Denied green cards spur suit - The class action seeks to reopen cases in which citizens died before their spouses got permanent residency status.

Raquel Williams' husband died of sleep apnea and heart problems.

Ana Maria Moncayo-Gigax's husband was killed in a car crash while on duty with the U.S. Border Patrol.

All three women were waiting for their permanent residency, but their U.S. citizen spouses died before the applications were approved. Immigration authorities later denied the cases because the women were no longer married to U.S. citizens.

The three are part of a class-action lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles, that seeks to end the "widow penalty" and asks the court to compel immigration authorities to reopen their cases.

There are nearly two dozen named plaintiffs in the suit, but Brent Renison, the attorney heading up the suit, estimates that there are at least 85 spouses affected nationwide. Some of them are already in deportation proceedings, he said.

"This is, bottom line, a moral issue," Renison said. The immigrants should not be "stripped of the status of a spouse" just because their husband or wife died, he said. "It's nobody's fault, and no one should be faulted."

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced an amendment to change the law, but it was part of the immigration bill that failed this summer. He is considering proposing new legislation.

Legislators have also introduced bills in an attempt to get permanent residency for some of the immigrants.

Under current law, U.S. citizens can petition for their spouses to get permanent residency, or green cards. But if the citizen dies before authorities approve the petition, the application is no longer valid, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan. There are exceptions for spouses of military personnel who die in combat, she said.

But Renison said the immigration agency should be following a recent U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that applicants do not lose their status as spouses because the government has not ruled on the case before the citizen's death.

The decision came in the case of Carla Freeman, a South African immigrant whose husband was killed when a Pepsi truck smashed into his car in Portland, Ore., in 2002. Immigration authorities say spouses should file their paperwork immediately after getting married to avoid potential problems.