Out4Immigration's Statement about the Senate's Gang of 8's Immigration Reform Bill

Out4Immigration was invited to participate in the San Francisco Bay Coalition for Immigrant Justice's press conference to speak about the Senate Gang of 8's Immigration Reform bill yesterday at Asian Law Caucus.

Below is the statement as given by Amos Lim:

"Current immigration law as it exists does not allow gay and lesbian Americans to sponsor their foreign spouse for a green card like heterosexual couples can.

We are speaking out against the Senate Gang of 8's bill on Immigration Reform.  Our country has been built on the principle of Family Reunification and it is very unfortunate that the definition of family continues to omit LGBT Families.

Same-sex binational couples have once again been ignored by Congress.The Senate has called the bill, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, but their compromise excluded same-sex binational couples, forcing us to choose between our families and our country in order to stay together. By doing that this bill does not provide us with Economic Opportunity or a Modern Immigration Process. By excluding the more than 40,000 same-sex binational couples, this bill is not inclusive - nor is it comprehensive.

And it runs counter to the framework presented by President Obama, who proposed our inclusion in this bill back in January.

We will continue to push for the inclusion of LGBT Families in this bill as it moves through the amendment and voting process in Congress. We will not give up the fight until LGBT Families and same-sex binational couples are included in immigration reform!"

Amos Lim
on behalf of Out4Immigration