Wife of Special Forces Vet in Immigration Limbo, Faces Deportation

The wife of an Army special forces veteran and mother of two faces deportation after years of being caught in the grind of two different immigration agencies, the Military Times reports.

The fate of Elia Crawford, married to retired Sgt. 1st Class Bob Crawford, is in the hands of a Virginia immigration court which will hear the case Monday.

"We've been fighting this for years," Bob Crawford, now a Defense Department contractor, told Military Times.

Elia crossed the border illegally from Honduras in 1999, escaping the aftereffects of Hurricane Mitch, which killed 7,000 in her country the year before, Military Times reports.

After the two married in 2001, they found out Elia was under a deportation order, one that the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly refused to lift. That order prevents the Crawfords for applying for relief — Parole in Place (PIP) — that's available to active duty or retired military personnel, Military Times reports.

"The government won't terminate that removal so she can get the PIP," Bob Crawford told Military Times. "So she's caught between ICE and DHS."

The PIP law was put into place in 2007 while George W. Bush was still president.

It's unclear what avenues of relief the Crawfords pursued during the entirety of the Obama administration.

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