Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has officially clarified that the same-sex partners and spouses of U.S. citizens are eligible for relief under the Obama administration’s new policy of putting a lower priority on certain deportation cases. Pelosi called for passing the “Uniting American Families Act” and the “Reuniting Families Act,” to grant immigration privileges to same-sex couples and “to relegate DOMA to the dustbin of history.”
The action was a response to a letter from Congress led by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who for years has crusaded for immigration relief for same-sex couples. Heterosexual immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens are allowed to apply for immigration rights that are denied to same-sex couples under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
Same-sex couples officially added for deportation relief
Posted By: Carolyn Lochhead
Sep 28, 2012
The most notorious case in the country was that of a San Francisco couple, Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk, above, who won relief only through Pelosi’s personal intervention.
Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality, a gay rights group, said this is “one of the very first times LGBT families have been recognized within federal immigration policies.”
The group’s executive director, Rachel B. Tiven, called the move a “huge step forward…Until now, LGBT families and their lawyers had nothing to rely on but an oral promise that prosecutorial discretion would include all families. Today, DHS has responded to Congress and made that promise real. The Administration’s written guidance will help families facing separation and the field officers who are reviewing their cases.”
A DHS memo in June 2011 first listed factors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the field should use when classifying certain removal cases as a “low priority” for removal, a policy known as “prosecutorial discretion.” The guidelines included family ties to a U.S. citizen. Obama officials said that they would include gays and lesbians in the family category. But there was no written policy. The Pelosi/Nadler letter asked the administration to put it in writing.
Napolitano has done so, including not only married spouses but “long-term, same-sex partners,” according to Napolitano’s letter.
Pelosi welcomed the directive to “issue written guidance to clarify that ‘family relationships’ includes LBGT couples is welcome and will provide a measure of clarity and confidence to families dealing with separation in immigration cases. Our nation is served when loving families are kept together.”
Pelosi called for passing the “Uniting American Families Act” and the “Reuniting Families Act,” to grant immigration privileges to same-sex couples and “to relegate DOMA to the dustbin of history.”
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