Paterson mother of soldier killed in Iraq fears deportation (Star-Ledger)

Paterson mother of soldier killed in Iraq fears deportation
By Tomas Dinges/The Star-Ledger
February 01, 2010, 6:14AM

On Tuesday morning, Eugenia Galdos visited her son’s grave at the Totowa Cemetery to ask for help.
When he was alive, Sgt. Christian E. Bueno-Galdos had helped his father attain permanent residency and was doing the same for his mother.
But when Bueno-Galdos, 25, was killed along with four other soldiers in May 2009 by a mentally disturbed U.S. soldier at a clinic in Baghdad, his mother’s path to citizenship apparently halted.
Months have passed without an official explanation of the delay in processing her immigration papers. The uncertainty has led Galdos, of Paterson, to fear deportation despite recent encouragement from staffers in the office of U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), she said.
“I don’t want to go because I have my son buried here,” Galdos said. “My son gave his life for this country.”
Bueno-Galdos and his family arrived from Mollendo, Peru, when he was 8. He received his citizenship while in the U.S. Army, which he joined in 2002. Bueno-Galdos specialized in the detection and analysis of lethal chemicals.
By December 2008, Bueno-Galdos was in the final stages of securing permanent status for his mother and the application for permanent residency had been approved, said Amada Espinoza, a U.S. Army family counselor who is helping navigate Galdos through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement paperwork.
But shortly after her son’s death, Galdos said she was informed the process had been halted and was being re-evaluated. Despite the approval, Galdos was told by immigration authorities a deportation order filed for her years before was being investigated again, Espinoza said.
Galdos sought out the Newark veterans advocacy group G.I. Go Fund, which was able to set up a meeting with staffers in Menendez’s office.
After Bueno-Galdos’ death, the family decided to bury him in the United States, a country he loved, said his mother, and where he developed a vast network of friendships.
Chris Rhatigan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, could not speak specifically to Galdos’ case, but noted that situations involving citizenship and the military can be reviewed separately.
“There are certain discretions available to a district director, but they have to do this by a case-by-case basis,” she said.
Immigration law does not waive all factors or circumstances that might make an applicant like Galdos ineligible for a green card, like illegal entry or a false claim to citizenship, said Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer who assists military members and their families.
“So some parents of deceased soldiers are not eligible for benefits under this law. It creates a narrow remedy for some parents only,” she said.
There have been few deportations of parents of deceased service members, she said. But, immigration authorities cannot legally grant permanent residency to these applicants and instead are given a year-toyear residency permit.
“They get to live in the U.S. at the whim of the U.S. government and at any time it can be revoked,” she said.
Recent legislation Menendez co-sponsored seeks to automatically grant permanent residency for parents and spouses of family members who die in war.
After visiting her son’s grave at the cemetery Tuesday, Galdos had yet another of a series of inconclusive interactions with immigration authorities.
“If this case only had to do with me, I understand,” said Galdos. “But I have something here that I can’t leave behind, and that is my son.”