Three Paths for Progress

By Rosalba Davis on 01/07/2011 @ 11:21 AM

Every day, too many couples face separation or exile because of the discriminatory immigration laws of the United States. Loving families are being torn apart, and for those who are directly impacted, relief cannot come soon enough. All of us at Immigration Equality are dedicated to ensuring that LGBT binational couples have the representation, and voice, they need to explore every possible solution for remaining together. In 2010, in response to the overwhelming number of inquiries we receive from binational families, the organization created a new staff attorney position specifically to offer help and guidance to those families. I am honored to have that role, and to be advocating on your behalf.

There are three potential avenues for ending the discrimination that LGBT binational families face: Legislative, administrative and legal. Immigration Equality is engaged in all three arenas . . . but we need your help to ensure we win.

On the legislative front, our policy department is working hard to build bipartisan support for the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), a bill that would provide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender couples with the same sponsorship rights, under immigration law, currently available to straight, married couples. In the last Congress, the UAFA was co-sponsored by 161 lawmakers and included in key comprehensive immigration reform legislation, presenting another important vehicle for winning our fight on Capitol Hill. We got farther than we’ve ever gotten before, but in order to achieve victory, everyone impacted by our discriminatory immigration laws – and their families, friends and supporters – must insist that Congress pass UAFA, either as a stand-alone measure, or as part of a larger, comprehensive bill. You can help – right now – by visiting our action fund website and sending a message to your Members of Congress, urging them to support your family. Then, you can ask everyone you know to do the same.

Educating lawmakers – especially new Congressional Members – is key to our legislative work on your behalf. By using our website to contact your Member – or, even better, by meeting with your Member’s office in-person – you can help ensure that all of our leaders understand the very real impact this issue has on real families.

Until Congress takes action, Immigration Equality will also engage the federal government on administrative advocacy to help LGBT binational families, too. Immigration Equality believes the Department of Homeland Security should end the removal of noncitizens who are in committed relationships with U.S. citizen partners until Congress provides legislative relief. As such, we are working to find administrative solutions for binational couples which would allow them to remain together, in the United States, and to stop the removal of non-citizen partners, and the tearing apart of LGBT binational families.

And, of course, we will always continue our critical legal work on behalf of our families. Every day our legal team works to find solutions to keep LGBT families together, in spite of the enormous obstacles posed by the discriminatory immigration laws. With the addition of an attorney dedicated to binational couples’ issues, we are expanding this legal work.

Another possible solution for many binational couples would be if one of the current legal challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) are successful at the U.S. Supreme Court. Since immigration law is federal, even couples who have married in one of the five states (or one of the foreign countries) that recognize same sex marriage, have no ability to petition for immigration benefits based on the relationship. DOMA defines marriage for federal purposes as only the union between one man and one woman, thus preventing U.S. Immigration from recognizing any same sex marriages for immigration purposes. If DOMA is found unconstitutional, however, then couples who enter into valid marriages would have the same ability to apply for immigration benefits as couples who are in opposite marriages.

The timelines for court cases, however, are notoriously difficult to estimate, and the DOMA cases are likely years from final resolution. Thus it is critically important that we all continue to fight together on every front: legislative, administrative, and litigation, until there is full equality for same sex binational families.

Every case, of course, is unique, and no one solution is a good fit for every family. For information on your particular situation – or to learn more about becoming involved in our advocacy efforts – please call me at (202) 347-0002, ext, 118, or email me at rdavis@immigrationequality.org. I’d be happy to set up a time to discuss your circumstance, and possible solutions to it, more thoroughly.