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Irishwoman still fighting Immigration ban

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Reuter has been at the home of her 89-year-old mother in Ballymahon for the last 8 months due to a problem with her visa status.
She had gone to Ireland in November for a relative’s wedding. On her return, immigration officials at Shannon told her that she did not have the correct documentation.
After their marriage, Reuter and her U.S. Air Force-employed husband, Dietrich, lived in Germany for years while he worked for the department of defense.
Reuter applied for a green card in 1999, after moving to the U.S. from Germany. She said that she had received a letter saying she was approved for permanent residency in 2001 and was unaware that she would need further paperwork. After her refusal, she applied to the INS for a “Humanitarian Plea for Re-entry,” but this was denied.
Her husband, 67, is now suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease in Texas and is reported in the Irish media to be depressed because his wife is not with him.
The family is considering sending him to join his wife, but she said: “I don’t know how good it would be for him to come here.”
Some Irish newspapers have reported that Reuter’s case would have been sorted out if the post of U.S. ambassador to Ireland were not still vacant after six months.
The Lockhart Post-Register reported this week that Bridget’s son Richard Reuter was attempting to file for a series of waivers that could bring his mother home in two or three months.
“My parents just want to be together,” he said, according the paper. “They really miss each other.”

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