"That was in another country; and besides, the wench is dead." — Christopher Marlowe
Here's the situation: An illegal alien (let's say the alien is male) is about to be deported, but he seeks a waiver on the grounds that such a move would bring an "extreme hardship to his citizen wife" so he should be allowed to stay.
OK, but what if the wife dies? What if she dies and the illegal has re-married? Can the hardship on the former (and now dead) wife be used to seek the waiver that will allow him to stay?
One would think not. The former and now dead wife is as immune to hardships as she is to the joys of life.
But in the administration's efforts to tear down our borders, in all ways small and large, it has included in a proposed policy manual a provision where the illegal alien in these circumstances can still argue that his forced departure should be cancelled because of the hardship on the wife who is now dead.
As the humor writer Dave Barry says, "I am not making this up."
Here is a direct quotation from p. 11 of the proposed new policy manual:
Nonetheless, if the widow(er) [i.e., the alien] meets the residence requirements in INA 204(1) then INA 204(1) preserves the widow(er)'s ability to have a waiver application approved as if the now deceased citizen had not died. This is the case even if the petition [of the alien] later reverts to a Form I-130 because of the widow(er)'s remarriage.
This scenario of mine, to be fair, will not happen frequently, if at all, because the waiver is subject to a decision made by an official, and such decisions can go either way. But it does allow for the possibility of such a waiver.
You can comment on this "Extreme Hardship" portion of the proposed policy manual here.