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Kerry asks DHS not to deport wife of MIA soldier |
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By Kara Oppenheim
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Posted: 06/20/07 02:36 PM [ET] |
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Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) Wednesday asked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff to refrain from deporting Yaderlin Hiraldo, an illegal immigrant married to an Army specialist who currently is missing in action in Iraq.
“As Yaderlin waits to hear what has happened to her husband I ask that she be allowed to stay in our country,” Kerry wrote in a letter to Chertoff. “I believe this is a very real test of our government’s compassion for a military family which has already made enormous sacrifices for the United States.”DHS responded that the Hiraldo case has been closed since May 2006 and that there are no plans for deportation at this point. Hiraldo arrived illegally from the Dominican Republic in 2001. She married Specialist Alex Jimenez in 2004, whereupon her status was first brought to the attention of immigration officials. Her husband returned from his first deployment in Iraq with a Purple Heart and last month was reported missing on his second tour. The couple resides in Lawrence, Mass., making them Kerry constituents.Kerry accompanied his letter with a statement saying, “My heart goes out to the family of Specialist Jimenez and I am determined to do everything in my power to make sure his wife is not deported from our country while our military is frantically searching for him.”
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