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US: Senator Schumer Fails BiNational Gay Couples

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

The Irish people are happy with Senator Charles “Chuck” Ellis Schumer (D-NY) – they may be able to emigrate legally to the United States in the coming years; “hope at last” according to the article, referenced below. I got really angry! What about our binational American same-sex couples Senator Schumer?

The defense of Marriage Act, DOMA, precludes same-sex Americans from getting Fiance visas or green cards to bring their partners into the United States, in parity with straight couples.

While 0ur binational American residents and citizens are begging and pleading to come home for Xmas or to bring their beloveds into the U.S.A., tomorrow, Senator Charles Schumer of New York will introduce a bill which will allow up to 10,000 Irish a year to come and work legally in the United States, though not receive green cards.

Full Story from O Blog Dee O Blog Da

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Binational Gay Couple Forced to Relocate to Italy From USA

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

INSTEAD of going on a honeymoon, they’re going into exile. Benjamin Anderson, a disabled U.S. Coast Guard veteran, wed his long-term partner, Italian immigrant Mattia Lumaca, in a bittersweet Manhattan ceremony Wednesday.

Even though Anderson’s an American citizen, the pair are barred from getting immigration benefits as a gay couple by the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
So on Friday, the Salt Lake City spouses are leaving the country that Anderson served.

“This is the choice I’ve been given — my country or my love. So what do you do?” said Anderson, 55, who wore a pair of pink suspenders for the occasion.

Full Story from the NY Daily News

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US: Binational Gay Couple Steps Into Marriage Equality Fight

Monday, November 28th, 2011

Brandon tells the story of how he met and married Luke, a South African, and decided to step forward as a public face against the Defense of Marriage Act, at Stop the Deportations:

“I will fight for my right to sponsor my husband for a “green card,” a privilege heterosexual Americans take for granted.

“With President Obama’s recent decision not to defend DOMA and signals from the Department of Homeland Security about protecting LGBT families from being torn apart by deportation, we believe that this is the time to challenge our exclusion from the family-based immigration system that otherwise works reasonably well to keep opposite-sex binational couples together.”

Full Story from Towleroad.com

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Judge Dismisses Binational Couple’s Case Against DOMA

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Defense of Marriage Act Lawsuit DismissedThe case of Indonesian citizen Handi Lui and American Michael Ernest has been dismissed by a federal judge who relied upon a homophobic and outdated court ruling from 1982 rather than contemporary information regarding same-sex marriage.

Lui and Ernest married in Massachusetts in 2009, and the two sued the government after US Citizenship and Immigration Services denied the couple’s marriage-based petition for permanent residency for Lui. The lawsuit argued that the USCIS violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s wording regarding discrimination on the basis of sex and that the immigration officials interpreted the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional.

House Speaker John Boehner’s pet anti-LGBT lawyers moved to dismiss the case. Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed it saying that immigration officials did not err in their decision. The problem is that he went further. He relied upon a 1982 case involving a gay male couple that were denied immigration sponsorship rights. In that case, the rejection of the petition was based upon the fact that the attorneys for the couple had “failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.”

Full Story from Lez Get Real

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Extra Hurdles Face Bi-National Gay Couples

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

As the immigration debate continues to boil, one group is always overlooked. While many undocumented immigrants can find some refuge in marriage, gay immigrants retain the short end of the stick.

There are as many as 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US. According to the 2000 US Census, 36,000 of those are in a committed, long-term, same-sex relationships with American citizens and would be eligible to be sponsored by their partners.

However, under current law they are unable to do so. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Washington, D.C. and New York allow gay marriage. More states allow civil unions. Gay bi-national couples cannot receive federal benefits because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Full Story from the Daily Cougar

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Malta: Law Creates Headaches for BiNational Gay Couples

Thursday, August 25th, 2011

The rights of the gay community in Malta have been left in disarray after EU intervention saw a restriction on migration struck from the law books.

The central Mediterranean group of islands which makes up the country has a strong Catholic ethos, which means gay couples have little in the way of governmental recognition.

Until this year, non-recognition of gay relationships was applied equally to Maltese citizens and to foreign nationals: those in other member states of the EU and in non-EU, third countries across the world.

Full Story from Pink News

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CA: San Francisco Bi-National Couple May Benefit From Obama Administration Decision

Saturday, August 20th, 2011

A San Francisco gay couple facing the threat of deportation may obtain relief through a surprise decision by the Obama administration to consider same-sex marriage when deciding whom to deport.

Bradford Wells, 55, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, 48, a citizen of Australia, have resided in the Castro district for much of their 19-year relationship. They were married in Massachusetts seven years ago, but a series of visas Makk had used to remain legally in the United States expires by Aug. 25.

The administration’s new policy, announced Thursday, calls for reviewing on a case-by-case basis each of more than 300,000 pending deportations to determine which cases to pursue and which to ignore on the basis of family relationships, criminal history and other factors.

Full Story from SFGate

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CO: Bi-National Lesbian Couple Gets Reprieve

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Colorado Lesbian CoupleVioleta and Sujey Pando walked into an immigration courtroom in downtown Denver on Friday knowing that Sujey was on the verge of being deported.

The illegal immigrant from Mexico had been stopped for a traffic infraction in 2008, and Friday represented the last day of what’s turned into a three-year deportation process.

The lesbian couple walked away on Friday with a five-month reprieve, a victory for them made possible, in part, by a decision the day before by the Obama administration to try to prioritize the nearly 300,000 pending deportations in the country today.

Full Story from 9 News

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Obama Administration to Set Up Panel to Review Cases of BiNational Couples

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

Gay and lesbian married bi-national couples like San Francisco’s Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk may get some relief from the threat of deportation under the Defense of Marriage Act, thanks to action by the Obama administration today.

In a letter to Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said a new working group will be established to identify low-priority cases for immigrant deportation. The administration will exercise prosecutorial discretion, widely practiced by all law enforcement officers, to identify which low-priority deportation cases to ignore. The policy is also posted on the White House website.

Napolitano cited a memorandum issued last June by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, which contains a long list of mitigating factors to weigh in deciding whether to pursue deportation. These include whether the immigrant is married to a U.S. citizen, as Makk is, as well as whether the immigrant is the primary caregiver of a citizen, which Makk also is. Other factors include such things as length of lawful stay in the United States, criminal record and the like.

Full Story from SFGate

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CA: Bi-National Gay Couple Wins Two Year Reprieve from Deportation

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Doug and AlexA same-sex married couple in California received a two-year reprieve on an imminent deportation order at their last-chance hearing this morning. From Lavi Soloway’s Stop The Deportations blog:

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – This morning in San Francisco, Doug Gentry and Alex Benshimol — a married binational same-sex couple — appeared before Immigration Judge Marilyn Teeter for a deportation hearing and were permitted to remain in the country despite the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the law that prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriages by the federal government.

This is the latest in a series of recent court rulings that have demonstrated the inequality that DOMA forces same-sex couples to live under.

Full Story from Pam’s House Blend

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