While a new immigration policy announced by the Biden administration last week didn’t appear to get much of any mainstream media attention—or get heavily promoted by the administration itself, for that matter—advocates said the change will “make a huge difference” for LGBT refugees and asylum-seekers coming to the U.S.
Under the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) change, the new policy will allow these vulnerable populations “to be considered spouses even when their marriages are not recognized by their countries of origin or asylum,” Documented reported.
International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)’s Betsy Fisher tweeted the policy change will benefit refugees and asylum-seekers who have faced “discriminatory policies as stateless, LGBTI, or interfaith couples,” or have been “denied access to government civil registration.” The organization had noted in an April 2021 letter restrictions by the previous administration that affected LGBT refugees, heaped in among hundreds of anti-immigrant changes throughout its four years.
IRAP noted at the time that the Biden administration “took initial steps to address this issue,” and “urged the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to carry out the president’s directive. The letter laid out the case that previous changes in the agencies’ treatment of refugee families provide precedent authorizing them to reconsider and expand their interpretation of the term ‘spouse.’”
IRAP noted an Iraqi client who had been in a committed relationship with another woman for more than two decades, but faced being separated under prior immigration policy.
“One of the women qualifies for refugee status in the United States based on previous U.S.-affiliated employment in Iraq,” IRAP said. “Although her application was approved and she was set to travel to the United States a number of years ago, the U.S. government refused to add her partner to her case file, and she was ultimately unable to travel to safety as she would not leave her partner behind.” They could not get married in Iraq, nor in Lebanon, where they’ve resided.
The group said at the time that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program “should be accessible to families who are unable to marry—and should not perpetuate the harms and discrimination that often force refugee families to flee from their countries of origin in the first place.” The Biden administration’s change “is really good news for vulnerable refugee families,” tweeted former NYC Immigrant Affairs Deputy Commissioner May Malik.
In another historic move early last year, the administration said it would end policy that discriminated against same-sex American couples and their children.
Previously, the federal government claimed that a child had to be biologically related to both married parents in order to be granted U.S. citizenship even though law does not require as such, Immigration Equality said. That rule cruelly blocked U.S. citizenship from children born via surrogacy abroad to married American parents.
