Tag Archives: immigration

“I applaud the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor holding that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. This discriminatory law denied thousands of legally married same-sex couples many important federal benefits, including immigration benefits. I am pleased the Court agreed with the Administration’s position that DOMA’s restrictions violate the Constitution. Working with our federal partners, including …

Before a gallery packed with reform supporters, this afternoon the Senate approved its immigration bill by a 68-32 vote. Fourteen Republicans voted for the bill. Before announcing the result, Biden warned against outbursts from the public gallery, but chants of “Yes we can” and “Si se puede” broke out after he read the tally. Biden called for the sergeant at …

It appears that there may be enough support in the Senate for the immigration reform bill to pass by the end of next week. The Senate Gang of Eight edged closer to supermajority support on its immigration bill with Thursday’s breakthrough agreement on border security and other measures meant to attract wavering Republican senators. Negotiators said as many as 15 …

Speaking at the Faith & Freedom Conference of wingnuts today, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush pushed for immigration reform by declaring that immigrants are “more fertile” and therefore their larger families will help the economy grow. Bush is now getting flack from the right, who hates his support for immigration amnesty, and from some on the left, who found his …

A small group of teenage DREAM activists have crackpot GOP Rep. Steve King wetting his Sansabelts. King, a long-time immigration hardliner, last week sponsored an effort to cut funding for President Obama’s deferred action program, which grants deportation reprieves to DREAMers. In response, United  We Dream, an undocumented youth activist group, organized a protest at the Iowa congressman’s office this …

Sen. Marco Rubio today vowed that he will vote against the immigration reform bill that he co-authored if the amendment allowing gay US citizens to sponsor their foreign partners is not removed. “If this bill has something in it that gives gay couples immigration rights and so forth, it kills the bill. I’m done,” Rubio said Thursday during an interview …

260,000 “likes” on Facebook. (Via JMG reader Aaron)

Shortly after the Senate voted to debate the immigration reform bill written by the so-called Gang Of Eight, late this afternoon Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) again introduced an amendment that would allow LGBT citizens to sponsors their spouses for permanent residency. Politico reports: “Seeking equal protection under our laws for the LGBT community is the right thing to do,” Leahy …

This afternoon the Senate voted to at least discuss the immigration reform bill put together by the so-called Gang Of Eight.  And that’s considered to be a big deal. Via USA Today: A procedural vote to begin formal debate on the bill was approved 82-15 on a bipartisan vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch …

Read much more about this couple’s story.

More on this couple’s story is here.

DOMA Project founder Lavi Soloway tells me via email: “We used 53 days as our countdown because that is the maximum number of days left in the Court’s term. The decision can come sooner.”

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 …

“In the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, the anti-gay folks divided people with the disease into moral categories. You were either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on how you contracted the disease; and gay people, of course, were on the bad side. The current national debate over immigration reform has a similarly disturbing, divisive and moralizing undertone that echoes those …

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 …

Another change for the Associated Press style book. Illegal immigration Entering or residing in a country in violation of civil or criminal law. Except in direct quotes essential to the story, use illegal only to refer to an action, not a person: illegal immigration, but not illegal immigrant. Acceptable variations include living in or entering a country illegally or without …

An estimated 267K people are both LGBT and undocumented.

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 …

Visit Soloway’s The DOMA Project for more information. RELATED: I finally met Soloway in person this weekend in Philly at #LGBTmedia13, where I learned that I’d been mispronouncing his first name for years. Lay-vee, not Lah-vee. Dammit.