US immigration reform: Obama halts widow deportations

June 10 2009 by Robbie Ragless

US immigration reform: Young widow lies beside her husbands grave

US immigration reform respects widows

In a move that further highlights President Obama’s new approach to US immigration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has revealed that it will temporarily be halting the deportation of US citizens’ widows and widowers.

The deportation rule affected a few hundred people whose own US green-card application was not complete or who had not been married to their American spouses for over two years at the time of their death.

The policy to deport such immigrants was seen as a particularly painful hangover from Bush’s crackdown on USA immigration. It also led to a large number of lawsuits from people claiming they had the right to remain living in the US.

The DHS has now announced that no such deportations will occur over the coming two years. The changes to the policy were outlined by Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, who added that US immigration would also favourably consider requests from people previously affected by the ‘widow penalty’ who may want their cases reinstated.

Napolitano said that the changes reflected attempts to use common sense and find “practical solutions to complicated issues."

Experts believe the move could pave the way for Obama to introduce more comprehensive immigration policy reform in the future.