UPDATE: From the AP: "US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday his agency will seek to "terminate" the deportation case against the wife of a Massachusetts soldier missing in Iraq so she can stay in the country and apply for permanent resident status." Unless we're mistaken, that sounds like Yaderlin Jimenez will be able to get her green card.
Yesterday, word spread all over the Web that Yaderlin Jimenez, wife of missing soldier Alex Jimenez, might be deported. John Kerry quickly contacted the Department of Homeland Security about the matter.
Now the Department of Homeland Security is saying that she isn't going to be deported. But Jimenez' lawyer went on CNN today to say that, while she isn't going to be shipped back to the Dominican Republic, and she wasn't in any imminent danger of getting kicked out, she still can't get a green card.
And if she can't get a green card and if the worst has happened to her missing husband, then she is still at risk of being deported at a later date.
So give her a green card. Now. And perhaps our Senators could consider legislation that might clarify these gray areas of immigration law and protect the loved ones of our soldiers.
ABC News interviewed an Army colonel and professor at West Point who pointed out that no law covers Yaderlin and many other wives of soldiers who are also illegal immigrants: "It's impossible in most cases for the spouse of a military member to get legal. There is no provision in immigration law that gives special provisions to spouses of military." The professor also noted that "thousands of soldiers are married to illegal immigrants."
This is a sticky situation that can be made uncomplicated with legislation. It seems pretty simple. Even a stringent immigration opponent would have to say that the family of a soldier is a special case.
Image of a green card from Wikipedia.
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