Portland Attorney Challenges Federal 'Widow Penalty'

By Colin Fogarty | Aug. 30, 2007 1:58 p.m. | Updated: June 17, 2010 12:05 a.m. | Portland, OR

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A Portland immigration attorney is challenging an obscure federal law that has led to dozens of foreign-born widows being deported. Colin Fogarty explains.
Attorney Brent Renison calls the provision of immigration law he's challenging the “widow penalty." It can happen when a US citizen marries an immigrant. 
That foreigner applies to be a legal resident. But in the long wait for that status, the citizen spouse dies. The result is that the widow or widower gets deported. 
So Renison has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the surviving spouses.
Brent Renison: "It's kind of a little-known crack in the law. These people are forced into the shadows. There's some real hardship going on here." 
Chris Bentley, press secretary for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, says the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation. 
But he said federal immigration law says that someone applying for a green card must have a sponsor and if that sponsor dies, the application is no longer valid.

© 2007 OPB

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