A framework for comprehensive immigration reform, authored by Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), includes a call for an end to discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) binational families. The principles, which are meant to guide Congressional crafting of immigration reform legislation, specifically call for key provisions of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) to be part of a future reform bill.

Immigration Equality hailed the inclusion of the language, which would allow LGBT citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor their foreign national partners for residency in the United States. Under current law, no such sponsorship is available. An estimated 36,000 face imminent separation or exile because of discriminatory immigration policies. UAFA is sponsored in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, and in the House by Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York.

“Today’s inclusive framework is an historic step forward for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender binational families,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. “Now, it is time to turn these principles into laws. We will fight to ensure that the Uniting American Families Act is an indelible part of the immigration reform bill.”

“The LGBT community is committed to comprehensive immigration reform that includes everyone,” Tiven added. “Our community understands, all too well, the pain of being punished and singled out for who we are. Our solidarity with the larger immigrant community is deep, and our resolve to fix our broken immigration system is real. We will work for a bill that provides a path to citizenship for the undocumented, including those who are LGBT. Time is of the essence for those facing separation or deportation, and Congress must act, urgently, to pass humane, comprehensive reform.”‪

Immigration Equality also applauded the inclusion of the DREAM Act – a path to citizenship for undocumented students – in the principles released today. Earlier this week, DREAM activists who have walked from Florida arrived in the nation’s capital. Two of them, Juan Rodriguez and Felipe Matos, are also a couple, and have faced additional discrimination because of their sexual orientation. The outline also includes important provisions related to family unification, including ending the unconscionable backlogs that so many families face under the current system.

The group expressed dismay, however, over a proposal to implement a de-facto program for National ID Cards. Such a proposal, known as biometric identification, could be particularly troublesome for transgender immigrants, who struggle to get identity documents which match their correct name and gender.

“Immigration Equality,” Tiven concluded, “is working for a bill that protects LGBT immigrants who so desperately need reform. The path forward is about keeping families together and building a system that values our country’s unique and precious history as a nation of immigrants.”

This Saturday, in cities and towns across the country, immigration rights supporters will march, rally and call on Congress to pass fair and humane comprehensive immigration reform. All of us at Immigration Equality urge our supporters to join our allies and bring a visible, supportive LGBT presence to this weekend’s activities.

From New York and Washington, to Phoenix and Los Angeles, these marches will send a strong, clear message that we support comprehensive reform for all families . . . and stand against divisive tactics and laws that tear our loved ones apart and endanger their safety.

To find a march near you, click here. Then, show up on Saturday with an Immigration Equality shirt (if you have one), or a rainbow flag, and stand in solidarity with those who are working to fix our broken immigration system.

For more information, visit Reform Immigration for America online.

The following statement was issued by Immigration Equality’s executive director, Rachel Tiven.

“Immigration Equality joins immigrants, families and allies in Arizona and around the country in condemning the state’s new anti-immigrant law. The law is unjust, unconstitutional and unconscionable. Everyone of every ethnicity, faith, and sexual orientation should be concerned and appalled that a state has criminalized human beings based on who they are.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community knows all too well how easily people who “look different” can be singled out for harassment and prosecution. In addition, LGBT immigrant families are too familiar with the double burden of immigration discrimination. Now Arizona’s LGBT families have yet another reason to be alarmed. The state’s new law threatens to tear apart families, separate children from their parents and rip apart loving couples who are building their lives together. Forty percent of LGBT binational couples in the United States include a Latino family member. For them, and their loved ones, Arizona is now the most dangerous place in America.

We are confident our courts will strike down this heinous law, and stand in solidarity with all of those who are working for its demise. The need for comprehensive immigration reform that protects all families has never been more urgent, and we are working every day to make it a reality.”

How many LGBT binational couples are moving abroad, and even renouncing their citizenship, because of the hurdles they face staying together in the United States?

It’s a question posed yesterday at the Bucks blog at The New York Times. Writer Tara Siegel Bernard follows up on an October story, also in the Times, by pointing out that many readers responded to the original story on the extra costs of being in an LGBT relationship by pointing out that they, in fact, faced even more obstacles, and expenses, simply to be with the person they love.

“Try being a bi-national gay couple,” one reader, Megan, wrote to the paper. “We have paid over $70,000 to be together. My partner is Indian and I am American and yet we have to live in Canada if we are to be together.”

Indeed, as couples find that their options – and time – for being able to remain together in the U.S. run out, they are increasingly leaving the United States . . . and taking their talent and tax money to other countries with them. The Times noted that 743 people renounced their U.S. citizenship last year, not including the Americans (many in binational relationships) who are now living in Canada but retain their citizenship in the United States.

“Many same-sex couples who decide to leave the United States head for countries that recognize their unions,” Bernard writes, adding that, “many leave because of immigration obstacles.”

“What choices do couples with noncitizen partners have,” she asks, “and what are the costs?”

To read the full column, click here.

I was proud to testify on Monday morning in front of the New York City Council’s Immigration Committee. The Committee had proposed a resolution calling on Congress – and in particular New York’s own senior Senator, Chuck Schumer – to move forward with Comprehensive Immigration Reform that includes all families.

