Call to Action! Out4Immigration Needs Couples to Speak Up Now!

by Amos Lim

Out4Immigration has always advocated a multi-pronged approach to getting our issues resolved. We have pushed for passage of an Inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform, supported the passage of the Uniting American Families Act, the Reuniting Families Act, the repeal of DOMA (Respect for Marriage Act) and supported the removal of the one-year filing deadline for asylum seekers. And most recently, we pushed for an abeyance policy from the Obama administration with regards to green card applications and making sure that LGBT families are included in ICE's Deportation Guidelines (the so-called Morton Memo which was released in June 2011). These recently revised guidelines will now stop the deportation of partners/spouses of same-sex binational couples where the partner/spouse is without lawful status and in removal proceedings.

Our all-volunteer group did this through education, raising awareness, meeting legislators, forming coalitions with allies in the LGBT and immigration communities and circulating petitions on change.org.

Our last petition on change.org "LGBT Binational Couples Must Be Included in ICE Deportation Guidelines", received about 2,000 signatures. I had the opportunity to deliver this, together with stories from same-sex binational couples and photos from our United by Love, Divided by Law Tumblr blog to the White House when I was there for an AAPI conference last July.

The petition signatures, the stories and the photos, together with the letter sent by Democratic House members urging for LGBT inclusion in the ICE Deportation Guidelines, helped push the Obama administration to finally officially include us in DHS' deportation guidelines.

Now that the election is over and President Obama has been re-elected to a second term, the landscape for moving our issue forward seems even more positive. 

We will know by the first week of December if SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) will hear all or any of the DOMA cases. This means that by June 28, 2013, we will know if DOMA is finally ruled unconstitutional and legally married same-sex couples will get federal marriage rights, all 1138 of them (including, of course, the ability of U.S. citizen to sponsor their foreign spouse for a green card!)

In the week since the election, we have also seen both Democrat and Republican leaders coming out vocally in support of Comprehensive Immigration Reform. 
 
President Obama himself said during his Victory Speech and a follow-up press conference that he wants immigration reform in the United States.

It seems from all indications that a Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) bill will be introduced in January when the new Congress convenes.

So, today, more important than ever, we need to continue the push to ensure that:

1. We have an inclusive (LGBT-positive) comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced in Congress.
2. The LGBT community does not “get thrown under the bus” or negotiated away when CIR comes up for a vote in Congress.
3. We demand that the Obama administration fully adjudicate all green card cases filed by same-sex married couples including full fact-finding, conducting interviews to determine the bona fides of the marital relationships, either by USCIS (in the U.S.) or by Consular officials abroad, and then hold a final decision on abeyance until the Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of DOMA.
4. We urge the Obama administration to open up the humanitarian parole process to partners/spouses of lesbian and gay Americans, to bring our fellow binational couples back from forced exile and to end the separation of binational couples and LGBT families until DOMA has been resolved by the Supreme Court.

To do this, we will be working with other grassroots organization like GetEQUAL and various LGBT/Immigration organizations to create and raise awareness about this issue. We need to make this a moral issue that Congress needs to fix immediately through legislation. We need to make Congress understand that they cannot push this aside.

GetEQUAL and the DREAMers have waged a very successful campaign of speaking out, telling their stories and not taking NO for an answer! I believe that we can do something similar to their campaign so that we cannot be ignored anymore!

However, to do that, we will need couples to speak up and tell their stories to the media.
Therefore, we are putting out a call to couples who have suffered under DOMA to come forward and speak up. We can work with you to fine-tune your message as you tell your story.  

Please let us know by completing this form (http://bit.ly/O4ICountMeIn). Submit the form and we will get in touch with you very soon. 

Our time is NOW! Stand up and speak out. Many believe we are in the final phases of ending the terrible discrimination we have faced as same-sex binational couples due to unfair immigration laws and DOMA. Join us and be a part of the change.

