Deporting Military Wives
Eduardo Gonzalez, a petty officer second class with the U.S. Navy, is about to be deployed overseas for a third time. Making his deployment even tougher is the fact his wife may not be around when he comes back.
His wife faces deportation to Guatemala -- her home country that she hasn't seen since 1989. He also doesn't know what would happen to his young son, Eduardo Jr., if that happens.
"I like being in uniform and serving my country, but if she goes back I'm going to have to give it all up and just get out and take care of my son and get a job," he said.
"Defending the country that's trying to kick my family out is a thought that always runs through my mind."
If this story doesn't sound familiar, it should. I posted about another case of a soldiers wife facing deportation back in June, and I was far from alone. I believe that once attention was paid to the case, the wife was allowed to stay, but the basic problem is obviously still there. In that previous case, the wife had in fact entered the country illegally, but that doesn't appear to be the case here.
In Gonzalez's case, his wife, Mildred, came to the United States with her mother in 1989 when she was 5 years old. They were granted political asylum because of their status as war refugees from Guatemala.
In September 2000, Mildred's mother applied for legalization and included her daughter in that application. Her mother was granted legal status in July 2004, according to Gonzalez.
However, six weeks earlier, Gonzalez and Mildred got married, canceling Mildred's ability to apply for legal status through her mother because she was no longer an unmarried daughter under the age of 21. As a result, her legal status still remains in jeopardy.
So in the country legally except for some bureaucratic red tape surrounding the date of her marriage to a US citizen, but she still faces deportation.
That's just fine, according to Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for tougher laws on illegal immigration.
"What you're talking about is amnesty for illegal immigrants who have a relative in the armed forces, and that's just outrageous," he said. "What we're talking about here is letting lawbreakers get away with their actions just because they have a relative in the military. ... There's no justification for that kind of policy."
Nope. I can't see any possible justification to allow the family members of those men and women who are sent all over the world to risk their lives for the United States of America to actually stay in the country and share in the benefits of the freedoms their spouses are nominally out there defending. That's just crazy talk.
