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Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
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November 23, 2008
Foreigners who marry Americans are entitled to become permanent residents of the U.S., but in a stricter post-9/11 world, hundreds of widows are being asked to leave the country because their husbands died. Bob Simon reports. A Loss Of Love And Country Video - CBSNews.com
'60 Minutes' Looks At 'Widow Penalty' In Immigration Law
Last night, 60 Minutes reported on a group of hundreds of American widows fighting a U.S. government effort to deport them from this country. These women (and a few men) are citizens of foreign countries who married American citizens, but their spouses died before their residency applications were completed.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
13,387 posts, read 19,428,052 times
Reputation: 4611
Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960
Another news link about this subject.
'60 Minutes' Looks At 'Widow Penalty' In Immigration Law
Last night, 60 Minutes reported on a group of hundreds of American widows fighting a U.S. government effort to deport them from this country. These women (and a few men) are citizens of foreign countries who married American citizens, but their spouses died before their residency applications were completed.
November 23, 2008
Foreigners who marry Americans are entitled to become permanent residents of the U.S., but in a stricter post-9/11 world, hundreds of widows are being asked to leave the country because their husbands died.
Definitely a tough decision, Mkfarnam.
Unfortunately, the law is fairly strict. Most of these people had adequate time to either become citizens or at least establish themselves as legal residents. Many, if not all, chose to sit back and do nothing while enjoying the benefits of a U. S. Citizen. Although not reflected in this video, many chose to remain loyal to their home country over this country.
Bottom line . . . they chose the easy route, took a chance and lost. Exceptions will create a mega-monster and will become endless. Deportation is the only fair answer for all non-legal citizens.
A lot of people come here, get married, and then just stay here. That's illegal.
Other people come here, get married on the K-3 (marriage) visa and that's legal. (They'd paid, filed all their papers to prove who they are, had a criminal background check, medical check (TB and other contagious diseases) and shots for communicable diseases).
Other people come here, get married (illegal) and then go to a lawyer and get made legal. Sort of risky as they do stand a chance of getting deported.
It depends upon whether they broke the law or not. I saw the 60 Minutes program and at least one couple was said to be waiting for their Immigration Interview so they seem to have been doing it LEGALLY. Their problem was that Immigration was taking so long to schedule the final interview, it was not their fault so that person should certainly be allowed to stay.
There was aother segment on 60 Minutes that was about ILLEGAL immigrants who should not be here at all. No question about it, they walked into the country illegally.
hundreds of widows are being asked to leave the country because their husbands died.
That makes it sound unfair butif they were here legally and were just waiting for the immigration process to run its course, they shouldn't be asked to leave and it WOULD be unfair.I thought 60 Minutes was vague about whether they caught up in the middle of the legal immigration process though no fault of their own or whether they never even bothered to become legal. If they were doing the K-3 marriage visa, they would have been legal sooner or later and it's not their fault that the process was not complete when the husband died.
At any rate I think ANY of them should be more entitled to live here than someone who is not married to a US citizen. If you are married to a USC, you can become legal through the process, but if you simply came here on your own and went into hiding, you have no right to remain.The wives would become "permanent residents" (green card) and have the right to remain in the US. Whether or not they ever go on to become citizens is up to them and will only affect them if they leave the US for over 6 months and wish to return (which they cannot do if they are not a USC.) I'm fairly sure it's 6 months, someone correct me if not.
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