The federal government does not have to explain to a Nevada man why his wife, a grandmother and farmer in Mexico, has been denied entry to the U.S. for more than 20 years under "alien smuggling" rules, a federal judge has ruled.
A lawyer for Reno landscaper Jose Isabel Esparza-Munoz, 69, had been arguing in court since November about whether immigration officials must do more than simply cite the section of law pertaining to smuggling. Immigration officials have been blocking 65-year-old Maria Esparza's entrance since she first acknowledged in 1994 that a son listed on her original visa application was really her grandson.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jones said in dismissing the case Thursday none of that matters because Esparza-Munoz didn't become a naturalized U.S. citizen until after the visa was denied.
