.
Laura Kramer Rahmil, the former vice chair of the Town’s Community Health and Senior Services Commission, said in contrast to President Joe Biden’s claims of support for Ukrainians already in America, she’s having difficulty finding a legal way to get the 55-year-old Elena Kramerova into the country.
“Right now, I’m in the process of helping a number of families,” said Kramer Rahmil, who founded Remark International Realty. “I’m not getting anywhere.”
Kramer Rahmil has reached out to senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, as well as Congresswoman Anna G. Eshoo, about the logjam.
She’s worried because her sister is nearly-blind, and speaks just Ukrainian and Russian.
The story is all-too familiar for Kramer Rahmil, a Jewish woman who came to America as a political refugee in 1980 with only $4 in her pocket.
She started as a bank teller in Chicago, and made such an impression her boss offered her the chance to go back to school.
After getting an MBA from Northwestern University she worked for a company that processed spices and oregano from Mexico.
She also got her real estate license and started a consultancy.
More recently, Kramer Rahmil helped seniors dealing with ID theft via the Los Gatos Monte-Sereno Police Department’s Victim Services Unit, before the program was disbanded due to lack of funds.
Meanwhile, her sister became a successful businesswoman in Ukraine’s capital city.
“She had a store where she would sell expensive leather goods,” Kramer Rahmil said. “She had two apartments in Ukraine.”
Kramerova had no intention of leaving, until the bombs started flying.
“When the war started, I told my nephew, ‘We need to get her out,’” Kramer Rahmil said, adding her sister left on Feb. 24, the day the war began. “We were able to get her on the very last train from Kyiv to Lviv.”
At one point, Kramerova even had to hoof it.
“She walked 16 kilometers with a little tiny dog that she didn’t want to leave alone,” Kramer Rahmil said.
Once Kramerova got to Poland, she was offered a free hotel room. Then she flew to Mexico City.
Mexican airline Volaris wouldn’t let the woman travel with the dog she’d saved from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, but luckily a different Mexican airline was able to get them to Tijuana, Kramer Rahmil said.
But now, she’s stuck in a place that feels like a warzone in its own way.
“America is not accepting them as refugees,” Kramer Rahmil. “I didn’t want her to be in the detention camp, because she doesn’t see well.”
She’s working with an attorney to get her sister a temporary B-1 visa.
“We don’t want to smuggle her in,” she said, adding that would complicate things down the line. “Then she’ll never be able to come and visit.”
During the journey from Ukraine, another complication: a filling came out. Luckily, she’s now in a hot spot for dental tourism.
And while she was happy to be far from Russian shelling, she was on her own in a place with military checkpoints.
The State Department has said there are temporary visas for migrants available at U.S. consulates around the world, including in Tijuana, but Kramer Rahmil says they haven’t had any luck yet.
She paused her interview with the Los Gatan, Friday, to take a call from her lawyer.
The news: there were no border officials on staff who could help, for now, although she remained positive about the chance that might change.
“Hopefully things will be under control,” she said. “The refugee crisis is horrible. These people need help.”
