(CBS13) SACRAMENTO A woman’s husband died heroically trying to save two children from drowning. Now, that woman is facing deportation. But she won’t be going without a fight.
Jaqueline Coats can't help but smile when talking about her late husband Marlin. He was from San Francisco, she’s from Kenya. She came to this country on a student visa. When school was over, immigration was moving in to send her home, but marriage would make her a permanent resident.
In April 2006, the two married. Just three weeks later, the couple was at Ocean Beach when they saw two boys in the water in need of help.
“When we heard the boys screaming, everybody was staring. Nobody knew what to do, and he just ran into the water,” says Jaqueline.
Coats was able to save the boys, but he was pulled under and drowned. Now his widow is not only dealing with her husband's death, but uncertainty of her own future in the United States. She's no longer eligible for permanent residency and faces deportation, yet again.
“I feel it is not right. If Marlin were here, this would not have happened, and he gave his life,” she says.
Senator Dianne Feinstein has also stepped in and says the U.S. should reward coats by granting his wife citizenship. Meanwhile coats waits on word that her life, which has already changed so much, isn't uprooted once again.
