Thank you for your service . . .

... oh, by the way, we're deporting your wife while you're away.

That's what the government is telling Navy helicopter repairman Eduardo Gonzalez might happen while he is in Iraq. Worse? Eduardo, Jr., Gonzalez's son, is a citizen. Nobody knows what will happen to him if his non-citizen mother is deported while Daddy is getting shot at in Iraq.

In Gonzalez's case, his wife, Mildred, came to the United States with her mother in 1989 when she was 5 years old. They were granted political asylum because of their status as war refugees from Guatemala.

In September 2000, Mildred's mother applied for legalization and included her daughter in that application. Her mother was granted legal status in July 2004, according to Gonzalez.

However, six weeks earlier, Gonzalez and Mildred got married, canceling Mildred's ability to apply for legal status through her mother because she was no longer an unmarried daughter under the age of 21. As a result, her legal status still remains in jeopardy.

A judge in June granted her a one-year extension to remain in the United States. If her legal status does not change by June 8, 2008, she will have 60 days to voluntarily leave the country or face deportation.

Is it too much to ask for an ounce of common sense and decency in our INS? Evidently it is, if you ask the Center for Jackass Xenophobes Immigration Studies.

That's just fine, according to Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which lobbies for tougher laws on illegal immigration.

"What you're talking about is amnesty for illegal immigrants who have a relative in the armed forces, and that's just outrageous," he said. "What we're talking about here is letting lawbreakers get away with their actions just because they have a relative in the military. ... There's no justification for that kind of policy."

Did you get that? Letting this lady stay would be "outrageous," says Mr. Krikorian. I wonder, if Ms. Gonzalez's name was Burkowski or Smith, would Mr. Krikorian have a problem?

Mark Krikorian, whose name, I note, is not Running Horse or Wind in his Hair, and like most of the rest of us is therefore on very shaky ground when it comes to discussing the benefits and drawbacks of unrestrained immigration, should offer to switch places with Mr. Gonzalez, so that we won't have the "outrageous" specter of people fighting for their country and expecting that country to take care of their families while they are away. In fact, I hereby propose a modest proposal to fix the manpower shortgage in Iraq. Take all the minutemen and anti-immigration guys who are champing at the it to "defend" the border, pack 'em up, and let them go serve in uniform. On the front line.

Cross-posted at The Stinging Nettle

Front-paged and fixed x-post link. A