Getting Citizenship for Immigrant Widows

Portland immigration attorney Brent Renison is filing a class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles this week to end the so-called "widow penalty" for more than 80 women facing possible deportation because their husbands died before their immigration paperwork was approved, reports the Associated Press.

If a U.S. citizen dies during the first two years of marriage, the surviving spouse generally will lose their citizenship, with a denial for permanent residence by immigration services.

Widows of active military personnel are exempt. Widows can also gain citizenship if their applications are approved before their spouse dies.

CBS 2 covered one such case where it looks like Jacqueline Coats, a Kenyan immigrant, will lose her citizenship because her husband died last year - trying to rescue two boys caught in a Pacific Ocean riptide. They'd not yet filed her residency application. (WATCH STORY)

Renison told the AP   that the lack of response from the government and the failure of immigration reform in the U.S. Congress forced him to consider a class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division, in Los Angeles.