I described the consequences of immigration discrimination faced by tens of thousands of LGBT families – including at least 5,000 New York couples. The Committee heard from many other excellent immigration advocates, including: NYC’s Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs, Fatima Shama; NYCLU’s Udi Ofer; Nerissa Kunakemakorn of Opportunity Agenda; Afton Branch from Drum Major Insitute; plus other wonderful colleagues from Make the Road New York, the New York LGBT Center, the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, and longtime gay activist Brendan Fay, among others.

The Committee approved the resolution, which goes to the full City Council on Wednesday.

Every day, Immigration Equality receives calls and emails from binational couples, asylum seekers, detainees and others who turn to our legal team for free, confidential legal counsel. Each year, we receive thousands of such inquiries . . . all fielded by a legal staff of just four people. In recent days, we have received questions and concerns regarding how legal inquiries are handled by our staff, and want to shed some light on that process.

It’s important to know that, when you reach out to Immigration Equality for legal help, your inquiry is answered in relation to the urgency of your situation. We prioritize, for example, binational couples who are facing immediate separation and deportation; detainees who are already in detention and require immediate legal representation; and asylum seekers whose claims are particularly time-sensitive because of filing deadline issues. Our mission – when we were founded in 1994 and unchanged today – is to help binational couples, asylum seekers and those impacted by HIV immigration discrimination.

Other calls and emails are answered as quickly as possible, but given our staffing limitations this may take several days. Because our services are free, we never prioritize anyone based on their ability to pay. Because our resources are limited, we always respond to the most urgent requests first.

If you have a legal emergency – such as immediate deportation, current detention, etc. – please call our legal team, if at all possible. We accept collect calls from detention facilities. Otherwise, the quickest way to ensure a response to your inquiry is via our online contact form. Each message is reviewed by a member of our legal team, and we respond as quickly as possible.

Keep in mind that we are a small legal aid team, offering free legal counsel to a very large community of LGBT immigrants and their American family members. We do our best to be as responsive as possible, and we need everyone’s patience as we work to stop imminent deportations . . . help individuals who are detained . . . and win safe haven for asylum seekers who, because of legal requirements, have especially time-sensitive needs.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” – Charles Dickens

There has been much attention, in recent days, focused on the truly heinous anti-immigrant law passed by the Arizona legislature. The law – which gives law enforcement authority to question anyone they “suspect” may be undocumented – is by far the worst in the country, and puts the state squarely in the business of government-sanctioned racial profiling (as well as the business of ignoring the fourth and fourteenth amendments of the constitution).

It is, quite simply, the starkest reminder in a while of the anti-immigrant sentiment that still lives in too many corners of our country.

Thankfully, however, it is not a sentiment shared by local elected leaders everywhere.

In recent weeks, a growing number of local governments have quietly endorsed a critical piece of legislation for immigrant families: City councils across the country have passed resolutions urging Congress to pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which would end discrimination against LGBT binational couples. A dozen cities have now endorsed UAFA, and more are expected to do so in the near future.

The move is more than symbolic, too. It is helping to build support for ending discriminatory immigration laws that keep loving couples apart.

Continue reading this post as Pam’s House Blend . . .

Immigration Equality joined more than 200 allied organizations yesterday in calling on Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). The nation’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organizations, along with allies in the faith, labor and civil rights communities, issued the following statement to members of the United States Congress:

“Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act NOW.”

Hearings on ENDA were heard in the House Education and Labor Committee on September 23, 2009 and in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee on November 5, 2009. Stuart Ishimaru, of the Equal Employment Opportunity Council, testified in support of ENDA at the House hearing, and Thomas Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division testified in favor of ENDA at the Senate committee hearing, both on behalf of the Obama administration, indicating the president’s full support for the measure. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said last week that the House is likely to consider the bill this year. To date, however, no vote has been scheduled.

Immigration Equality is proud to join with our allies in calling on leaders to pass ENDA now and end employment discrimination against LGBT people.

For more information, visit endaNOW online.

Graphic courtesy of Advocate.com.

We’re passing along this alert from our allies at Restore Fairness. Please take action today, and urge Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto the heinous anti-immigrant law passed her state’s legislature.

Today is the last day to put pressure on Arizona Governor Brewer to veto SB 1070, Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation that will have chilling repercussions if signed into law.

SB 1070 dramatically expands police powers to stop, question and detain individuals for not having proper identification, practically mandating racial profiling and creating panic and fear amongst vulnerable communities. No one, including U.S. citizens, will be spared from arbitrary stops and detentions on the suspicion of being undocumented.

SB 1070 is an affront to our civil liberties. Its effects will be palpable across the United States as other states begin to follow in Arizona’s footsteps. We must take a stand against this injustice. Because when we deny fairness to any one group of people, we put all of our rights at risk.

Email Governor Brewer and demand a veto of SB 1070.

New York City’s seventh annual Immigrant Heritage Week begins today. The initiative is organized by the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, “to celebrate the contributions of immigrants and the diversity that makes New York City so great. This year there will be over 170 fun and free events in all five boroughs with something for everyone from musical performances, film screenings, events for children and the whole family, workshops and discussions, and much more.” A full schedule of events is online here.

If you’re lucky enough to be an LGBT immigrant, head on down to New York’s LGBT Community Center on Tuesday, April 20 for the 2nd Annual LGBTQ Immigration Fair and Cultural Event. Immigration Equality is one of the event sponsors, and it will be a great afternoon of information and entertainment, plus free, confidential HIV testing. More info here.