‘It Was Like We Hit the Jackpot’ : Pregnant Woman, Once Deported, Gets Green Card

A pregnant woman who was deported to the Philippines in November, then reunited three weeks later with her American husband, received her green card on Wednesday, making her a permanent legal resident of the United States.

“At first, I thought it was my W-2 form,” Eleanor Parnes said of the official-looking letter that arrived at the couple’s West Los Angeles apartment. “When I opened it up and saw the card, I just started screaming.”

Parnes and her husband, Richard, had been told in December that it would take three months for the permanent residency document, called a green card, to arrive. “We were so surprised, it was like we hit the jackpot,” Parnes said Wednesday. Her new status entitles her to apply for U.S. citizenship after three years.

A 12-year resident of the United States, Parnes was arrested last November on a 1980 deportation warrant. Officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said she had been in this country illegally since leaving her job as a housekeeper for the Philippine consul general in Los Angeles in 1974.

The circumstances of her deportation--she was whisked out of the country without even a chance to say goodby to her husband--stirred widespread controversy. In December, the immigration service relented and agreed to allow Parnes to apply for a green card and to return immediately to this country.

Now, Parnes and her husband are trying to put the deportation experience behind them and pay the debts they incurred during their fight for her return. Their first child is due this spring.