Word: renison
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Brent Renison, an Oregon immigration attorney who has headed up numerous suits challenging the widow penalty, calls the marriage-fraud argument bogus. "We've never asked for automatic approval of these widows' legal residence status," he says. "We simply ask that they be allowed to show that their marriages were valid, and if so, recognize that the humane thing to do is let them stay where they've made a new life." That's especially true, Renison insists, when the surviving spouse has a U.S.-born child from the marriage. In one of the more controversial cases, a Brazilian woman...
...There are almost 300 known widow-penalty cases in the U.S. today, though lawyers like Renison believe there are hundreds if not thousands of other widows and widowers in similar situations who haven't yet approached immigration authorities. Of the documented cases, about a quarter are estimated to involve children. If the numbers don't seem overwhelming, Renison argues that's precisely the point: the dogged pursuit of such cases gives immigration enforcement the kind of spiteful, Javert-like image that it certainly doesn't need. Immigration officials counter that they're simply enforcing the law. But "consider...