5 Binational Gay Couples File Suit Against DOMA
Lucy Truman (left) and Kelli Ryan, who along with four other binational couples filed suit against DOMA on Monday
Five couples — one of whom first met more than 30 years ago, another who had shuffled between the United States and South Africa for over a decade to avoid breaking immigration law — filed suit earlier today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. They allege that the 1996 law, deemed unconstitutional and unworthy of further court defense in 2011 by the Obama administration, violates their equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Multiple challenges to DOMA are already well under way in the courts: An appeals court panel in Boston is set to hear arguments Wednesday in one such case, where a judge ruled nearly two years ago that a section of the law prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriages is unconstitutional.
But the new case is among the first to challenge the antigay law as it applies to immigration rights and is the first to be filed by an LGBT rights organization on behalf of gay immigrant families. A year ago the group Immigration Equality first announced it was planning its lawsuit against DOMA, which denies Americans the opportunity to sponsor a foreign-born same-sex partner for permanent residency.
To read the full article, click the header link.
Proposed Revision to U.S. Customs Forms Would Recognize Lesbian & Gay Families
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Immigration Equality Hails Proposal as a Significant Step Toward Federal Family Recognition
Officials Deny Deportation Reprieve for Gay Binational Couple | advocate.com
Brian Andersen (left) and Anton Tanumihardja CNN
A gay Indonesian man fighting to remain in the U.S. with his American husband has been denied a reprieve from deportation — a decision that appears to contradict Obama administration promises that members of same-sex binational couples can be considered lower-priority cases among the nation’s 300,000 current deportation proceedings.
During a brief Friday meeting at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Philadelphia office, Anton Tanumihardja, who in June married his American spouse, Brian Andersen, was denied a request for what’s known as deferred action. He was ordered to return to the local branch on January 13 for another appearance.
If the Department of Homeland Security or an immigration appeals board within the Justice Department does not intervene, immigration officers will require Tanumihardja to make travel arrangements back to Indonesia or be taken into custody and removed from the U.S. by ICE.
Lavi Soloway, the couple’s attorney and cofounder of Stop the Deportations, said he believed that the Friday decision means the administration has not implemented recently updated deportation guidelines in the field, which could have severe consequences for binational gay couples such as his clients.
“The Obama administration made a commitment to stop deportations that would tear apart families, including same-sex couples, and yet in its decision the ICE Office in Philadelphia is failing to make good on that commitment,” Soloway said. “The administration must take immediate action to ensure that the new deportation policy is being implemented fairly and consistently by ICE deportation officers in local offices, or this policy announcement is meaningless.”
Deportations halted for some gay immigrants
Thanks to President Obama’s reconsideration of high-versus-low-priority immigration cases, a number of LGBT immigrants’ deportation proceedings have been halted.
The Advocate.com article linked above tells the stories of a couple of different LGBT people in binational couples who have now been considered “low-priority” cases and who therefore won’t be deported anytime soon or even at all. Of course, a number of people are still in limbo:
The impact of new immigration policies remains to be seen for many couples, including Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk of San Francisco. Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Makk, an Australian, married in Massachusetts seven years ago, the San Francisco Chroniclereported. The visa under which Makk has been able to remain in the U.S. legally expires next Thursday. His application for permanent residency and Wells’s petition to have him recognized as a legal spouse have been denied and are on appeal.
The Napolitano letter may offer the couple some hope, but not before Makk’s visa expires — it applies only to those already facing deportation. He remains a legal resident until it expires, and he and Wells said they hope he does not have to become undocumented in order to win the right to stay in the country.I’m thrilled this has finally been addressed. Here’s hoping the good news keeps on coming.
Source: gaywrites
"Stop the Deportation of Anthony John Makk and STOP Defending DOMA"
“Anthony John Makk is an Australian citizen who has been legally married to his spouse Bradford Wells for 7 years and has been residing in the U.S. under a visa. They have been together for more than 19 years, have made many friends, have made a life together, and have sacrificed for each other. Makk is also the primary caretaker for Wells, as Wells has health complications.
