Wife Of Missing Soldier Could Face Deportation

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MrsSpringsteen

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So does anyone here think she should be deported asap?

Maybe they'll wait to deport her until after his body is found :|

Wife of missing GI could face deportation

By Associated Press | June 20, 2007

The wife of a Massachusetts soldier missing in Iraq could face deportation, her lawyer said in an interview with a Boston television station yesterday.

Army Specialist Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, 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, WBZ-TV reported.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said Yaderlin Jimenez 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.

US forces continue to search for Jimenez, 25, and a comrade, Private Brian Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.

The soldiers' identification cards were found in an Al Qaeda site north of Baghdad, along with video production equipment, computers, and weapons, the US military said Saturday. An Al Qaeda front group claimed in a video posted on the Internet earlier this month that the soldiers were killed and buried, and it showed images of the ID's. The video offered no proof of their fates.
 
I don't think so, but I'm not one of those rabid anti-immigrant folks either.

I bet I know somebody who'd deport her, but I think he got banned so we'll never know...
 
I think she'd have problems no matter what ethnicity she is, but it is pretty cruel to deport her if she's married to someone who's an American citizen and is missing in action. I didn't think you could be deported anyway if you were married to an american citizen?

Granted....if he shows up and they can work through all this and do things properly, by all means stay in the country. But to deport her before her husbands found and she has burried him if he's dead....that's just cruel.
 
Senators aid wife of missing soldier
Kerry, Kennedy pressure officials

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | June 21, 2007

The state's two US senators came to the aid yesterday of the wife of a missing Lawrence soldier to make sure she is not deported.

While her lawyer has warned she could face deportation, federal officials said yesterday there are no hearings scheduled.

Yaderlin Hiraldo and Army Specialist Alex R. Jimenez met in a small village in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. But the couple fell in love in the United States, after she arrived illegally in 2001.

They married in 2004 and Jimenez, a US citizen who lived in the Dominican Republic as a boy and later moved to New York, tried to obtain permanent legal status for his bride. When federal immigration officials learned she entered the country illegally, however, they started deportation proceedings.

In May 2006, she received a reprieve -- US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to halt the proceedings after her husband had been sent to Iraq. Last month, Jimenez and two other soldiers were abducted by Sunni insurgents. One of the men was found dead, and the insurgent group claimed to have killed Jimenez and the third soldier. The two have not been found, though their Army IDs were discovered last week.

With Hiraldo's status still unresolved, Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy have called on the Department of Homeland Security to let her stay.

"What's changed in the last year in Yaderlin's case is the status of her husband, which tragically could jeopardize her already uncertain status," said Kerry, who believes she should be allowed to stay permanently and sent a letter on her behalf yesterday. "That shouldn't be acceptable to a compassionate government."

Jamie Zuieback , an ICE spokeswoman, said, "ICE has no intention of deporting Mrs. Jimenez."

"The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing the case to determine what legal options might be available to resolve her status," she said.

Hiraldo's lawyer, Matthew Kolken , did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

For the Jimenez family, the uncertainty has been another grim consequence of the 25-year-old's disappearance.

"I hope everything turns out OK," said Wendy Luzon , a family friend who lives in Lawrence and spoke yesterday with Jimenez's father, Ramon "Andy" Jimenez . "All this is affecting his health. His blood pressure is high. He has been waiting and waiting with no news of his son. This doesn't help."

The Jimenez case is not an isolated one.

Diana Engstrom of Illinois, the wife of an Army contractor, learned she might be deported after her husband, Todd Engstrom, was killed in Iraq in September 2004. Though Engstrom, a native of Kosovo, entered the country legally, her husband died before the government officially recognized him as her sponsor.

In 2005, US Senators Barack Obama and Richard Durbin , both Democrats, filed a private bill that would grant her permanent resident status. Though the bill has not been approved, it may be reintroduced, and the proposed legislation has allowed her to stay. Private bills are usually filed to help specific individuals or companies in unusual circumstances and often deal with immigration.

