US court nixes ferry widow's immigration bid

Feb. 2, 2009, 4:58PM
PHILADELPHIA β€” A federal appeals court in Philadelphia says a Jamaican woman who lost her American husband in the 2003 Staten Island Ferry crash cannot stay in the United States.

The court says the woman, Osserritta (OZ'-uh-ree-tah) Robinson, had been married for less than the two years required for a spouse seeking immigrant status.

Louis Robinson was one of 11 people killed when a ferry crashed into a Staten Island pier in October 2003. The couple had been married for seven months.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday issued a split 2-1 decision in the case. The dissenting judge says Robinson will be removed from the country only because her petition was stuck in the government's bureaucracy.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 42945.html