Illegal Status of Army Spouses Often Leads to Snags

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The NY Times reports on a Filipino-American US Army officer whose wife may get deported:

Lt. Kenneth Tenebro enlisted in the armed forces after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, signing up even before he became an American citizen.

He served one tour of duty in Iraq, dodging roadside bombs, and he would like to do another. But throughout that first mission, he harbored a fear he did not share with anyone in the military. Lieutenant Tenebro worried that his wife, Wilma, back home in New York with their infant daughter, would be deported.

Wilma, who like her husband was born in the Philippines, is an illegal immigrant.

“That was our fear all the time,” Lieutenant Tenebro said. When he called home, “She often cried about it,” he said. “Like, hey, what’s going to happen? Where will I leave our daughter?”

Immigration lawyers and Department of Homeland Security officials say that many thousands of people in the military have spouses or close relatives who are illegal immigrants. Many of those service members have fought to gain legal status for their family members — only to hit a legal dead end created in 1996, when Congress last made major revisions to the immigration laws.

What exactly did Congress (under the Clinton administration) have in mind at that time:

...Congress imposed automatic restrictions on illegal immigrants, barring them from returning for periods of 3 to 10 years after they leave the country, regardless of whether they were deported or left voluntarily. However, in many cases the law also requires immigrants who are approved for legal documents to complete their paperwork at American consulates in their home countries.

Mr. and Mrs. Tenebro, both of whom were born in the Philippines, met each other one weekend in 2005 and never turned back:

The Tenebros’ immigration troubles began with a moonstruck romance. They met one weekend five years ago while Wilma was on vacation in New York at the end of a job as a housekeeper on a cruise ship. She did not return to the Philippines, and eventually she overstayed her visa.

Love led to marriage, and their daughter, who is now 3, and an expensive battle to gain legal status for Mrs. Tenebro, 37.

In 2008, Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency, gave Mrs. Tenebro approval to become a legal permanent resident, as the spouse of an American citizen. In general, immigration law is intended to make it easy for foreigners who marry citizens to become legal residents.

But because of the particular visa she overstayed — known as a crewman’s visa — she is required to finish the paperwork for her green card in the Philippines. Every one of a string of lawyers the couple consulted — $7,000 in fees so far — gave them the same bad news: Even though Mrs. Tenebro has qualified for a green card, if she leaves the United States to get it, she will automatically trigger the legal bar that will block her from returning for 10 years.