Our warped immigration system continued- War Widow faces Deportation

Immigration policy in this country is sick. Politicians pander to illegal immigrants and people here legally get screwed by the system. Children kept from their mothers, and now this. A war widow being threatened with deportation. Illinois legistors have proposed legislation to stop this injustice. Let's just pray it works.

The full article can be found at- http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-deport15.html

Trackback to Outside the Beltway at- http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/10976/trackback/


w
June 15, 2005
BY MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporter
Advertisement

Before Todd Engstrom went to Iraq to train security forces, his wife Diana Engstrom promised him that she would help raise his 12-year-old son if he didn't return.

When Todd Engstrom was killed in northern Iraq in September, Diana Engstrom learned she might not be able to honor that pledge because she was being deported to her native Kosovo.

On Tuesday, U.S. Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin suspended the deportation proceedings against Diana Engstrom by proposing a private relief bill that would grant the 25-year-old permanent resident status. U.S. Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.) introduced companion legislation in the U.S. House.

'It is the least we can do'

By law, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security cannot deport Diana Engstrom until the bill has made its way through Congress.

"It is the least we can do to repay the family of Todd Engstrom, a brave American who was killed working to bring peace and security to Iraq," Durbin said.

Todd Engstrom, 35, was a civilian contractor working with the U.S. Army to train Iraqi security forces near Fallujah. Before leaving for Iraq, he had sponsored his wife's efforts to gain U.S. residency following their marriage in December 2003.

Met in Kosovo

The couple met in Kosovo while Todd Engstrom was on a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

His death in a convoy attack outside the northern city of Balad left Diana Engstrom without a sponsor to allow the application process to continue. As the widow of a private contractor, she was also exempt from laws protecting relatives of military personnel killed in action.