June 23 was International Widows Day, and a dozen or so immigrant widows came to the Capitol to draw attention to their very peculiar situation.

Take the case of Natalia Goukassian. She’s a twenty-three year old widow from Russia. Her husband, a U-S citizen, developed a rare cancer while serving in the U-S military and died. Goukassian got survivors benefits from the military. But then her visa application was thrown out. She says, “The military determined me eligible for benefits but immigration didn’t.”  read more »