A Headlining Weekend

By Steve Ralls on 06/06/2011 @ 10:10 AM

This past weekend saw a major focus on LGBT immigrant families in news articles from three prominent, mainstream press outlets.

On Saturday, The San Francisco Chronicle included a front-page profile of Bradford Wells and Anthony Makk, a couple who turned to Immigration Equality for help as they struggle to remain together in the United States. With a looming deadline of June 13th - when Makk's stay in the U.S. will officially expire - our team is fighting to keep the couple united, and has asked their Congressional Representatives to weigh in on their behalf.

The couple, who were married seven years ago, have been together for almost two decades.

"We're at the end of our rope," said Wells, 55. "Ever since we met, all we've tried to do is be together. The focal point of our lives, everything we've done, is just so we could be together."

"It's devastating, the idea of him leaving in a couple of weeks and not being able to get back in," Wells said. After suffering a near-fatal heart attack and severe arthritis in his hips, Wells said he is unable to care for himself. "I don't know how I'm going to manage," he said. "My stomach is in knots."

The Chronicle noted that, "Immigration Equality . . . this week asked California Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to ask the administration to put the San Francisco case on hold. All three offices said they are reviewing the matter."

The Chronicle's coverage was followed, on Sunday, with an Associated Press story about the ongoing obstacles faced by LGBT couples seeking green cards.

Reporter Amy Taxin wrote that, "For years, immigration attorneys warned gay couples not to bother seeking a green card for their foreign spouses since there was no chance they'd get one. Now, in select cases, they're starting to rethink that advice."

"We are advising more people to do it — at least in the context of if the foreign partner, the foreign spouse is in deportation proceedings," said Victoria Neilson, Immigration Equality's legal director. "At this point there is more of a feeling that the tide is turning on marriage in this country and it could be something that could be helpful."

"The issue has enflamed passions," AP noted, "on both sides of the debate over gay marriage."

That report was followed this morning, with a story in the L.A. Times, profiling one couple who have been forced into exile because of discriminatory immigration laws.

Recounting the story of Jesse Goodman and Max Oliva, the Times notes that, "For a time, they relied on a mix of work permits and tourist visas to stay together. When the last permit was set to expire five years ago, they decided it was best to leave the U.S.

"We ran out of options," Goodman said.

"Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and 47 other members of Congress have written to the attorney general and the Department of Homeland Security asking that immigration officials hold off on rejecting visa petitions for same-sex couples and suspend deportations of married same-sex partners until the courts resolve whether the Defense of Marriage Act is constitutional," the paper notes.

"The department said it would exercise discretion in individual cases, but that it would continue to enforce the law, which remains in effect."

"Right now the department's position is that they can't defend [the act] because it's unconstitutional," Lofgren said. "If that's the case, then that leads you to the conclusion that you should not be enforcing it."

The L.A. Times article is online here. You can also read the full report from Saturday's San Francisco Chronicle, here, and coverage from the Associated Press, here.

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