Immigration Equality

[Jess]

cool .. I just discovered their work a couple weeks ago and am really impressed with some of the gains they have been able to make.

[Soon]

'Eat Pray Love' Author to Lobby for Gay Immigrants


WASHINGTON (Aug. 13) -- The author of the runaway best-seller "Eat Pray Love," whose foreign-born lover was barred from permanently living with her in the U.S., will go to Capitol Hill next month to lobby for changing immigration laws to allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their partners from other countries.

Elizabeth Gilbert, whose memoir was made into a film starring Julia Roberts that opens today, will announce today that she will join gay rights activists to push for passage of the Uniting American Families Act.

The measure would allow lesbian and gay Americans to sponsor their permanent partners for legal status under the immigration principle of "family unification." Under current law, only partners who are married to American citizens may apply for permanent residency. Although gay marriage is legal in five states and the District of Columbia, the federal government by law defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Evan Agostini, AP
Author Elizabeth Gilbert, seen here attending the world premiere of 'Eat Pray Love' at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Tuesday in New York, will head to Capitol Hill next week to lobby for a change in immigration laws to allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their partners from other countries.

According to the advocacy group Immigration Equality Action Fund, more than 36,000 gay binational couples, many of them in committed relationships for years, are affected by current immigration law. Nearly half of those families are raising young children.

"In addition to being unjust and cruel and unconscionable," Gilbert recently said in a speech to a gay rights organization in New York, "these laws are stupid because they are taking away some of the best and brightest minds and prospects out of the country."

Gilbert, who is straight, may seem an unlikely gay rights activist, but she came to the issue out of personal experience with the U.S. immigration system.

Her activism stems from the "Love" part of her memoir when she fell for a man she calls Felipe, a Brazilian-born citizen of Australia who was living in Indonesia when they met. Both had survived bitter divorces, and each had sworn off marriage. Yet they yearned to be together forever.

The couple moved into her suburban Philadelphia home and made do as Felipe left the country every three months to comply with visa restrictions. But then, as they returned from a trip overseas, Department of Homeland Security agents at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport told Felipe his constant coming and going violated visa laws, and he had to leave immediately. The simplest way for him to stay in the U.S., they said, was to get married.

Gilbert tells the story of their ensuing period of "exile" in Asia, and her research on the state of matrimony, in "Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage." In the end, the couple married and Jose Nunes -- Felipe's real name -- got his green card.

But that isn't an option for gay couples, whom Gilbert said "are forced to do nothing but fight for their lives. And they are in a fight for their lives. And I am proud to be part of that fight."

The author, who will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today, has her work cut out for her.

While the legislation has more than 100 sponsors in the House and more than 20 in the Senate, the move to link gay rights to the already volatile immigration issue is controversial. As the issue roils Arizona and spreads to other states, the bill has stalled in Congress amid concerns by advocates that it will scare away conservative lawmakers who might otherwise be swayed to support comprehensive immigration reform.

Despite the uphill battle, Gilbert plans to visit lawmakers along with activists from the Immigration Equality Action Fund when they hold a lobby day on Sept. 30.

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/articl...rants/19589327

[Sparkle]

from the Boston Globe yesterday 16 October 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...divide/?page=1

[Linus]

Originally Posted by Sparkle

from the Boston Globe yesterday 16 October 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...divide/?page=1

That will be interesting to watch as it may be the impetus to get same-sex marriage approved in the US.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Linus

That will be interesting to watch as it may be the impetus to get same-sex marriage approved in the US.

It may make headway towards overturning the Defense of Marriage Act anyway...it will be interesting to see which (if either) approach gets through first...

The Immigration Reform Bill with provisions for same-sex couples OR the crumbling of DOMA, creating the possibility for federal rights being extended.

[Sparkle]

Yesterday's announcement that the Obama Administration will no longer continue to defend DOMA offers a (little) ray of hope for bi-national couples who wish to live together in the United States.

A round up of some of the information that is flying around out there:

http://out4immigration.blogspot.com/...ding-doma.html

/snip
DOMA has stood in the way of immigration reform for LGBT families. DOMA has meant that each state in the nation chooses whether the institution of marriage can be opened to LGBT couples – and whether that state recognizes the legal union formed between two people of the same sex in other states or abroad. Getting rid of DOMA will open the way for US immigration law to acknowledge marriages between binational same-sex couples.

The "tipping point" in the demise of DOMA seems to be Edith Winsor’s lawsuit. When her Dutch-born wife Thea Spyer died, after a partnership spanning 44 years, the government sent Edith a large tax bill for Thea’s part of their shared property. Edith went to court demanding their relationship be recognized as family, in which case the state would not tax her. On reviewing the case, Obama recognized blatant anti-gay discrimination and announced he was not willing to defend DOMA.

/snip

http://prernalal.com/2011/02/what-sh...efending-doma/

/snip

Immigration Equality has forever opposed the idea of same-sex couples filing I-130 claims and adjudicating their cases in court. They have good reason to believe that federal judges will defer to DHS. For the most part, they are right since you are unlikely to win your claim and your partner may end up in removal proceedings.

But there is a better way to deal with this. Forget listening to advocacy organizations and lawyers. Stop sitting on your laurels. Ideally, I would like to see some 36,000 couples filing I-130 “Petition for Alien Relative” petitions with USCIS. Just imagine the mayhem that would cause. USCIS has to go through each claim. It will take them eons to reject them. You can file appeal upon appeal and backlog them further. You probably don’t even need to take to the streets or the courts. Start talking to the media about how President Obama is keeping you apart from your partner. Under immense pressure, Congressional leaders will have to start holding hearings. Sooner or later, DOMA will be repealed in the courts or by Congress. Even without that, DHS has to issue a memo allowing your partner to live and work legally in the country (deferred action) and Congress has to take action and pass the Uniting American Families Act.

The system is denying you equal rights so screw with it. Give them hell. Shut them down. Go all out for reverse attrition through enforcement. It’s a whole lot more fun than sitting around doing nothing.

/snip

I think this is a strategy that is well worth pursuing, particularly for undocumented immigrants who have overstayed their original visa (ie. those with the least to lose and the most to gain).

This is very similar to what happened in the UK pre-1997 (when the Blair government created an "exception to the rules" that allowed unmarried foreign partners to apply if they met certain criteria, the precursor to the immigration parity options they offer now). Prior to the Labor government coming to power bi-national couples flooded the immigration service/system with applications that remained in litigation for years until there was a legally viable process. It was a long and painful process, but worth it in the end.

With the DOMA on its way out, we should hope to be able to chip away at the iceberg of legal inequities bit by bit. Immigration may be towards the top of that list.

http://out4immigration.blogspot.com/...amas-doma.html

"there's still more work to do"
"Same-sex couples are still treated unequally under federal immigration law."
Prof. Tobias Wolff

[Sparkle]

from sfweekly.com

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/...a_could_be.php