After Srinivas Kuchibhotla was killed in the February 22 hate crime incident at a Kansas bar, his wife Sunayana Dumala lost her US resident status and was headed towards deportation. It was like adding insult to an injury.

However, when congressman Rep. Kevin Yoder of Kansas heard about her plight, he personally saw to it that she stays in the country while extending direct help to the woman.

The man who gunned Kuchibhotla down was heard shouting racial slurs before he opened fire on him and another Indian man. The gunman apparently presumed them to be Muslims and illegal immigrants. The sad news gripped the nation in frozen disbelief.

Yoder was terribly shaken by the incident and doubly rattled when he got to know about the possible deportation of the woman. "We are not going to deport the widow of the victim of a hate crime," Yoder was quoted as telling the Kansas City Star.

Sunayana travelled to India for her husband's funeral. And when Yoder heard that she wouldn't be allowed to return to the US, he not only felt "apoplectic", but ensured that Dumala gets a one-year residency so she can keep working at the marketing agency she is employed in.

"On the fateful night of Feb. 22, I not only lost my husband but also my immigration status," Dumala said in an email to the paper. She said that many people are helping her secure permanent residency.

Yoder wants a legislation to make it quicker for well-educated immigrants to receive the status of permanent residents. "These people are trying to get the legal permanent residence they deserve, but are stuck in a massive backlog up to as much as 70 years due to arbitrary caps on how many green cards immigrants from specific countries can receive," Yoder wrote in a Facebook post. "The result is many people here from India and China are often faced with the impossible choice of keeping their job and legal status in the United States or attending a loved one's funeral back home," he pointed out.

Source: Khaleej Times