Bradford Wells, Gay San Franciscan, Fighting Against Husband's Deportation

Update, 2:30 p.m.: Steve Ralls from Immigration Equality e-mailed SF Weekly to say that Bradford Wells did not have a heart attack.

"I just received an update, and Bradford is back home from the hospital, and resting. He did not have a heart attack, but has been experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath throughout the week. Both, apparently, intensified this afternoon, and he was taken to the hospital as a pre-caution.

"As you can imagine, it has been a very stressful and emotional week for both Anthony and Bradford, and no doubt the obstacles they've faced in their quest to remain together have added to Bradford's already fragile health conditions."

Original post:

This week, Bradford Wells, a gay San Franciscan, has been waging a last-minute effort to save his Australian husband, Anthony Makk, from having to leave the country on Monday. This morning, things got much worse.

"Bradford just had another heart attack and I'm on the way to the emergency room, and I really do have to go," said Anthony Makk when we called him this morning to interview him about his immigration case. Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, a non-profit that is advising the couple in their immigration case, says they have not confirmed the heart attack.

"My understanding is he was at the bank to pick up some documents, and they informed Anthony they called an ambulance to take him to the hospital," says Ralls. "They are under an incredible amount of stress at the moment."

Makk, an Australian national, and Bradford Wells have lived together for 19 years in a Castro apartment, and married seven years ago in Massachusetts. Makk faces having to leave the country on Monday when his current stay in the United States expires. The couple plan to file Monday for a last-minute spouse visa and is asking California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as well as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to intervene to save Makk from having to leave. Wells is HIV-positive and recently had suffered a heart attack, and Makk is his primary caretaker.

"Our request is [that immigration authorities] exercise discretion in this case, because of the hardship that Anthony's removal would mean for Bradford, as clearly evidenced by today's events," Ralls says.

Because the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) only recognizes heterosexual couples for federal purposes, a gay American cannot sponsor his foreign spouse for a visa as a heterosexual American can. We wrote a cover story last year about other San Francisco gay couples in which the foreign spouse lives here illegally or the two are planning to move to Canada to be together.

The Obama administration announced earlier this year that DOMA was unconstitutional and it would not defend the law in court. Gay couples have filed legal challenges for spouse visas, and federal lawmakers re-introduced a bill known as the Uniting American Families Act that would allow "permanent partners" to sponsor each other for visas. Legislators also asked the Department of Homeland Security to halt the deportation of such couples until the law could be voted on or courts could rule on the legal challenges.

Ralls says that Makk's petition should be held in abeyance until either DOMA or the Uniting American Families Act is settled. "It doesn't make sense to use an unconstitutional law to separate couples that cotherwise would have oporutnity to stay together."

According to news reports, Makk had gotten a special trader's visa for importing glass, but more recently has taken to exiting and re-entering the country since Australians can travel to the United States for 90 days without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program. But at his last entrance, immigration authorities informed him this would be his last time he could enter without a visa. And his current stay expires on Monday.

"We believe there's a good chance that either Pelosi or one of the senators will follow the filing by asking DHS not to deny those applications," says Ralls. "That's where their hope lies now."

Read the full article here.