Third Circuit Rules Against Widow

Her husband of eight months died in the Staten Island ferry crash in 2003 but Osserritta Robinson, a Jamaican immigrant, decided proceed with her application for permanent residency. In 2005, the immigration official told her that Mr. Robinson’s death had disqualified her application.  And the Third Circuit agreed.  Here is the opinion, Download 072977p1.pdf, and a nugget from Judge NYGAARD in dissent:

“As a result of the government’s fatally flawed interpretation of §1151(b), Osseritta Robinson will be removed from the United States, in spite of her full compliance with the INA, simply because the petition filed on her behalf by her deceased husband is stuck in the government’s bureaucracy.”

Mrs. Robinson’s attorney, Jeffrey Feinbloom of New York City, stated that a petition for rehearing en banc will be filed.  Following this process, either party could seek review before the U.S. Supreme Court because there is now a Circuit split. Download press_release_robinson_v_napolitano1.pdf

KJ