Last month, a US District judge ordered DHS to reopen the cases of 22 people who were denied green cards because their American spouses died during the application process. The Associated Press reports that Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled the so-called “widow penalty” doesn’t necessarily require that immigrants’ permanent residency applications be denied when their American spouses die. Citing an earlier decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Snyder held that applicants don’t lose their status as spouses of US citizens if the death occurs before the government rules on their applications.
The decision, if made final, would be a victory for over 200 people across the US who have been affected by the widow penalty, said attorney Brent Renison, who filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of the widows affected. “This case is very significant because it’s the first that follows the circuit court decision and gives guidance to the agency on what it can and cannot do in these situations,” Renison said.
DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said she could not comment on any of the lawsuits, but she acknowledged that the widow penalty has been a top priority in her department since DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano took office earlier this year. “A review of our legal, legislative and other possible means to address the problem is under way,” Kudwa said.
The widow penalty was struck down for a widow last week by the 1st Circuit Court, who held that despite her US citizen spouse’s death, the foreign national qualified as an “immediate relative” for purposes of citizenship approval.
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The Associated Press reports that the Justice Department’s civil rights division is reviewing evidence surrounding a fight last summer between school football players and undocumented immigrant Luis Ramirez in predominantly white Schuylkill County, ending in the murder of Ramirez. “The civil right division is reviewing the evidence, to determine if there is a prosecutable violation of federal civil rights statutes,” DOJ spokesman Alejandro Miyar said.
Two Pennsylvania teens were acquitted for Ramirez’s death earlier this month: Brandon Piekarsky, 17, of third-degree murder and ethnic intimidation and Derrick Donchack, 19, of aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation. Both were convicted of simple assault. Another defendant, Colin Walsh, pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge before trial and testified at trial, admitting he threw a punch that knocked Ramirez unconscious, and was sentenced to four years. Another defendant, Brian Scully, 18, was charged in juvenile court with aggravated assault and ethnic intimidation.
The July 12 fight occurred when Ramirez, 25, was walking with his girlfriend and had encountered a group of teens, at least some of whom had been drinking. Immigration advocates attended the trial on behalf of Ramirez’s family, and later called for federal charges. “Luis’s death reflects a steady increase of hate crimes targeting Latinos,” said Gladys Limon, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. “This drastic rise of hate crimes against Latinos must be addressed by the new administration and Congress.”
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The American Immigration Lawyers Association called on the Justice Department this month to consider dismissing the guilty pleas of nearly 300 undocumented immigrant workers arrested in a meatpacking plant raid at the Iowa Agriprocessors last year, according to The New York Times. The request came hours after the US Supreme Court ruled that identity theft by an undocumented immigrant had to consist falsifying information to employers with advance knowledge that the identification documents actually belonged to another person.
Before the SCOTUS ruling, a federal district judge had ruled that Agriprocessors manager, Laura Althouse could withdraw a guilty plea she entered last year. Althouse had pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft, after prosecutors accused her of helping undocumented immigrants to hire on the plant using identification documents she knew were false. In legal papers, Ms. Althouse’s attorneys argued that she had not been aware that the documents some of the immigrants presented belonged to other people and were not wholly fabricated fakes.
The Postville, Iowa, raid was considered by immigration advocates to be the toughest application to date of criminal charges of undocumented immigrants whose main offense was that they were merely working without authorization. Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D-CA], chairwoman of the House immigration subcommittee said of the raid fallout that the DOJ should “start from scratch and pretend these cases never happened.”
