Illegal Same Sex Spouses and the Deportation Crisis

07/25/11

However, the administration has instituted a seeming 'work around.' John Morton, director of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), issued a memo in June that told his agents and lawyers to, according to the latimes.com article, ''focus their deportation efforts on illegal immigrants who are criminals, gang members or security threats. He also urged them to ''exercise discretion'' in favor of illegal residents who have a ''spouse, child or parent'' who is a U.S. citizen or who is 'primary caretaker' for someone who is ill, disabled or a child.''


How will this translate for Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, who was married seven years ago in Massachusetts to Anthony Makk, a citizen of Australia? In June, Makk's visa expired. Though the couple did apply for a spousal green card, they anticipate it being denied because DOMA forbids federal authorities from recognizing a same-sex marriage.

Wells has chronic health problems, and Makk is his caregiver. In the latimes.com article, Wells was quoted as saying: ''If [Makk] becomes illegal, then they can step in, and we don't know what would happen. Some mornings, I can't get out of bed. If he were not here, no one would be here to help.''

Specifically, the memo does not mention legally married same-sex couples, which may give couples like Makk and Wells some leeway, but that could also be a double edged sword - does it leave too many things open to interpretation, and thus, leave couples like Makk and Wells vulnerable to the discretion of immigration agents?

Recently, Los Angeles attorney Lavi Soloway, who represents numerous married same-sex couples in deportation cases, represented Henry Velandia, a Venezuelan man who is legally married to Josh Vandiver, a graduate student at Princeton University. The government stopped Velandia's deportation, saying it was not a priority. Soloway was quoted as saying in the latimes.com article: ''That was a good sign, but it was only one case.''

Soloway also recently represented same sex couple Doug Gentry and Venezuelan native Alex Benshimol, who were married last year in Connecticut. Soloway asked San Francisco Judge Marilyn Teeter to drop deportation proceedings against Benshimol. According to the latimes.com article, Teeter gave immigration officials 60 days to respond. She also ''postponed the next deportation hearing until September 2013 if the government does not drop the case,'' according to the latimes.com article.

Soloway praised the judge's decision, and was quoted as saying that he would ''continue to advocate for termination of these proceedings and a moratorium on all deportations of spouses of lesbian and gay Americans.''

However, same sex couple Richard Dennis and Jair Izquierdo were not as fortunate. Last December, Izquierdo was deported to Peru. Though the pair had a civil union in New Jersey and applied for a green card, the government deported Izquierdo after his tourist visa expired.

Dennis was quoted as saying in the latimes.com article: ''We just got a perfunctory 'denied' from them, with no explanation given.... The whole system seems very arbitrary.''

It appears others agree with Dennis's stamp of 'arbitrary', but for different reasons.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee was quoted as saying in the latimes.com article: ''It appears if the Obama administration doesn't like some laws, they just ignore them.''

In addition, Chris Crane, President of the National ICE Council, which represents approximately 7,000 ICE agents, officers and employees, said Morton's memo would create a ''law enforcement nightmare'' for immigration agents, according to the latimes.com article.

In the April 5^th lgbtpov.com article, ''Immigration Attorney Lavi Soloway Talks About the Confusion for Binational Couples'', Solovay called the deportation of same sex partners ''the ultimate and cruelest consequence of DOMA.'' Soloway was instrumental in launching the DOMA Project, an online campaign aimed at stopping deportations, which is located at www.stopthedeportations.com.

Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, which is another group fighting to stop deportations of same-sex couples, was quoted as saying in the latimes.com article, ''We would like a clarification from the administration. No doubt something is changing, but there is no blanket policy. It is an unofficial evolution.''