Sanchez: What part of ‘unfair’ don’t you understand?

By Mary Sanchez

Consider this love story gone sour. A U.S. citizen falls in love with an immigrant. They marry. The citizen requests that the new spouse be allowed to remain in the United States permanently. The two are in love, and their happy union is smiled upon by the federal government - or, at least, not frowned upon - pending a vetting process to make sure everything's on the level. When that is complete, the spouse will become a legal resident. In the meantime, the couple file the requisite paperwork, which begins making its way through bureaucratic channels.

Then, tragedy happens. The U.S. citizen dies before the government completes its paperwork. Guess who's getting deported? This is not a far-fetched scenario. Given that it has taken up to two years for the government to complete the review of such marriages, the window of vulnerability for a foreign spouse can be considerable. Data are not available on just how many widows and widowers of U.S. citizens are being deported, but more than 200 are fighting deportation in court. Legal experts believe that thousands of such cases may exist.

Consider these examples tracked by Oregon attorney Brent Renison.

A U.S. Navy recruiter died in a motorcycle accident. He had met his future bride while stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. She, along with her two children, were ordered deported. A man in the Air Force died of an aggressive form of cancer at age 21. His widow, a Russian immigrant who had been attending college in Florida, was granted survivor's benefits by the Veteran's Administration, but immigration officials said she would be deported.

The cases go on and on. Congress injected a modicum of mercy and common sense into the deportation policy for widows by exempting immigrants widowed by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and spouses of active military who have died in combat. Yet loopholes still catch immigrant spouses up in the net of this draconian policy. Consider the Army man killed in Iraq in a rocket-propelled grenade attack. He was working on U.S. missions but was employed by a military contractor. His wife, a Kosovo native, was ordered deported.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano showed a little mercy in June by staying most pending deportations for two years. But officials keep lining up the widows, widowers and their orphaned children in deportation proceedings. In the last month, victories were won in Maryland, Florida, Texas and Missouri. Courts agreed with the immigrants' contentions that their role and rights as a spouse do not end with the death of their mate.

How far such challenges will be taken in the future - and what kind of promise these cases hold for a landmark ruling - is hard to say. The government always appeals. A better strategy would be for Congress to clear up the mess with legislation. As much as we might wish that Congress would take up comprehensive immigration reform to address this, and a multitude of other injustices and

SNAFUs with our immigration laws, they will run up against rabid opposition by right-wing populists. “What part of illegal don't you understand?” is a popular refrain among those who wish to make immigration into a moral crusade.

It turns out there's a lot about this issue they don't understand.

What purpose is served by this kind of callous disregard for widows and widowers is beyond me.

n Contact the writer:

msanchez@kcstar.com