NewsTaco

By Latinovations

A letter signed by more than 50 gay rights and immigration advocacy groups was sent to the White House on Monday asking President Obama to hold immigration cases involving Americans seeking legal residency visas for their same-sex partners until the Supreme Court issues a decision on gay marriage next year.

These gay rights and immigrant advocacy groups want to change a ruling passed under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), where same-sex marriage cannot be a valid basis for federal benefits. Under DOMA, an American who marries an immigrant of the opposite sex can obtain a green card.

“For me, it’s been easy. I can go wherever I want, I can travel, and Pablo has been there for me. Pablo doesn’t have his papers and it’s unfair,” says Santiago Ortiz of New York, who is still waiting to assist his partner, Pablo Garcia from Venezuela, to obtain a visa.

Upon hearing that the Supreme Court agreed last Friday to take two cases challenging laws that define marriage as being only between a man and a woman, these gay and immigration organizations joined forces to work off the momentum they gained from November’s elections, where gay, Latino, and immigration voters turned out in large numbers for President Obama.

“The timeline is really dramatically speeded [sic] up by the attention to immigration reform that came out of the election, as well as state ballot initiatives in favor of LGBT rights,” says Rachel B. Tiven, Executive Director of Immigration Equality. “We’re seeing an enormous amount of energy on the Hill and a lot of optimism.”

This article was first published in Latinovations.

[Photo by  Fibonacci Blue]

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

Quietly, while almost anyone who would notice such things was distracted by the noise coming from the presidential election stump and spin, President Obama made a tactical change to his immigration policy. Word of the change came third hand – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano had told her in a letter that she had, and this is according to a Reuters report:

ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to notify its field offices “that the interpretation of the phrase ‘family relationships’ includes long-term, same-sex partners.”

Huge. On several fronts.

First, it directly challenges the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) of 1996 that says the Federal government cannot grant federal benefits – like Social Security - to gay and lesbian couples.  The act prohibits gay and lesbian couples from being  treated the same as heterosexual couples, so the President’s directive is a direct challenge. again Reuters:

Last year, Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama called DOMA unconstitutional and said they would no longer defend the measure in court. In response, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives stepped in to fund an effort to try to uphold the law.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide next month whether it will review a number of cases questioning the constitutionality of DOMA.

Second, the directive strengthens the case for keeping families together during immigration proceedings. Last year federal officials said they would consider same-sex couples as family in cases where deportation of undocumented immigrants was at stake, but Pelosi and a group of liberal legislators had wanted clearer, written guidelines.

 [Photo by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com]