We reported on the horrific consequences of Obama's "business as usual" approach to immigration policy regarding our LGBT families here and here. Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey, has joined the fight in the Velandia-Vandiver case by asking the Obama administration to stop its unfair policy of deporting spouses of binational gay or lesbian Americans.
HADDONFIELD, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Rush Holt is pushing the Obama administration to halt deportation proceedings against the same-sex spouses of U.S. citizens.This is another reason I find myself having a hard time getting motivated to support Obama's reelection. We were promised so much change, it is hard to get excited when I know there will be more promises with precious few examples of how Obama followed through on his past rhetoric and made life more equal for our community. If anything, the mistakes have been legion including the mishandling of DADT, which should have already been a thing of the past, and should have ben used to tar and feather backwards "Chicken Little" Republicans with their stubborn intransigence. Instead, we have Republicans using the unfinished business of DADT to fire up their angry homophobic base.
The Democrat wrote a letter to the federal Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday to make the request on behalf of a couple who live in his central New Jersey district. An estimated 36,000 bi-national same-sex couples are in the U.S., and all have reason to be worried if deportations are not stopped, the couple's lawyer says.
The case underscores the ambiguous status of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of a heterosexual man and a heterosexual woman. Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder said the government would no longer defend the law in court. But the administration continues to enforce it.
