DOMA Deportations Could Stop: More Couples Making Headlines

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Wednesday August 24, 2011 · 6:00 AM PDT

2011/08/24 · 06:00

This is cross-posted from Out4Immigration's blog.

It has been an incredible summer for same-sex binational couples, with numerous cases, rulings and directives that may signal the beginning of the end of DOMA-based deportations.

Last week, Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that Homeland Security will be implementing changes to its immigration enforcement programs to focus its resources on high-priority immigration cases involving crimes and other public safety concerns, while de-emphasizing the targeting of immigrants who have no criminal convictions and can show family and community ties in America. Additionally, it was announced that there will be a case-by-case review of all current and future deportation cases as recommended by the Morton Memo.

Officials from the Department of Homeland Security also confirmed to Metroweekly that

"The prosecutorial discretion memo provides for the use of discretion for people with strong community ties, with community contributions and with family relationships. We consider LGBT families to be families in this context."

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 13, 2011 · 11:50 AM PDT

2011/07/13 · 11:50

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 13, 2011

Media contact:
Michael Talon, michael@lunamediagroup.com, 202-631-9830
Amos Lim, Amos@Out4Immigration.org, 415.742.1626

Immigration Judge Postpones Deportation Proceedings For Two Years, Allowing Married Gay Binational Couple to Remain in U.S.

Directs Government Attorneys To Act on Request for Termination of Deportation Proceedings Within Sixty Days

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – This morning in San Francisco, Doug Gentry and Alex Benshimol -- a married same-sex binational couple -- appeared before Immigration Judge Marilyn Teeter for a deportation hearing and were permitted to remain in the country despite the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the law that prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriages by the federal government. This is the latest in a series of recent court rulings that have demonstrated the inequality that DOMA forces same-sex couples to live under.

Poll

27 votes Show Results

Is the government evolving fast enough when it comes to immigration equality for same-sex binational couples?

27 votes Vote Now!

Is the government evolving fast enough when it comes to immigration equality for same-sex binational couples?

Yes

0 votes

Evolve Already!!!

27 votes

Obama Administration Sends Conflicting Messages on Same-Sex Binational Couples and DOMA

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 12, 2011 · 9:13 AM PDT

2011/06/12 · 09:13

This diary is cross-posted at Out4Immigration's Blog, and is a collaboration of myself with members of Out4Immigration and Attorney Lavi Soloway. It is also the text of our latest petition on Change.org. What follows is some background from the past week in news around the evolving struggle to secure rights of Americans to sponsor their same-sex foreign partners for legal residency in the US. If this issue is of interest to you and you have not seen it already, there is a most excellent piece about this episode and the larger implications in this struggle already published here on DK by Clarknt67.

On June 8th at the tail end of a White House press conference, Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked (by Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly) about the ongoing deportations of same-sex spouses of Americans, specifically:

“In June 2009 the Department of Homeland Security issued a memorandum on deporting certain widows and widowers of U.S. citizens. At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that, “smart immigration policy balances strong enforcement practices with the common-sense practical solutions to complicated issues.” Yet, in May, asked about requests by advocates for a moratorium on deportation of foreign partners and same-sex binational relationships, similar to the 2009 moratorium, you said the President can’t just wave a wand and change the law. Can you explain the difference there?”

The answer from Mr. Carney? A) The President cannot wave a magic wand. B) That we need to work on comprehensive immigration reform and generate bipartisanship support for it sometime in the future, one day it will happen.

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday June 05, 2011 · 9:45 AM PDT

2011/06/05 · 09:45

This has been cross-posted from Out4Immigration's Change.org petition and at the Out4Immigration Blog.

http://www.change.org/...

http://out4immigration.blogspot.com/

Much of Out4Immigration’s efforts over the years has been focused on securing equal immigration rights for same sex binational couples. The Uniting American Families Act is bill seeks to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to add the words “and permanent partners” wherever one finds the word “spouse”, and has been our hope for righting this wrong. Binational couples, families, and their respective communities need to encourage members of the House and Senate to become cosponsors.

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has repeatedly rebuffed requests by community members to cosponsor UAFA. Historically, the concerns she has stated include the contentiousness of issues related to same-sex marriage and immigration –especially voicing concerns about fraud, even though UAFA stipulates tough penalties in those instances, just as for heterosexual couples. On a larger point of immigration reform, she has expressed her preference to support comprehensive immigration reform, rather than piecemeal legislation like UAFA to deal with specific communities or issues. Out4Immigration and its supporters have taken issue with this stance of the Senator’s, believing this to be an issue more relevant to civil rights and equality than immigration—and thus an issue worthy of her support—not to mention the feeling it leaves behind, that she does not get how injurious current laws are for many Americans and their families.

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday May 08, 2011 · 4:01 AM PDT

2011/05/08 · 04:01

This is cross-posted at Out4Immigration's blog. This is part of O4I's ongoing efforts to build Congressional support for the rights of Americans in same-gender relationships to sponsor their foreign partners.

