My wife is banned from the US for life because of an immigration infraction she made as a young woman back in Jan 2001, though she should legally be allowed to return due to the current US State Dept regulations. Please, help me reunite with my wife and 4 month old daughter.

I am currently am serving as an instructor pilot at a U.S. Air Force Base in Texas training young USAF pilots. I am an Air Force Veteran who served as a decorated pilot in areas like Somalia, Bolivia, Colombia and Iraq. When I returned home from my last tour of duty in Iraq, I fell in love with and married an amazing woman named Yuritzi in 2010.

Yuritzi's parents left her in Mexico when she was sixteen in 1994 to look for a better life in the US. For two years she lived without her family until she decided to brave the perils of crossing into the States to be with them again in 1997. She came here undocumented; she was young, desperate to be reunited with her family, and didn’t speak English and when she was caught by INS in Jan 2001 she nervously and mistakenly claimed citizenship, which is a crime. However she retracted her statement right there with the CBP agents who documented it all as soon as she understood what she had done. For her infraction the US State Department has banned her from entering the US for life this past 2013 without a possible waiver. She has been outside the U.S. now since 2011.

Ironically, as my wife is a US military dependent, Yuritzi has the privilege and rights to walk onto any US military base around the world, but she cannot legally enter this country which I love and serve and which she loves and serves -- The United States.

Keeping me and my family 700 miles apart is causing us great hardship and pain. Every day that passes I watch my baby daughter grow up via Skype from my US Air Force Base in Texas rather than having her by my side. I worry about my family’s safety. With the recent wave of murders and kidnappings in Mexico, my stress has only grown and I long to be back together with my family and have her here by my side in the US.

By her retracting her mistaken statement, Yuritzi became legally eligible for reconsideration by what is known in 9 FAM as Timely Retraction, but the US State Department refuses to recognize this action in their own Visa adjudication manuals that would remove the lifetime bar and allow her to reapply for a Visa once again via the still more cumbersome and unpredictable 601 waiver process. This has been a difficult four year struggle. Please.

I have served my country bravely and followed her laws without hesitation. Now, I’m asking that the US State Department do the same and follow their rules that apply to my wife’s case.  

Please join me in asking the US State Department to show the same fairness and loyalty I have shown the US in my more than 25 years of service. Ask them to please grant my wife a Visa so that we can once again be a family here in our country.

Thank you so much. God bless you all and God bless The United States of America.