Tag Archives: Immigration Equality

Via McClatchy: “From an LGBT perspective, at this point, immigration is going to be an even playing field,” said Cara Jobson, a partner in Wiley and Jobson, a San Francisco immigration law firm. The U.S. government is working to ensure that couples who qualify will be able to get the process started right away, Janet Napolitano, the secretary of the …

Via Immigration Equality: Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling striking down a core provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), lesbian and gay Americans will now be eligible to apply for green cards on behalf of their foreign national spouses, the organization Immigration Equality announced today. The court ruled today, in United States v. Windsor, that Section …

An amendment to add LGBT couples to the Senate immigration reform bill was withdrawn tonight in order to improve the bill’s chance of passage. Chris Geidner has the news at Buzzfeed: Sen. Patrick Leahy withdrew his proposed amendment to the comprehensive immigration reform bill that would have recognized the marriages of same-sex couples for immigration purposes on Tuesday night, after …

Via the Los Angeles Times: For some same-sex couples, the issue is made even more complicated by our country’s immigration laws. In his video Op-Ed “Eric and Juan,” Jens Erik Gould introduces us to a same-sex couple who got married in 2008, during the brief time when gay marriage was legal in California. Though Eric and Juan have built a …

Speaking tonight at a press conference in Costa Rica, President Obama endorsed including LGBT couples in the immigration reform bill currently before the Senate. Obama says that recognizing same-sex relationships in the bill is “the right thing to do.” But he says it would be premature to telegraph what he will or won’t do before lawmakers send him a bill. …

From a press release jointly issued by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project: Our primary goal is to pass a commonsense, compassionate immigration reform bill that puts our nation’s undocumented men, women and children on a pathway to citizenship. That pathway would provide at least …

The director of Immigration Equality said today that she does not expect that gay couples will be in included in the immigration reform bill about to be introduced in the US Senate. Michael Lavers reports at Washington Blade: “We are not expecting LGBT families to be included in the Gang of 8 bill,” she told the Washington Blade during a …

According to a new report: A new study estimates that there are approximately 267,000 LGBT-identified individuals among the adult undocumented immigrant population and an estimated 637,000 LGBT-identified individuals among the adult documented immigrant population. The report finds that approximately 71 percent of undocumented LGBT adults are Hispanic and 15 percent of undocumented LGBT adults are Asian or Pacific Islander. “An …

Today President Obama will introduce his immigration reform plan and LGBT couples are expected to be included. However, gay immigration is not addressed in the Senate plan. Chris Geidner reports at Buzzfeed: A Democratic source said: “Same-sex couples will be part of his proposal.” A second source confirmed that, unlike the Senate framework released Monday, same-sex bi-national couples — those …

A coalition of more than 50 LGBT and progressive groups has sent a letter to President Obama asking that he order a hold on the deportations of all gay-married foreign nationals until the Supreme Court issues its ruling on DOMA. The groups urged the president to “hold in abeyance” cases currently under consideration by federal immigration authorities of United States …

Immigration Equality is thrilled: Immigration Equality today praised the Obama Administration, and specifically the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for new, written guidance that will extend discretionary relief to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses and partners. The new written directive, which was announced in response to a Congressional letter spearheaded by Minority Leader Nancy …

Yesterday House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a coalition of 81 House Democrats issued a call for the Obama administration to make it official policy that the foreign partners of LGBT Americans will not be deported. Chris Geidner reports: Pelosi — along with Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Mike Honda, the lead sponsors of two bills aimed at addressing LGBT inequalities …

The Washington Blade reports that Sen. John Kerry is working to block the deportation of a Pakistani woman who married her wife in Massachusetts. In a redacted letter dated March 27 and obtained Friday by the Washington Blade, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) asks Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to hold in abeyance the I-130 marriage-based green card petition for …

And the recent good news on that front.

“The law is clear. This man would not be eligible to stay in the United States President Obama is pandering to his radical homosexual base for the 2012 election. What they’re saying is because you practice sodomy, you get to jump to the head of the line in immigration. Are we going to let in anybody from a foreign country …

In what the New York Times says may be a precedent-setting decision, the federal government has dropped its deportation case against a gay Venezuelan legally married to an American man. The announcement comes as immigration officials put into effect new, more flexible guidelines governing the deferral and cancellation of deportations, particularly for immigrants with no serious criminal records. Immigration lawyers …

Learn more here.(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Last week a New York immigration judge temporarily suspended the deportation of an Argentine lesbian while she and her wife contest her green card denial due to DOMA. Today U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services revealed that ALL such deportations are now on hold. Chris Geidner gets the big scoop at Metro Weekly: Following up on reports from this weekend, Metro …

In what Gay City News describes as the first decision of its kind, a Manhattan immigration judge has suspended the deportation of an Argentine lesbian because she and her partner are legally married in Connecticut. Paul Schindler reports: Monica Alcota, 35, who came to the US a decade ago, married her partner of nearly three years, 25-year-old Cristina Ojeda, last …