Widowed immigrants also could lose new homeland
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By Hernán Rozemberg
03/09/2009 12:00 CDT


Gwendolyn Hanford wants to honor her late husband by building a good life for herself and their son in San Antonio.

The U.S. government counters that nobody's stopping her from building that life — as long as she does it back in her native Philippines.

Hanford's case is one of at least 200 across the country involving immigrants facing deportation because their U.S. citizen spouses died before the government approved the couples' immigration applications.

In what has become known as the “widow penalty,â€