I saw this at The Florida Masochist

Dahianna HeardDahianna and Jeffrey Heard often talked of their life after the war as a dream they would live together: buy a house, raise a family, travel abroad.

But Jeffrey, a Casselberry contractor for a security company supporting U.S. troops in Iraq, was shot to death this spring during an ambush of his convoy near Fallujah.

Now his wife, a Venezuela native raising their 1-year-old son, faces possible deportation.

One reason: They hadn’t been married long enough. She was three months short of the two years needed to satisfy immigration-law rules.

She is appealing for residency. But if that fails and she must leave, she said their son Bryan may have to grow up in her native country — despite being a U.S. citizen.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials would not discuss the case.

Upon Jeffrey Heard’s death, immigration officials voided her petition for a “green card,” a document that would let her reside legally in this country and, eventually, seek citizenship, her attorney said.

Immigration officials also have rejected her request to qualify for legalization as the widow of a U.S. citizen, citing the two-year rule.

“It’s an injustice,” said a tearful Heard, 35. “We had our home here. We had our baby here. It’s an injustice that’s being committed, because my husband gave all for this country. He gave all, and now his widow and her son are treated as if they don’t belong.”

Killed delivering equipment

Jeffrey Heard, a U.S. Army veteran and former National Guardsman, was shot in the head in March. Insurgents intercepted his convoy as it was delivering equipment to troops. He was 42. The Heards would have celebrated their second anniversary in July.

Her attorney, Ralph Pineda, tried to make the case that the two-year time requirement would be “a minuscule technicality” in an unusual case. Pineda argued, in a letter to Orlando’s immigration district Director Linda Swacina, that her petition could be reconsidered for humanitarian reasons. Swacina has not yet responded to the latest request.

The two-year widow provision was added in the early 1990s to prevent people in fraudulent marriages from abusing the process.

[The rest of the story]

Apparently, you can only stay in the United States if you come here illegally. Those same rights are not extended to the spouses of our service men and women.

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