In today's Op-ed Section of the New York Times, an article entitled "End of the 'Widow Penalty' " was an eye-opening editorial. According to this article, when an immigrant's citizen spouse dies, the 'widow penalty' gives that unlucky immigrant an order to leave the country before their paperwork can be processed.
This unjust law was unknown to me before reading this editorial. The author states that no exceptions have been made thus far. This means that after suffering the loss of a loved one, this person must get deported, severed from new family members as their entire life is uprooted.
Up until recently, there has been little progress with correcting this injustice. Finally, in a court case last week, the ball started to roll on fixing this awful penalty legislatively. The author notes that we should not punish immigrants who follow the rules, especially if it is a punishment caused by the death of a spouse.
This is one of my first times reading the op-ed section of a newspaper. I tend to skip right through it, thinking this section is not as important as the more objective news stories. Yet after reading this op-ed, I began to read a few more. Not only did I really enjoy them, but I actually learned a thing or two. This author makes a lot of sense and really gets to the heart of the matter. There still remains injustice in our legal system as the tyranny of the bureaucracy can dictate the lives of good people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If the immigrant has a child born in the U.S., can they stay as the child's legal guardian? If not, thats ridiculous. I mean, the law is pretty ludicrous to begin with but still.
ReplyDelete