Esther Basilisco is enjoying a long overdue celebration with her children in Chicago, Illinois after being separated from them for over 10 years.

The Iloilo native’s petition to bring her son and daughter to the U.S. was finally approved in 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic and backlogs in processing immigration cases, however, caused the delayed reunion.

"The embassy told us you must wait because there are a lot of people we are also prioritizing," Basilico said. "So, we wait and waited. Every three months from 2021 until 2023, 2024, they gave me reminders to just wait."

Basilico's case is among those that got caught in the swelling immigration backlog cases.

Government data compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse showed that as of April, backlog cases reached over 3.5 million, including 1.3 million on asylum matters.

Fil-Am immigration lawyer Jath Shao said he has his firm based in Cleveland, Ohio are trying to manage their clients' expectations.

“Because of the number of people coming to the border, all the resources, time, and money have all been focused here," the Binondo-born lawyer said. "It's affecting everybody else trying to come the legal way, through family, employment, or any other way.” 

Shao also lamented that changes in immigration rules seemed to be "slowing everything down overall."

"In Manila, to get your spouse and children here, it used to [take] a year," he said. "Now, it's taking two and a half years."

The lawyer added: "If you're trying to get somebody here as employment, you have to pay an extra $600 to help support this asylum system because somebody has to pay for the time and money that we're spending adjudicating these cases."

Like all immigration lawyers, Shao said they are all trying to keep up with the changes in immigration rules, including the recent executive order of President Joe Biden.

The directive restricts most asylum seekers and allows border officials to quickly turn back migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.

The ban will last until the number of undocumented entries goes below 1,500 for seven straight days.

“The President kind of did what he had to do to allocate resources within the immigration system because what is normally a very small part of it became overwhelming the system," Shao said.

Biden had said the order will be temporary to address the border issue that Congress had not acted on.

Administration officials also insisted that Congress needs to pass legislation to secure the border and address America's immigration issue.

But for Shao's clients and families like Basilisco's, the issue has real personal impact.

“Tell your congressperson if it's taking too long for tita’s visa," Shao said, "or if you can't hire your workers for your business and you have people waiting from the Philippines.”