The NYT reports:
Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, gave a two-year reprieve on Tuesday to immigrants whose applications for permanent residency have been denied because their American spouses died during the application process.
Under United States law, a foreign spouse of an American citizen is eligible for residency, but the couple is required to be married for at least two years first, in part as a safeguard against fraudulent marriages.
The government has argued that if the American spouse dies before the two-year mark, the foreign spouse becomes a widow or widower, effectively annulling the right to be considered for residency, and thereby opening the door to deportation.
Given that America is a country of immigrants and that the marriage route in is virtually the same in most countries, is it rough on widow[er]s if the native spouse dies and the applicant is now set for deportation or is it tough luck - the reason for the approval in the first place has now gone?
The government has now given a two year reprieve for such people but for what? What's a reprieve in this context? Does the government mean that they need a chance to find another husband/wife?
Sad enough to have a bereavement, let alone get deported as well. A Brit friend of mine, married to a US citizen, got deported from the US, with her children, because of a misunderstanding over the terms of a teacher exchange - although they were still married.
ReplyDeleteThose situations are appalling. I'm coming around to thinking that the two year amnesty proposed is at least better than nothing and it's all any of us are going to get in these new harsh times.
ReplyDeleteIf someone satisfies the residency requirements as a spouse and the partner dies, I can see Immigration's point that if it altered nothing, then there is no incentive for them to either remain together of for the hosting partner to stay alive.
On the other hand, to make the sponsored partner so totally dependent in a new country on the hosting spouse is an invitation to abuse within the marriage, whichever way it was.
There should surely be some halfway house between deportation and full rights which could be explored.
Whenever a government body makesrules. Someone somewhere is going to be screwed.
ReplyDeleteIt's an unwritten law in government.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteThe Amoercian policy was needlessly harsh. When I worked in Immigration there was at least some leeway in most parts of the rules to allow consideration of "compelling or compassionate" circumstances.
ReplyDelete