On Monday, August 8, 2011, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services board declared that Makk must leave the country by August 25, 2011, citing DOMA, the 1996 bill that federally does not recognize a marriage between same sex partners.
These fellow human beings are in a loving committed relationship, pay taxes, and deserve the same federal rights that all opposite sex couples have. The Obama administration has stated that they will stop defending DOMA and this is proof that they aren’t doing their jobs when it comes to the rights of same sex couples.
Everyone, I implore you, Look at your own spouse or partner, now Imagine that the federal government refused to acknowledge your relationship as a legal one. You have built your whole life together, lived in the same place for years. Now imagine that you have only TWO WEEKS left to live with your partner because they were being removed from the country.
We can change this. We can change two people’s lives. We have the power to do some good in this world of bad. Please Sign this. Thank you.”
—-
I’m not American, so I can’t sign this. Someone sign it in my stead? Pretty please?
Source: morganbot
ACTION ALERT!! Tell President Obama: Stop Separating Our Families!!
Tell the White House to keep Bradford & Anthony and Frances & Takako — and other LGBT families — together!
We’ll send a fax directly to President Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, and add your name to a petition calling on the Administration to halt the separation of LGBT families. The White House counts every fax, every signature – your participation makes a difference.
The government has denied the green card application that Bradford Wells, an American, filed for his Australian partner of 19 years, despite their legal marriage and strong ties to the U.S. This follows the heartbreaking story of Vermont native Frances Herbert and her Japanese partner, Takako Ueda, another married couple who are facing imminent separation after more than a decade together.
We need relief for these families and every family. Tell the government to stop ripping families apart.
Bradford & Anthony and Frances & Takako recently told their stories to CNN. Now, you can add your voice to theirs, and take a stand for all LGBT families.
Click the link above to take part in the petition.
Mexican asylum seekers allege mistreatment by homophobic guards
Behind a thick wall of glass, 26-year-old Sergio Perez’s eyes well up with tears as he speaks in hushed tones describing the homophobic mistreatment he and his boyfriend endured at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre.
Perez was only in the centre a few days when guards and other staff members started taunting him and questioning his sexuality, he says.
“I am really open with my boyfriend,” he says. “We’ve been questioned by people here. They ask, ‘So, who’s the man and who’s the woman?’
“The guards asked us how much we like to be penetrated,” he says, holding the tip of his finger up, imitating the guard. “It was so offensive.”
Perez has been detained in the holding centre for one week. His bloodshot eyes look sleep deprived. As he speaks, he shiftily glances from side to side, fearing who might be eavesdropping on the conversation.
“We have to watch everything we say,” he says. “We are frightened. The only people we have is each other. When we touch, the guards tell us to stop.”
Perez came to Canada from Mexico with his boyfriend, Tizoc Alatorre, 30, in 2006, seeking a better life.
But after their refugee claim was denied, the couple were arrested on Oct 26 and forced to spend a week in the holding centre before friends fronted their $5,000 bail.
Perez says the couple filed for refugee status on the basis of his sexuality because he fears for his life in Mexico.
But with comments from Canadian guards like “Who penetrates who?” Perez says his trust in Canadian authorities is shaky.
“We are still safer here than in Mexico,” he says. “We really don’t want to go back to Mexico.”
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) communications spokesperson Anna Pape says the allegations of mistreatment raised by Perez were never brought to the attention of any CBSA official.
“All allegations of improper behaviour by CBSA employees are taken very seriously and are thoroughly investigated and acted upon accordingly,” she says. “CBSA employees are expected to uphold the law in carrying out their duties. The agency has no tolerance for any illegal or inappropriate actions.”
Confused, scared and without legal representation, Perez and Alatorre are now grudgingly buying plane tickets home and fearing for their future as they prepare to return to Mexican soil.
