US immigration department to temporarily honor gay marriages in deportation cases
by Patricia R - March 30, 2011
United States, 31st March: This piece of news happens to be a welcome relief for homosexuals in a bi-national marriage.
From now on, gay immigrants married to same-sex US citizen will not be liable for deportation, the US immigration department has stated.
As per the latest release by the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services), gay marriages will be honored in the US in accordance with the directive of the US President on the Defence of Marriage Act.
The USCIS will stop automatic denial of US Green Card and US immigration applications received from lesbians and gays married to US citizens.
The latest directive comes just a week following a decision by a Queens court to delay an Argentinian woman’s deportation.
Meanwhile, it needs to be kept in mind that that the USCIS is only complying with the directives until any it gets clarification with regard to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act’s (DOMA) status.
According to the general counsel of the US DHS (US Department of Homeland Security), Christopher S. Bentley, the USCIS has already given a guidance asking for keeping the related cases in suspension while waiting a final guidance regarding distinct legal cases.
Marriage is defined to be a legal union between one woman and one man for all government laws and maintains that all states might not give recognition to same-sex marriages from other states, the DOMA states.
And US citizens in heterosexual couples can get US Green Cards for their non-US spouses, the DOMA has,however, not provided such provision for immigrants involved in same-sex marriages.
No wonder, this has been evoking severe criticism from several gay rights groups in the US who stated that such a US law smacks of discrimination against foreigners in the US.
According to a lawyer and president of a gay rights advocacy group named Equality Matters, Richard Socarides, those who are in a bi-national heterosexual couple are allowed stay and work in the US while gays get deported from the US.
That’s very strange. US President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had announced in February this year that the US administration will no longer accept the DOMA in the US courts while it will keep enforcing the law adopted way back in 1966 till it gets changed by Congress or the courts.
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