With a 79-19 Senate vote, Congress has corrected one of the more draconian immigration policies to be visited upon foreign-born spouses of American citizens.

Called the ``widow's penalty,'' the policy allows immigration officials to annul spouses' applications for permanent residency when their American husbands or wives die before the marriage is two years old.

The U.S. government has long maintained that the marriage must last that long before the foreign spouse is eligible for a residency application, and that has put hundreds of widows and widowers whose mates died before that time period in line for deportation.

The House has already passed the same provision, which is part of a Homeland Security bill, and President Obama has said that he will sign it. Good. This rule has caused untold hardship for grieving spouses, quite often widows with young children.

Such was the case for Dahianna Heard of Casselberry, a Venezuelan who married U.S. citizen Jeffrey Heard, a military veteran, in 2004. Four months before they would have celebrated their second wedding anniversary Mr. Heard was killed in Iraq while working for a private security firm.

Ms. Heard had applied for permanent residency, but because her husband died before they had been married two years the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told her she and her two sons would be deported. She appealed, but was denied repeatedly by the USCIS and immigration courts.

Only after articles about her plight appeared in El Nuevo Herald and The Miami Herald did immigration officials decide to reconsider. After reviewing her husband's military record and other data, the USCIS notified Ms. Heard in February 2008 that it had approved her petition for permanent residency.

This turnabout was welcome, but it also demonstrated how arbitrarily the rules can be applied by immigration authorities. Where Ms. Heard got a happy ending, an unknown number of widowed spouses have been deported, and hundreds of others are still in limbo over their fates.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appeared to be leaning toward finding a solution in June when she gave a two-year reprieve to spouses whose residency applications had been denied because of the two-year rule.

Congress now has taken that a step further. The new immigration measure will allow foreigners married to U.S. citizens to apply for permanent residency without waiting two years, and the death of a spouse won't be a determining factor in the outcome.

Back in June Ms. Napolitano explained the two-year reprieve by saying, ``Smart immigration policy balances strong enforcement practices with common-sense practical solutions to complicated issues.'' Clearly, common sense prevailed in Congress.

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