Surviving Spouses Against Deportation: Demanding an End to the Widow Penalty

Check out the website Surviving Spouses Against Deportation:  Demanding an End to the Widow Penalty.  It includes recent filings in the class action lawsuit challenging the “widow penalty,” and also the recent court opinions.  All filings can be found at the www.ssad.org website.

What is the widow penalty?  Consider two examples from the SSAD website:  Marlin Coats didn’t hesitate to jump in the water to try to save two drowning teens caught in a riptide at San Francisco Beach Park. He lost his life that Mother’s Day in 2006, but because of his heroism those two teenagers survived. So why is the U.S. now responding to Coats’ ultimate sacrifice by deporting his wife Jacqueline Coats? U.S. Army contractor Todd Engstrom of Illinois gave his life for his country when he was killed in Iraq, and now the federal government is telling his wife Diana Engstrom she too must go.

Because of a flaw in the law, women and men who entered this country legally are facing deportation when their spouses die during the lengthy administrative visa process. There over one hundred of these cases across the country affecting women, mothers and children.

KJ