End of rule allowing expulsion of grieving spouses

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President Obama has signed into law a bill that ends a rule that made newly married foreigners subject to expulsion if their American spouses died within two years of marriage and before their applications for permanent residency had been approved.

Called the “widow’s penalty,” the rule was part of bill financing operations of the Homeland Security Department for 2010. Obama signed the bill Wednesday.

Brent Renison, a lawyer pressing a class action lawsuit for the surviving spouses, estimates that the widows’ penalty affects at least 200 people nationwide.

Because of legal action pending in eight states, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had declared a two-year moratorium on enforcing the expulsion rule.

-- Associated Press