Why Out4Immigration Supports Deferred Action for DREAMers

by Amos Lim

Last week, the U.S. began offering "deferred action" for undocumented immigrants who came to this country before the age of 16 and are currently under the age of 31. This group, often referred to as DREAMers (as they were the proponents of the DREAM Act legislation that failed to pass Congress in 2010) will now be allowed to apply for "deferred action", which would mean that they can live and work in America without fear of deportation for a period of two years. Out4Immigration has always counted the DREAMers as our allies in our fight for equal immigration rights and the right for the American citizens among us to be able to sponsor our partners for green cards. Some people believe the DREAMers are getting treated better than us, but that is not the point. This is.

The immigration system in the United States is broken. Immigration has always been used politically to stop groups of people from coming in, whether it was the Chinese Exclusion Act in the late 1800s/early 1900s or the Homosexual and/or HIV Travel Ban (yes, there was once a law in this country that banned homosexuals from entering). These past  - and present - exclusionary policies result in ugly rhetoric.  And corporate media, which is frequently lazy, will repeat what is told to them without fact checking.

I'm not an immigration attorney - just someone who has been in this fight for a long time with some sense of knowledge/history; however, I welcome any attorneys to help clarify my points below.
 
THIS IS THE REALITY  
1)  The deferred action that started last week is just that. DEFERRED ACTION. It is an offshoot of the Morton Memo that came out last June and is targeted specifically at the DREAMers. It gives those who grew up here and completed their education here a chance to stay without fear of deportation for TWO YEARS. The primary reason for the administration to do this is that Congress has not acted on this bill. The DREAM Act was a bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (yes, that Orrin Hatch) and supported by Sen. John McCain and was once popular among both Democrats and Republicans; it is now out of favor with the Republicans after the last Congress was elected.

It DOES NOT give them a legal route to citizenship, it just gives them some peace for two years while hopefully Congress can pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill or the DREAM Act. It will not "clog up" the waiting period for green card applications or contribute to the current backlog.

The authorization to work that will be provided to this group is not a H1-B visa. According to the FAQ by the Immigration Policy Center (I encourage people to read it, it is very informative): 

"Can a person who is granted deferred action work legally in the U.S.?
>Yes. Under existing regulations, individuals with deferred action may receive an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). Individuals who wish to request an extension of deferred action after two years will also have to apply for a renewal of their EAD."

A job authorization is not the same as an H1-B visa. An OPT visa is a job authorization document, which lasts one year for foreigners who graduated from a U.S. college and it gets processed within 45 days (when I did it 6 years ago), so please do not confuse EAD with H1-B. H1-B is an EAD but an EAD is not a H1-B.

The deferred action is not an amnesty - it gives the DREAMers 2 more years to stay here and work here while Congress gets their act together.

What happens at the end of the two years? Who knows? The next administration might not want to renew the deferred action policy or Congress might finally get their act together and pass a bill. According to the FAQ again by IPC:

"How long does deferred action last?"
>Under the childhood arrivals initiative, deferred action will be granted for a two-year period, after which recipients may request a renewal. According to DHS, individuals will be eligible for future renewals of deferred action so long as they were under age 31 on June 15, 2012.

In contrast: the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed numerous times that LGBT couples (and the Morton Memo applies) are considered families through various requests from the media but as of this date, they have not actually put it in writing, so we are still beholden on the individual prosecutorial discretions of individual cases. The House Democrats (about 85 of them including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) also sent a letter to the DHS urging for a clearer language. Rather than putting this in writing, DHS instead confirmed it to journalist Chris Geidner of Buzzfeed that LGBT couples are indeed considered families and will be entitled to deferred action when it comes to deportations.

In our last petition on Change.org, we asked President Obama to do the same for same-sex binational couples: http://www.change.org/

petitions/president-of-the-
united-states-issue-a-memorandum-to-grant-immigration-rights-to-lgbt-americans

I actually delivered about 1,200 signatures on this petition to the White House's point person on Immigration, Felicia Escobar last month in Washington DC. The petition as of today has about 1,400 signatures.

Had the deferred action been applied to us and not the DREAMers, would we feel differently?  

The argument from conservatives and anti-immigration groups is to frame/depict this and everything immigration-related as "amnesty" or "stealing jobs" or "freeloaders" and we must be careful not to repeat that divisive rhetoric. Because when it comes to us, they like to frame our issue as "fraud", "marriage of convenience", "stealing jobs", "government sanctioning of a immoral lifestyle" etc. etc. etc....

