Dick Durbin made truly reprehensible comments about the military last week, and his apologies appear neither sincere nor complete. On the other hand, he, along with Senator Obama, is correct in this situation, trying to help the widow of a civilian contractor killed in Iraq stay in the United States.

Because the couple had not been married for at least two years, and because Todd Engstrom was working as a civilian contractor in Iraq, Diana Engstrom does not have the rights given to widows of active-duty soldiers.

"It just shows you that when you have these laws drawn so strictly, you forget the human element," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. "Who would have thought when they wrote this law, that you'd have a situation where someone's married less than two years, dies protecting people from our country, but not in the armed services? The laws didn't consider those options, and that happens so many times when you're dealing with immigration questions."

Durbin and his Illinois colleague, Sen. Barack Obama, have co-sponsored a bill to grant Diana Engstrom permanent residency. Their legislation suspends the deportation process while the two senators round up votes.

In recent years, Congress has been reluctant to pass bills designed to benefit a single individual, and mostly they deal with immigration issues. Of the 132 so-called "private relief" bills introduced in the last Congress, only six became law.

"Generally, it's a bad idea to identify a single individual and do a piece of legislation for them," said Obama, "but this is such a heartbreaking story and it speaks to a lot of civilians who are essentially working on behalf of the war effort in Iraq."

Obama added that Engstrom case falls into "a gray area," since Todd Engstrom was a civilian acting as a U.S. military operative.

"We are going to be taking a look to see if we should be passing some more general laws to close this very narrow loophole," Obama added.

"In this new modern world where they're depending more on contractors, it seems that the intent of the law should include those that are in the war on the front lines doing the job," Ron Engstrom said.

"In my mind it is not a special consideration," he added. "To me it is a consideration that should be broadened to include everybody that serves in the war."

In this case I stand with Senators Durbin and Obama. They are right, and Diana Engstrom deserves to be permitted to stay in this country and raise her late husbandÂ’s son, just as he asked.

Oh, and for those of you on the Left, notice the source on the article -- Fox News. Just a little more proof for you that they are really fair and balanced.

Posted by: Greg at 01:13 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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