Maria Lee Deported After Marriage

Maria Lee Deported After Finally Getting Legally Married

When Joe Lewis, a retired Navy veteran, and retired school teacher retired from teaching for the Oakland school district, decided to make things right with his common-law wife.

They had met many years ago when he was in the service, and she was a college student. He was a Navy sailor based at Alameda Naval Base. They moved in together. They had a church wedding which was good enough to get her quasi-legal players but technically not entirely legal either. But, she graduated, got a base pass, and she got a job as a nurse, and then later she joined him in managing some rental properties. Along the way, she gave him three children and three grandchildren. She kept her Philippines passport and never got a U.S. passport. They never went back to the Philippines.

Everybody around them thought that they were legally married, but the fact was they just never got around to it. They never needed to since she had base rights, a social security card, and had worked for many years.

. But now, given all the news about possible mass deportations, her Philippine relatives warned that the people thought that even green card holders could be deported and American citizens could be deported.

John decided it was time to make things right. Exalted with the lawyer and the lawyer said, well, you know, you just go ahead and marry her and fill out the paperwork. You can probably adjust status without a problem because given the fact you've had a common law marriage for 35-some-odd years, and a Church marriage, but never a formal legal registration, everybody assumed you were married, had children, grandchildren, she was a partner in your business, it is highly unlikely that you would be subject to deportation.


So he followed his lawyers’ advice. He called his family together and they decided that they would have a simple courthouse wedding at the Oakland Alameda County Courthouse and then a reception in Carmel in an inn with
a killer ocean view

One year later, when the former president became president and launched ‘Operation. Deportation Them All” . His wife was picked up after a distant cousin who had beef with them phoned in an anonymous tip.

His lawyer told him,

“Well, there was a new immigration policy which included zero tolerance for immigration violations including minor violations such as not registering a marriage legally even 35 years ago. The right to have an immigration hearing has been suspended, and all immigration processing is on indefinite suspension. Fortunately, we can apply for home detention so she can stay with you until her number is called. I am sorry there is nothing more I can do. She would be deported but she could apply to come back in three years time, and you can probably visit her in the Philippines during the interim period.

You might have some legal issues with the military over falsely claiming her as a dependent, and some issues with the IRS on similar grounds and with Social Security. Basically, the whole government is now on this zero-tolerance for any violation of the law. The bottom line, Joe is she has no legal status in the U.S. and has been living here under a false name and identity and you helped her get status. You could go to jail for alien trafficking.”

“But, she is my wife, the father of my children, and the grandmother of my grandchildren. Doesn’t that count for something?”

There are hundreds of thousands of cases like yours right now. No one in a position of power gives a damn. Many of them have the attitude you should have married a citizen. My advice for you is to apply for Philippine residency and move with her back home.


Joe moved to the Philippines, where they ran Joe’s Place which became a hangout for the American-Pinoy community as the returned immigrants began calling themselves. Joe died in the Philippines ten years later surrounded by his extended American-Pinoy family.

Seventy-five years ago, on August 19, 1949 my parents were married at the beautiful Santa Barbara, CA Courthouse. Write a story or poem that includes all of the following - they must be bolded:

courthouse wedding
three children
Navy veteran
schoolteacher
ocean view
three grandchildren

Note: there was a time when such minor technical violations could be overlooked. I am not at all sure about that now. To sponsor a foreign-born spouse the marriage must be legal both in the country where the marriage took place and in the State where the married couple intended to live. Until gay marriages were legally recognized in the US most LGBTQ couples could not meet that standard. First-cousin marriages can still be problematic, and multiple-partner marriages are illegal in the US so Muslim immigrants can only sponsor their first wife to come. There was and still is a big issue with marriage fraud in immigrant visa processing.


Pinoy is what Filipinos call themselves.