Iraq II: Good News For Yaderlin Jimenez

The wife of Alex R. Jimenez, one of the two U.S. soldiers kidnapped and feared dead after an Al Qaeda-led ambush in May in the Triangle of Death, has been issued a green card and can stay in the U.S. indefinitely.

Yaderlin Jimenez, like her husband, is a native of the Dominican Republican, but she entered the U.S. illegally prior to marrying him in 2004. She had been listed for deportation despite being married to a naturalized U.S. citizen because she did not apply for a green card.

Alex Jimenez helped her apply for a green card when he was home on leave from Iraq, but an immigration judge refused the request. The Army then intervened and asked that an exception be made on a hardship basis.

On Friday, Yaderlin walked into a U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization Services Office in Buffalo, New York, with her lawyer, Matthew Kolken, and left with a green card in her hand.

Said Kolken:

"Her immigration problems have been solved in their entirety and now her focus is completely dedicated to her hope and desire that she's going to see her husband again."

The other missing soldier is Private Byron R. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Michigan.

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Photograph © Suzanne Opton