Compassionate Conservatives. The label was meant to remind people that tough love is not without a heart and the government will not be used to brow beat people when they are down. We cannot blindly follow laws because laws do not fit every situation and many laws need to be fixed. Slavery was once legal. Women not being allowed to vote was once the law of the land. We adapt laws to make them just. Sacrificing for one’s country is the most amazing gift a person can give. And it should not go unnoticed.

Sadly, some amnesty hypochondriacs are so obsessed with the rule of law they forget that laws are meant to underpin human societies – not take humanity out of society. Laws are meant to make sure people do not impinge on people’s rights to live free. We all impact each other. We all effect each other. So the laws need to make sure we do not go outside some reasonable bounds of interaction, not eliminate them all together. That is impossible (and why the liberal ‘rights-think’ never works). Two liberal Senators are doing what GOP senators are doing. They are recognizing that a family has sacrificed to protect our rights, but instead – in the face of a blind and screwed up law – is potentially being severely punished for supposedly attacking our rights.

In May 2006, she received a reprieve — US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to halt the proceedings after her husband had been sent to Iraq. Last month, Jimenez and two other soldiers were abducted by Sunni insurgents. One of the men was found dead, and the insurgent group claimed to have killed Jimenez and the third soldier. The two have not been found, though their Army IDs were discovered last week.

With Hiraldo’s status still unresolved, Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy have called on the Department of Homeland Security to let her stay.

“What’s changed in the last year in Yaderlin’s case is the status of her husband, which tragically could jeopardize her already uncertain status,” said Kerry, who believes she should be allowed to stay permanently and sent a letter on her behalf yesterday. “That shouldn’t be acceptable to a compassionate government.”

Kerry is right. And this woman is not the evil horde the amnesty hypochondriacs always bray about. And it is clear now that the GOP has probably not only lost its governing majority over the immigration debate, it has clearly lost its soul. When a life is given in the service of this country, that trumps any missing paperwork for the widow of that fallen hero. Thank you Senators Kerry and Kennedy for remembering laws are meant to help human society. Punishments are meant to guide people away from destructive activities. This is not the situation for punishment. The loss of a husband is punishment enough a million times over.

Update: Well, sanity as taken over as this young women will not be deported, though I am sure there are plenty of cruel and cold amnesty hypochondriacs willing to pull an Elian Gonzales move on her right now (at least one of my readers proved the amnesty hypochondriacs are capable of such beliefs):

The wife of a soldier missing in Iraq no longer faces deportation, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, Boston’s WBZ-TV reported.

…

An immigration judge put a temporary stop to the proceedings since Alex Jimenez was reported missing. The soldier’s wife is living with family members in Pennsylvania, the station reported.

The role reversal on this has been stunning. With Elian Gonzales we had an illegal alien coming into the country and the right abhored the militaristic tactics to kidnap the boy and send back to Cuba. But now I will not be surprised to see far right wingers calling for this woman to be marched to the border since she ‘broke the law’.