Blue Star Chronicles

I represent Alex Ramon Jimenez, and his wife in her pending U.S. immigration matter. Army Spc. Alex Jimenez and his wife went to the Immigration office after they were married to find out how he could sponsor his wife for her Green Card. As a result of this visit, the Government instituted deportation proceedings against Mrs. Jimenez.

At the immigration court proceeding I moved the court to administratively close Mrs. Jimenez’s case which would prevent the Government from being able to deport her from the United States while her husband is fighting for our country in Iraq. The Hon. Philip J. Montante, Jr., I.J. agreed that Mrs. Jimenez’s case should be administratively closed for humanitarian reasons, and the Government did not object to my request.

Unfortunately, administrative closure does not permanently solve Mrs. Jimenez’s problem because the immigration law does not permit her to apply for her Green Card inside of the United States, and if she departs the United States to apply for her Green Card she will automatically trigger a ten-year bar to readmission. Furthermore, the government may at any time move to reopen Mrs. Jimenez’s case to deport her.

I immediately contacted the Government to determine if they would be willing to assist in finding a resolution to this case without the need for SPC Jimenez’s wife to depart the United States to apply for her Green Card, which would immediately trigger a ten year bar to her readmission. All that would be required is for Mrs. Jimenez to leave the United States for 1 day, and have her paroled back into the Country to enable her to apply for her Green Card and a waiver of the ten-year bar. Mrs. Jimenez is otherwise eligible to apply for her Green Card. I was advised that the Government was unwilling to parole her back to the Country to let her apply for her Green Card.

I was personally advised by Office of Chief Counsel, and Citizenship and Immigration Services that Montreal would not accept her visa application because Mrs. Jimenez, does not have lawful status in Canada. If the Consulate would agree to this it would minimize the amount of time that she would need to be out of the United States.

I contacted Senator Clinton’s office last March about this problem, but unfortunately, I have yet to receive any response from her.

The effect of the Government’s refusal to help is that Mrs. Jimenez is faced with the hardship of not knowing if she will be deported, in addition to having to face her fears that her husband may have died fighting for his country.