A different case from the one I wrote about this morning. From Metro Weekly:
Attorney General Eric Holder today filed a very rare decision, vacating a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals related to the application of Paul Wilson Dorman, in which the BIA applied Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act to a pending case.
Pursuant to my authority set forth in 8 C.F.R. § 1003.1(h)(1)(i), I order that the decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals ("Board") in this case applying Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA"), 1 U.S.C. § 7, be vacated, and that this matter be referred to me for review.
Saying the attorney general "has taken [an] extraordinary step" with the decision, attorney Eric Berndt -- the supervising attorney for the National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities at the National Immigrant Justice Center -- told Metro Weekly, "It adds some heft to our requests for prosecutorial discretion in individual cases in which the foreign partner" of a same-sex bi-national couple is seeking a green card because of his or her citizen same-sex partner.
After
this debacle, where the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said they'd hold the LGBT immigration cases in abeyance indefinitely the gay community celebrated deliriously, and just a day later DHS announced it was back to business as usual, I'm not breaking out the champagne yet for Josh and Henry, or any of the other LGBT couples in their situation. And I'd urge others to do the same. We certainly don't know that this doesn't just apply to this one particular case.
And I'd like to see them stop putting these fires out one by one and issue a new blanket policy. But this is a good sign.
I like what Joe Sudbay had to say on Americablog this morning:
Quick note to Brian Bond, Melody Barnes, Cecilia Munoz and Janet Napolitano: Fix this. It is absurd. Stop these deportations. You're not going to win any friends on the GOP side of the aisle by deporting Henry or any other spouse. Lamar Smith won't be assuaged. You're just pissing off your base.
Word. Maybe this is a sign Holder's looking into it.
More on this story at AmericaBlog:
I just talked to Crystal Williams of the American Immigration Law Association (AILA) and her take was that this decision from Holder could have two implications, but she stressed, that this was her read and that the language of the decision is “extremely curious.”
First, this decision can immediately be used in immigration court as a possible argument for why a deportation proceeding should be stayed. Williams said Holder designated this as an “interim decision,” which means that it immediately has precedent in immigration courts.
“This was designated as an interim decision, which is considered to be precedent,” Williams says, adding that both the Board of Immigration Appeals and the Attorney General have the power to issue interim decisions, but it’s not common practice. “Thousands of these decisions are issued every year that are not precedent.”
Lots reading of the tea leaves over there.