Boston Globe
June 20, 2007 By Associated Press
The wife of a Massachusetts soldier missing in Iraq could face deportation, her lawyer said in an interview with a Boston television station yesterday.
Army Specialist Alex Jimenez of Lawrence, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, WBZ-TV reported.
Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said Yaderlin Jimenez illegally entered the United States from the Dominican Republic in 2001. Her husband's request for a green card and legal residence status for her alerted authorities to her situation, Kolken said.
The attorney said his client would not be eligible for a green card under normal circumstances, but he is seeking a hardship waiver for her. If she were to have to leave the United States, she would have to wait 10 years before reapplying.
"I can't imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting someone's wife who is fighting and possibly dying for our country," Kolken told the station.
An immigration judge put a temporary stop to the proceedings since Alex Jimenez was reported missing. The soldier's wife is living with family members in Pennsylvania, the station reported.
US forces continue to search for Jimenez, 25, and a comrade, Private Brian Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich.
The soldiers' identification cards were found in an Al Qaeda site north of Baghdad, along with video production equipment, computers, and weapons, the US military said Saturday. An Al Qaeda front group claimed in a video posted on the Internet earlier this month that the soldiers were killed and buried, and it showed images of the ID's. The video offered no proof of their fates.

This is multiple shades of ****ed up. While they debate amnesty for all the wets in Cali they are trying to deport a soldier's wife? Our immigration policy is fooked. In fact the difficulty in getting me own wife a visa is the only reason I am still OCONUS.

The decision to put it on hold while her husband's fate is unknown was a good one. But if he is found, I hope that they do prosecute her, and if that means she gets deported, then that is good. You cant have it both ways - just because she is a soldier's wife shouldnt mean that she gets any special privileges over any other illegal person in the US.

She may have entered illegally but she is the wife of a US citizen, an American soldier. The end justifies the means in my book and if it were my wife being deported I know exactly what I would do and who I would do it to. The phrase, "playing with fire" comes to mind.

I dont care if he was soldier or a politician or a potato farmer, he should have gone through the correct process. Does the American citizenship process for spouses need to be looked at? Maybe. In this case should an exception be made? No. Because there should be no exceptions. The law shouldnt bend due to what someones spouse does for a living.

That being said, the fact that he is missing like that means that the judge made a good decision when he put the case on hold like that.

Your lack of humanity is only outdone by your intellectual prowess.

Wierd response, but you are hardly on to lecture on humanity.

Thanks for the compliment about my intellectual prowess though.

I thought if anyone married to the US citizen, she/he is legally become US citizen. Right?

No, Fox its not that way. In fact in some ways it is far more difficult.