For me, personally, reading stories of husbands and wives being split apart by our current immigration laws is truly poignant. Just a week before I read about the case of Edgar Cruz and Maricruz Valtierra. They got married on the U.S.-Mexico border because Valtierra was found “inadmissible” for being allowed into the United States because U.S. immigration made her inadmissible because Valtierra had used someone else’s birth certificate to enter the U.S. when she was 16. Because of current U.S. immigration law, no judge or immigration official can change this status if someone marries a U.S. citizen. While this may sound like justice, before September 11, 2001, immigration judges and immigration officials had discretionary powers to grant exceptions in order to prevent hardship to immediate families of U.S. citizens.

                                       This power was taken away because of the terrorism hysteria of the early 2000’s, and what makes all of this worse is that Americans get no priority in the current immigration system. U.S. citizens get no priority to all others waiting in line legally, cannot claim hardship, and U.S. citizens are treated like dirt in the immigration we fund by our taxes. My wife and I were nearly split apart by the current immigration system, and I have been pretty sore about it ever since. As part of immigration reform, U.S. Senator Beto O’Rourke (Democrat-Texas) has proposed legislation to restore the provision in U.S. immigration law that would grant both judges and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security discretionary powers to allow the spouses of U.S. citizens to be able to stay and live in the United States to readjust their status.