Since the entire text, cover and petition letter, is repeated on Change.org, I will withhold that text here to share a few thoughts about our struggles for immigration equality--but let me start by giving you the link to this week's Change.org petition to urge congressional support of the UAFA:

http://tinyurl.com/...

Needless to say, we are in a new chapter of our struggle for the right to choose who we bring into our families, and where we wish to live. We are seeing clear signs that our issues are gaining traction, whether from the stayed deportation of Henry Velandia, the actions of AG Eric Holder on a similar case--or the fact that the issue was on the front page of the national section of the New York Times yesterday. Not to mention the President's remarks on DOMA or the amazing attention Lavi Solowayy is bringing to the issue. For years we've wished for this kind of press and attention to our plight. The long years of seemingly futile pushing are beginning to bear the fruits of momentum.

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 31, 2011 · 8:32 AM PDT

2011/03/31 · 08:32

This posting is dedicated to Gina, who is soon exiling herself from her home on the West Coast to be with her partner in the UK. We should be ashamed to let ourselves lose this good citizen as she does what she must for herself, and for love.

For Americans in same-gender relationships with non-US citizens (or binationals as we
refer to ourselves), the fight to try and secure the right to sponsor our partners for legal
residency so that they can be with us in the US has been a long, and often dispiriting one. So it is not surprising that our community has been thrown into a tumult with word this week that the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) was considering the possible changes as to how our families are treated under the law, following the Administration's recent change in stance re: DOMA.

From Jennifer Vanasco at 365gay.com just two days ago:

Newsweek/The Daily Beast has learned that the heads of two USCIS [U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services] districts, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, informed attorneys from the advocacy group American Immigration Lawyers Association that cases in their districts involving married gay and lesbian couples would be put on hold. The news could have far-reaching effects.

Poll

65 votes Show Results

If the Uncle Sam told you that you and your spouse could not live together in the US would you

65 votes Vote Now!

If the Uncle Sam told you that you and your spouse could not live together in the US would you

Plan a future based on visas related to employment and study, which can and do end?

2 votes

Try to sustain your family long distance, between two countries?

2 votes

Try to emigrate to one of the twenty-some countries in the developed world which acknoweldge same-sex spouses and their families?

49 votes

Stay in the country by hook or by crook, even if it meant your spouse would become undocumented?

11 votes

Not be able to take it and break up?

0 votes

UAFA, The DREAM Act, and Moving Forward

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday December 21, 2010 · 7:48 AM PST

2010/12/21 · 07:48

I have worked to get the Uniting American Families Act passed and will continue to do so, but I am also increasingly convinced that LGBT in general must effectively advance their equality by supporting the struggles of others. To do so represents claiming the truth that somewhere in this country, we are each of a community and a place, a truth the DREAM Act springs from.

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 16, 2010 · 1:51 PM PDT

2010/09/16 · 13:51

If you care about the rights of Americans who are in relationships with non-US citizens, now is the time to step up and make calls. Not "now" as in 2010. I mean now, today, and then make every effort you can muster to spread the word to everyone you know.

For over a decade, Out4Immigration (O4I) and other groups have been trying to pass the Uniting American Famlies Act, or UAFA, which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act so that we can sponsor our foreign partners for legal residency, as straight people have long been able to do. This extends a single federal right to us, though a crucial one if you believe in self determination and strengthening community. The bill also provides for the consequences of fraud and makes clear that if the relationship ends, the foreign partner’s status would come up for review.

RCAnelson

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 05, 2010 · 11:53 PM PST

2010/03/05 · 23:53

I am now almost 47, but I was only 23 when I contracted HIV while living in Richmond, VA. It was a snow day, everything was closed, except for bars. It was a fun night, I went home with a hot guy.

I moved to San Francisco in August 1988, to be with my brother who had been diagnosed on Christmas Eve, 1987, with pneumocystis, his definitive AIDS diagnosis. I did not know then that I too, had contracted HIV that snowy night, but my fear was high. The youngest of a large family, I was the only without career, children, or any other obligations which would have complicated such a move. So, I sold my meager possessions, boxed up 7 boxes to send via UPS, and moved to face my own fears as much as help my brother. And, of course, San Francisco waited for this Virginia boy.

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DOMA Deportations Could Stop: More Couples Making Headlines

Judge Postpones Deportation Proceedings For Two Years, Allowing Married Gay Couple to Stay Together

Obama Administration Sends Conflicting Messages on Same-Sex Binational Couples and DOMA

Senator Feinstein, please be a champion for ALL families!!!

Urge Congressional and Executive Support of the Uniting American Families Act--Petition 4

USCIS: Allow Love, and Say Yes to Keeping Our Families in the US

UAFA, The DREAM Act, and Moving Forward

Please help! We can pass the UAFA now!!!

Vigil at the Washington Monument, 3.21.10, for passage of the Uniting American Families Act