http://www.greencardfamily.com/news/news2009/news2009_0515.htm
New York Times: For hundreds of unlucky immigrants, the death of a
wife or husband has been quickly followed by an order to leave the
country. It=92s called the =93widow penalty,=94 a tragic quirk in federal
law that unfairly punishes recently married immigrants whose citizen
spouses die before their green-card paperwork is processed.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, which handles
applications for legal permanent residence, says its hands are tied.
According to its interpretation of the law, if a citizen dies before
the agency acts on his or her petition for a spouse=92s green card =97 and
if the marriage is less than 2 years old =97 the surviving spouse
automatically ceases to be a spouse.
Advocates for shattered families =97 grieving widows and their young
children, grandparents about to be bereaved a second time, as their
grandchildren are deported =97 have sought legal relief for years.
Congress has been no help so far, but a number of courts have rejected
the absurdity of a situation in which the bonds of marriage, and a
chance at citizenship, can be destroyed by routine bureaucratic
processing delays.
The most recent victory came last week in a class-action suit in
federal district court in Los Angeles. Judge Christina A. Snyder
instructed the Department of Homeland Security, to which Citizenship
and Immigration Services belongs, to reopen the cases of 13 immigrants
who had been denied green cards after their American spouses had died.
The lawyer who brought the case, Brent Renison, is hoping that
momentum is finally building to correct the injustice.
As other cases make their way through courts around the country, the
best solution remains the simplest: a legislative or administrative
fix. Bills to remedy the flaw have been introduced in the House and
Senate, and the Department of Homeland Security has said the widow
penalty is among the rules and procedures it has been reviewing at the
instruction of the department=92s secretary, Janet Napolitano.
Ms. Napolitano and Michael Aytes, the acting leader of Citizenship and
Immigration Services, should abolish the =93widow penalty,=94 or Congress
should do it for them. The law should protect immigrants who follow
the rules. It should never let their dreams of citizenship be
tragically derailed by death and an unthinking bureaucracy.
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