One thing of note: The last time something akin to an amnesty was done was in the 1980s by a Republican president and that was probably the last time we have had any amnesty action.

2)  BACKLOGS
There are many reasons why there are backlogs.  Yes, it is about resources but at the same time it is also about quotas.

Every country has a quota. Congress sets/determines every year how many people from each country can immigrate here (that quota system has not been changed for a long time). Congress also sets the quota based on the visa that you are applying for, whether it is under Family Visa, Work Visa, Green Card based on work etc. So, even if you are approved for a green card based on work or familial relationship, you will still have to wait for your "number" to be called. There have been cases where a green card application is approved but the waiting time for the green card can be at least a decade. There have been numerous bills and numerous organizations that have urged Congress to review the country quota over the years (as it is dated and the rationale for the quota needs to be reviewed) but to no avail. There is also the problem that some countries like Singapore (where I am from) do not usually meet the quota, i.e., less people want
to move here than what was allocated for but instead of using those unused quota "openings" for other countries that need them, they simply expire.

And don't get me going about the quotas for H1-B visas...we all know that the quotas are not enough!
 
Rep. Mike Honda has introduced a bill for the last three sessions of Congress called the "Reuniting Families Act" (RFA). The bill, if passed, will do a couple of things. 1) Pass UAFA (the language of UAFA is included in the bill; (2) reduce the backlogs - the bill will transfer the "unused" visas and transfer them to other categories/countries that have met their quotas; and (3) allow for Filipino veterans who fought in WWII (yes WWII !!!) to finally get their green card and citizenship. This is just a small sampling of what the bill will do; there are many more actions.

As a point of note, during the first and only hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Immigration about UAFA held by Sen. Patrick Leahy in June 2010, there was a conservative immigration group that testified against the passage of UAFA. One of the primary reasons that they gave was that "to allow LGBT couples to immigrate will further clog the badly backlogged immigration process...we need to prevent more people coming in as opposed to letting more people come in." (I am paraphrasing of course and if you want to find footage of that hearing, I am sure you can Google it or find it on the Congressional website.)

 
3) WHY IS OUT4IMMIGRATION SUPPORTING THIS ISSUE?
The answer is pretty simple - Why not?

There are more than 40,000 same-sex binational couples affected by this issue in this country. 40,000 couples. I am not even counting those that are in exile or living apart.

Are our situations all the same? Hell no! Some of us have partners who are undocumented, some of us have partners who are here on a student visa, some of us have partners who are here on a work visa, some of us have partners who visit us once every year for 3 weeks and some of us have partners who are unable to even get a passport to leave the country they reside in to come here. Our situations are all different and there are many solutions to our problems. Until the discriminatory DOMA is repealed or UAFA is finally passed, any solution that will let my brothers and sisters in these situations find some path to remaining in the U.S. legally will be supported by O4I.

Further, as a matter of political strategy we must be mindful that we CANNOT endeavor to fight this alone. By definition, we are a relatively small group of people. We NEED the help and support of anyone and everyone. When we support inclusiveness and fairness in reforms and relief measures, we are more likely to be included. If we do NOT support inclusiveness and fairness for others, we CANNOT expect any support - in fact it would likely be denied.

Please do understand that at the end of the day, we are an all-volunteer grassroots organization. We are not the behemoth that is HRC or any other big LGBT organization that people seem to think we are. The work that you see done by O4I is the work of a few dedicated volunteers who want to see the laws changed. We will take any solution we can get to bring us closer to that change. We support UAFA, RFA, RMA (Respect for Marriage Act), DREAM Act, Inclusive CIR (Comprehensive Immigration Reform) - anything that would create momentum and move us forward and give us a solution to allow us to be with the one we love.

