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Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski introduced a private bill Wednesday on behalf of Corina Turcinovic, who has been detained by U.S. immigration officials since Dec. 28. A private bill is one that would provide benefits to specific individuals.
Turcinovic, 43, overstayed a visa while taking care of her husband, Maro Turcinovic, who had been paralyzed from the neck down and died in 2004.
Bills like the one Lipinski is pushing for Turcinovic pass "fairly rarely," said Fred Tsao, the policy director at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
"It really depends how sympathetic the cases are," he said.
Turcinovic lived on the city's South Side while taking care of her quadriplegic husband, an immigrant from Croatia. She has been held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in northern Illinois and could be deported on Jan. 30, said her attorney, John Colbert.
Lipinski's bill could stall Turcinovic's deportation order and eventually grant her permanent resident status, but it has to pass the House and Senate and be signed by the president.
"I do not condone the breaking of U.S. immigration law, but I believe that Mrs. Turcinovic's special situation merits reconsideration," Lipinski said in a statement.
A vehicle struck Maro Turcinovic on a visit to the U.S. in 1990. He later won a seven-figure settlement in a medical malpractice suit against the hospital.
Corina Turcinovic, of Bordeaux, France, immigrated to the U.S. on a visa waiver. The couple moved to Chicago and married, living off the settlement money and her savings.
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 Corina Turcinovic lived legally in the U.S. for 14 years by applying for stays of deportation on the humanitarian grounds that she was her husband's caretaker.
Maro Turcinovic was granted legal status and applied for citizenship. As part of his application, he was required to give fingerprints, but could not leave his home to do so because of his disability.
Immigration officials were aware of the situation and resolved to accommodate him, but made a mistake by denying his application when Maro Turcinovic didn't show up for an immigration status hearing, Colbert said.
If it wasn't for the error, Corina Turcinovic could have stayed in the country legally as the wife or widow of a U.S. citizen, Colbert said.
Immigration officials declined to discuss details of the case.
"We have the file and we are currently exploring all legal options to rectify the case if there should be some legal avenue," said Marilu Cabrera, a Chicago spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services.
Because she had no legal avenue to stay in the U.S. after her husband's 2004 death, immigration officials considered Corina Turcinovic a fugitive and arrested her at home late last month.
[Associated
Press; By SOPHIA TAREEN]
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