"We're still in limbo," said Todd Engstrom's mother, Cindy Engstrom , of Athens, Ill. "My hearts go out to the [Jimenez] family. We certainly know the difficulty that they're facing. I'll say some prayers for them."


In a telephone interview, Kerry said he would not file legislation for Jimenez until he heard back from Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security .
 
Yup, looks like Eastern Europeans have the same problem. But I hear BrownEyedBoy - would a British wife be getting the same treatment?
 
MrsSpringsteen said:
So does anyone here think she should be deported asap?

Maybe they'll wait to deport her until after his body is found :|

Wife of missing GI could face deportation

By Associated Press | June 20, 2007

The wife of a Massachusetts soldier missing in Iraq could face deportation, her lawyer said in an interview with a Boston television station yesterday.

Army Specialist Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, 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, WBZ-TV reported.

Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said Yaderlin Jimenez illegally entered the United States from the Dominican Republic in 2001.


I don't know how many of you realize

But we have 1000s of illegal aliens walking over the Mexican boarder into America that are given legal status almost immediately, on track to become voting citizens, without having to enlist or anything.

And the Republicans (most all of them) support this.
 
Re: Re: Wife Of Missing Soldier Could Face Deportation

deep said:



I don't know how many of you realize

But we have 1000s of illegal aliens walking over the Mexican boarder into America that are given legal status almost immediately, on track to become voting citizens, without having to enlist or anything.

And the Republicans (most all of them) support this.

If you have a tip to share with the immigration law firm I work at, please do share, cause we certainly don't know what CFR covers this special status. :happy:
 
this poor slob was the Dominican Republic


If you are Cuban and you get one foot on American soil you are granted status

and the GOP that are so against illegal aliens

certainly don't want these people deported

Florida electoral votes are most valuable



We can lose 60,000 Americans fighting the Communist in Viet Nam

and Bush will shake hands with the Communist Dictator that is oppressing people as you read this

tr1-moi.jpg


How many Americans have Cuban's ever killed?
 
Re: Re: Re: Wife Of Missing Soldier Could Face Deportation

Miroslava said:

If you have a tip to share with the immigration law firm I work at, please do share, cause we certainly don't know what CFR covers this special status. :happy:

Ah - good old 8 CFR (which my work also involves).

/offtopic
 
BOSTON -- Yaderlin Hiraldo Jimenez, the wife of missing Army Spc. Alex Jimenez, no longer has to worry about being deported as she awaits word of her husband's fate.

On Friday, Yaderlin walked into a U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services Office in Buffalo, N.Y. She left with a green card in her hand, guaranteeing she can stay in the U.S. for the rest of her life.

"She was moved to tears," her lawyer Matthew Kolken, who went with her to the immigration office, told the Boston Sunday Globe.

"Her immigration problems have been solved in their entirety and now her focus is completely dedicated to her hope and desire that she's going to see her husband again," Kolken added.

The move came after U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last month that his agency would "terminate" the deportation case against Yaderlin so she could stay in the country and apply for permanent resident status.

At the time, Chertoff said in a letter to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., that "the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their families deserve our greatest respect."

Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., and a comrade, Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. have been missing since their unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12.

Jimenez had petitioned for a green card for his wife, whom he married in 2004.

Yaderlin illegally entered the United States from the Dominican Republic in June 2001, paying $500 to a smuggler and walking three days from Mexico to California.

Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for her alerted authorities to her situation.

On Friday, the Pentagon changed the status of Jimenez and Fouty from "whereabouts unknown" to "missing/captured."

The change reflects an official determination that the two were seized by hostile forces. The earlier designation is typically used when a soldier goes missing but military officials have not confirmed the circumstances.

The change does not mean the military has gained any new information about their whereabouts.

Kolken said Yaderlin hopes to apply for citizenship so she can eventually vote. She also hopes to attend college, he said.

"She commented about how much she loved this country," Kolken said.
 
She lives in Hazleton, PA now about twenty minutes away. Home of the English only mayor. Well, at least she is publicly documented.
 
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