4) WHY IS DEFERRED ACTION AN LGBT ISSUE?
Because it is a civil rights, human rights issue. Are LGBT rights a civil rights and human rights issue? You bet they are! If you have been following the news, you would know that NOM, the National Organization for Marriage, has a strategy that they put forth a couple of years ago to divide and conquer - to pit ethnic groups against LGBT groups and to have them come out and say that marriage equality is not a civil rights issue because well, they cannot change their skin color but we can change our sexuality. And like it or not, the same strategy is still being used to separate us as opposed to uniting us. If we don't support issues that are in our favor because it is not specifically an LGBT issue, why should our allies and straight people support LGBT issues because it is not about them?

Personally for me, being documented or undocumented is a very thin line. If you are on a H1-B visa and got pink slipped tomorrow, you have 10 days to pack up and leave the country or 60 days to find a job and get another H1-B visa.  (Something like this happened to me just after 9/11.) If you have a spouse here and perhaps a kid... maybe you are fortunate to buy a house when the economy is good...what's your choice? Do you just pack up and leave or do you try to find ways to stay? Becoming undocumented means you cannot leave the U.S. at all if your parents fall ill or, God forbid, pass away. Becoming undocumented means you have to live your life in the shadows just so you can stay here to be with your husband, wife or partner or kids. Becoming undocumented means you have to stay silent and not make noise or someone might report you. It is not a life anyone would choose but the broken system (and in our case, our discriminatory laws) often force this choice.

The DREAMers however did not have a choice. Most of them were brought here by their parents or families when they were young. Most of them do not have family ties back home.I have met families where two siblings are Americans and one is undocumented. I met the Pulitzer Prize winner, Jose Antonio Vargas, who is gay and undocumented and many other DREAMers who are gay and undocumented, too. Their stories mirror our own tragic tales.

Deferred action might not be a solution for some of you, but it is a solution for some of us in this community in this struggle. This might mean that for the next two years, someone can work legally without fear and work tirelessly to change the laws for all of us. For that I celebrate the relief it provides for the short time that it does.

That said, this election is also pretty important because we need to carefully examine who are the people who are supporting our issue and who are the people who want us gone. At Out4Immigration, we are not allowed to endorse any candidates so it is important for all of you to go find information about the candidates in your district and where they stand on the issues of the repealing DOMA (Respect for Marriage Act, or RMA), the passage of UAFA, RFA, Inclusive CIR, ENDA and marriage equality.

I hope I have addressed some issues that have been percolating among some of you over the past couple of days. I just want to leave you with a quote that I saw recently that I love from Mr. Nelson Mandela:

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains,but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela.

Now that DADT Is Gone, Same-Sex Binational Couples Need to Focus on Full Federal Equal Rights

by Kathy Drasky

With President Obama’s signature on the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this morning, 2010 ends on a high note for gay rights. With the defeat of the DREAM Act in the Senate last week, the year ends on a low note for comprehensive immigration reform (CIR).

Same-sex binational couples have long been caught in the vortex of these two important movements in American politics. We are, first and foremost, gay and lesbian, yet at least half of us are first-generation immigrants. The other half of us though are American citizens and US permanent residents. The citizens among us (second-class LGBT citizens that we are) are denied thousands of rights – including the right to sponsor our same-sex foreign-born partner for immigration purposes.

As far as political movements go, same-sex binational couples are a small group. In spite of efforts to estimate that there are far more of us than 36,000 couples – 36,000 remains the accepted figure. Split that in half and you have 18,000 gay and lesbian American citizens at any one time facing the unconscionable – leave the country you love to be with the person you love, or live a life apart from your life partner – which is no kind of life at all. (By contrast, it’s estimated that 2 million children of undocumented workers would have benefited from the DREAM Act.)

With the momentum shift that’s occurred with DADT repeal, it’s time for same-sex binationals to remember why we are being discriminated against in the first place. It is not because half of us are immigrants. It is because all of us are gay and lesbian. US immigration has no problem with opposite-sex binational couples. In fact, it is the heterosexual American citizen’s inalienable right to marry the person he or she loves and build a life with that person in the United States – whether that person is another American, or from another country.

