- A British woman facing deportation after her husband
died in the World Trade Centre attacks will be allowed to stay in
America.
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- Deena Gilbey, 37, was told by the Immigration and
Naturalisation
Service yesterday that, despite earlier warnings, she would not be ordered
to leave the country.
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- The service also apologised for its insensitivity over
sending a computer-generated letter saying that she was now an illegal
alien.
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- Her husband, Paul, worked in a brokerage house on the
84th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Centre.
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- They had lived in America for eight years and have two
sons, Maxwell, seven, and Mason, three, who were born in the United States
and are therefore citizens.
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- "That's fantastic, I can't believe it," said
Mrs Gilbey after being told she would be able to stay for the time
being.
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- She said she had not yet told her children about the
immigration problems as they were still too traumatised after their
father's
death.
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- She added: "It was too much for them to comprehend.
I was hoping the day wasn't going to come when I was going to have to tell
them that we were having to leave."
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- Soon after it became clear that her husband had died
in the attacks, Mrs Gilbey contacted the immigration service and asked
about her legal status. Up to then, she had been categorised as a
"dependent
spouse", able to live but not work in America.
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- She and her husband were applying for Green Cards, which
would have allowed them to work in America. But last week, she was told
that her residency depended on her husband's job. Her children could stay,
but she would have to go.
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- Mrs Gilbey, who is originally from Southend, Essex, had
hoped to make her home in New Jersey. She joined the nearly 100 other
foreign
spouses widowed on September 11 and began lobbying politicians and the
media to take up their case. Her American friends said they would protect
her if the authorities came to get her.
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- The next problem she faces is having her husband's death
benefits taxed at 60 per cent, the rate for foreigners in America, making
it impossible to pay her mortgage. Lawyers, however, have offered to work
free of charge to help her and the other widowed spouses to find a
solution.
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