Another Deportation Tale

Yaderlin Jimenez, the wife of a US soldier missing in Iraq, faces possible deportation.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- The wife of a U.S. soldier missing in Iraq could face deportation, her attorney told a television station.

Army Spc. Alex R. Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, Boston's WBZ-TV reported Tuesday.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said Yaderlin illegally entered the United States from the Dominican Republic in 2001. Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for her alerted authorities to her situation, Kolken said.

The attorney said his client would not be eligible for a green card under normal circumstances, but he is seeking a hardship waiver for her. If she were to have to leave the United States, she would have to wait 10 years before reapplying.

"I can't imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting someone's wife who is fighting and possibly dying for our country," Kolken told the station.

An immigration judge put a temporary stop to the proceedings since Alex Jimenez was reported missing. The soldier's wife is living with family members in Pennsylvania, the station reported.

U.S. forces continue to search for Jimenez, 25, and a comrade, Pvt. Bryon W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan.

The soldiers' identification cards were found in an al Qaeda safe house north of Baghdad, along with video production equipment, computers and weapons, the U.S. military said Saturday. An al Qaeda front group claimed in a video posted on the Internet this month that the soldiers were killed and buried, and showed images of the IDs. The video offered no proof of the soldiers' fates.

Good a immigration judge put a stay on this. Under the Armed Force Naturalization Act OF 2003, Yaderlin should be protected from deportation.

(1) SPOUSES- Notwithstanding the second sentence of section 201(b)(2)(A)(i), a person who is the surviving spouse of a person granted posthumous citizenship under this section, and who was living in marital union with the citizen spouse at the time of death, shall be considered, for purposes of section 201(b), to remain an immediate relative after the date of the citizen's death, but only until the date on which the surviving spouse remarries.

Please note carefully, the law makes no mention of whether the spouse has to be a legal alien in order to get survivor benefits.

Is there anyone out there who realistically believes Army Spc. Alex R. Jimenez is not dead? A federal judge rightly issued a stay. Till her husband is found, Yaderlin should be allowed to reside in the US. Congress still needs to close the widow penalty loophole in Federal Immigration law. Otherwise there are going to be more cases like this or Dahianna Heard.

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