In the meantime, the couple is filing a complaint with the Human Rights Commission regarding how they were treated in the holding centre. But the complaint likely won’t be grounds enough for the couple to be granted a stay, says Michael Battista, a Toronto lawyer who has expertise in dealing with gay and lesbian refugee claims.
Chris Morrissey from Rainbow Refugee Committee in Vancouver, a non-profit group offering support to queer refugee claimants, says it’s a sad story she’s heard many times before. The reality is, she says, almost all claims by people from Mexico, especially gay Mexicans, are being denied.
“The situation in Mexico for queers is extremely unsafe,” she says. “From our perspective, Mexico is not safe for queer people. But that’s not the decision by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). They have an across-the-board policy on Mexico.”
And the situation got worse this year, Morrissey says. Since August, when Mexico’s Supreme Court ordered all Mexican states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in Mexico City, the country became wrongly perceived as a safe haven for gay people. Perez says gay people are persecuted by macho bullies not happy with the change in laws.
“When the laws change to recognize protections for sexual minorities often there is a backlash from members of the public,” said Battista.
Then there’s the issue of internal flight. If there is a place in the country that is deemed “safe,” such as Mexico City, the claimant must seek protection there, according to international refugee case law, says IRB spokesperson Charles Hawkins.
“If there’s no protection anywhere in their country, then they would be deserving of refugee protection,” he says.
Mexico City is considered a safe place for refugees to go back to, an “internal flight alternative,” he says.
But that’s certainly not the attitude of the police officers or citizens on the ground, Morrissey says.
Mexico’s justice system is failing its gay citizens, she says. The country’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sexual preference, but those laws are not enforced and homophobia is systemic within police departments.
“There is a reasonable fear of persecution if they’re sent back,” she says. “The state police don’t provide protection because they don’t take the situation seriously, which adds to the abuse and homophobia.
“Queer people are not given state protection in Mexico.”
Battista said there is a real breach between law and practice in Mexico. On paper, sexual minorities have protection, but that’s not the case in practice.
In 2007 Mexico surpassed China as Canada’s largest source of refugee claimants. While 38 percent of claimants overall were granted refugee status in 2007, only 10 percent of Mexican claims were successful.
That number has only continued to decline, says Hawkins. Currently only around eight percent are granted refugee status, according to numbers released to Xtra from the IRB.
In 2009 the IRB received 9,309 claims from Mexico. Of that, only 516 were accepted.
Battista said the shockingly low number of refugee claimants granted asylum illustrates the rapidly deteriorating human rights in Mexico.
“What is going on there?” he said. “When I started representing refugee claimants from Mexico around 1998, the acceptance rate was somewhere around 45 percent. It’s amazing to see how the country has deteriorated and the acceptance rate has gone down at the same time.”
Hawkins says the IRB doesn’t have a blanket policy on Mexico, assuring that each claim is looked at on a case-by-case basis.
“The risk [in a country] is evaluated on each claim. [The board] looks at the well-foundedness of the claimant’s fear,” he says. “That’s not only looking at the legislation in another country, it’s also how the laws are enforced and what the situation is like on the ground.”
Hawkins could not provide Xtra with statistics to show how many refugee claimants are seeking asylum because they are gay, lesbian or trans, nor could he say how many rejected Mexican refugee claimants are gay.
In 2007, Enrique Villegas, 35, was killed in his apartment in Mexico City just four years after CIRB rejected his claim. In 2008, Xtra told the story of Leonardo Zuniga, who was also afraid to return to Mexico.
According to the Youth Action Network, a youth-driven non-profit organization focused on social justice issues, more than 1,000 gay people have been murdered in Mexico in the past 10 years with little sign of justice.Mexican refugee claims:
Claimants Accepted Rejected %
2005 3,550 700 2,239 19%
2006 4,455 932 1,696 28%
2007 7,078 386 2,143 11%
2008 8,111 603 3,388 11%
2009 9,309 516 3,395 8%
Source: pansexualpride
