I was in the Seattle immigration court yesterday, and I happened to see there with mine own eyes the following case presented to the court:
A soldier who was a U.S. citizen was married to an undocumented immigrant. The solder and his wife have four children, all born in the United States, who range in ages from 1 to 7. The government is now attempting to deport the soldier's wife. The case came up when the wife had departed the U.S. and then sought to re-enter, seeking asylum.
The soldier had completed two tours of duty in Iraq, and was decorated for his service there. He has recently been assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, and expects that he will soon be ordered out again on deployment, this time to Afghanistan. While the soldier is on deployment, his wife takes care of their four children. The soldier earns about $25,000 per year for his service. His wife was being represented in court by a pro bono attorney.
Now, I fully expect the soldier's wife will win her case. Her lawyer was doing excellent work -- again, all at no cost to the family. The judge was one of those gruff but kind-hearted ones, and the government's lawyer was pretty much the same way. I don't see either one of them relishing the prospect of being involved in any proceeding that might lead to a deportation of a soldier's wife. It's likely that the maze-like immigration law led to no other result but that this proceeding be instituted. Ultimately this might well be for the best in terms of regularizing the wife's immigration status.
But all the same -- I have to ask -- what kind of F'd-up country are we that we have to put our military families through this sort of nonsense? Is there a country in the world that would even consider deporting the wife or husband of a serving soldier?
Can anyone even imagine the stress upon a soldier, who might be deployed at any moment, having to worry that his wife and the mother of his children might be deported or if not deported, might have to live in the shadows of "illegality" year after year?