Immigration Status of Army Spouses Often Leads to Snags

By JULIA PRESTON
Published: May 7, 2010

Lt. Kenneth Tenebro enlisted in the armed forces after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, signing up even before he became an American citizen.
He served one tour of duty in Iraq, dodging roadside bombs, and he would like to do another. But throughout that first mission, he harbored a fear he did not share with anyone in the military. Lieutenant Tenebro worried that his wife, Wilma, back home in New York with their infant daughter, would be deported.

Wilma, who like her husband was born in the Philippines, is an illegal immigrant.

“That was our fear all the time,â€