As Obama headed out for his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard Thursday his administration unveiled new immigration policy that could allow gay immigrants facing deportation to stay in the United States. This could be the policy that could enable bi-national gay couples at the risk of separation to stay together in this country. The administration officials will now weigh a person’s ties & contributions to the community & family relationships. A senior administration official said these criteria are inclusive of LGBT families & same-gender couples stating, “We consider LGBT families to be families in this context.” Under current immigration code heterosexual Americans can sponsor their spouses for residency in the United States through the green card application process. The same rights aren’t available to gay Americans because gay marriage isn’t legal in many places in the country & because DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) prohibits federal recognition of these marriages. Steve Ralls, a spokesperson for Immigration Equality said the new change seems like “good news” for bi-national same-gender couples who are facing imminent separation via a deportation or removal order. Updates to Come…:)
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It puts the full power of the administration behind the enforcement of prosecutorial discretion rather than simply allowing each ICE attorney or deportation officer to decide whether and how that discretion should be exercised. By undertaking a review of all pending deportation cases at the highest level and clarifying that existing prosecutorial discretion guidelines include LGBT families, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will now have the opportunity to stop every deportation involving a lesbian
ReplyDeleteor gay bi-national couple.