The repeal of DOMA, then, is more in keeping us on a direct path to keep our families together rather than being tossed about in CIR (one bill we’re in, one bill we’re not; lots of groups support our inclusion; lots don’t). Meanwhile, the LGBT community, the one we all belong to, needs the stories of same-sex binational couples to underscore the case for full federal equal rights. Reasonable heterosexual Americans (some of them even reasonable Republican heterosexual Americans) will get the gist of why we need full federal equal rights a lot faster when they become aware that Americans – just like them, except for that pesky sexuality part – are being forced to leave their own country. Gays and lesbians can fight and die for our country, but we can’t truly live happily ever after in it!? Hey, you just got my dang attention!

For those who say CIR will come before DOMA repeal, I refer you to the very recent history of DADT and the DREAM Act. For those who say we need to get the LGBT community to support CIR, I say, we need to keep the LGBT community laser-focused and in step with the momentum of DADT repeal and seize the day for full federal equal rights, because that day is now.

For those that say the wait for DOMA repeal (or full federal rights under the label “civil unions”) will be too long to keep them together, legally, in the US, I say put your energy into getting the President to sign an Executive Order that will stop the deportation of any foreign person in a same-sex binational relationship who has registered and documented their relationship to the fullest extent allowed in the city or state where they live (or has been legally married in another country). Just today, after signing the repeal of DADT, when President Obama was asked about DOMA, he said, in the context of how same-sex couples are now allowed hospital visitation rights equally in all 50 states, “There are a lot of things we can do administratively even if we don’t pass things legislatively.”

For those who say, “What about the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA)?”, the bill that would add three words to existing immigration law “or permanent partner” wherever the word spouse appears, the immigration bill that actually had more co-sponsors in the House than the DREAM Act, I say we need to petition our supporters Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sen. Patrick Leahy to re-introduce this bill in the 112th Congress immediately. While its standalone success cannot be counted on, especially with a less friendly House than the one that passed the DREAM Act and a less friendly Senate than the one that defeated it – UAFA can be the new rallying call to keep full federal equal rights front and center.

UAFA, The DREAM Act, and Moving Forward

by Chris Barnett

I have worked to get the Uniting American Families Act passed and will continue to do so, but I am also increasingly convinced that LGBT in general must effectively advance their equality by supporting the struggles of others. To do so represents claiming the truth that somewhere in this country, we are each of a community and a place, a truth the DREAM Act springs from.

Like those of us who want the UAFA passed, those who need the DREAM Act passed are getting the raw end of the deal as things stand right now. It is surely through no fault of their own that young people end up undocumented, and through no fault of their own have LGBT Americans formed deep bonds with a non-US citizen they cannot sponsor to be with them. Like the LGBT sons and daughters of this country, current laws deny the beneficiaries of DREAM the truth of their belonging to America. Both bills have to do with challenging a dysfuntional aspect of the society, the right of many to define by bias those who by law lack political power, and the deriving of policy from that. So we are left trying to make the case for our humanity and we must change the laws.

I am very disappointed at the failure of the DREAM Act, and the repeal vote for Don’t Ask Don’t Tell yesterday is a bittersweet victory because of it. Immigrants are deeply important to our national soul, national story, our economy, and our culture, yet time and again through our history are treated as scapegoats. This must end! These are America's children. As am I. The responsibility is left at our doorstep to do the right thing and love thy brother or sister as thyself.

Yet I will share here in closing that I do not have a sense of what the political prospects for the DREAM Act are, both in the face of a new congressional configuration, and the silver lining of what was a narrow loss. It is the only silver lining I can put on it at the moment, but what does a strategy moving forward look like? How can we ensure we get the votes? These need to be non-issues, there’s more important work to do for our communities, our nation, our planet, and we should be the kind of country that sees the benefit in constructive solutions where good citizens/denizens are concerned. Many of the answers to the problems we face are reasonable. Passing the DREAM Act is one of them, and passing the Uniting American Families Act is another.

Support the DREAM Act, But Advocate for UAFA and Equal Immigration Rights for Same-Sex Binational Couples

by Kathy Drasky

I support the DREAM Act. I also support fixing the economy, clean air, ending the war in Afghanistan, repeal of DADT and a woman’s right to choose. But I advocate for only one – and that is to end immigration discrimination against LGBT Americans with foreign partners and the support of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). UAFA would add three words to existing US immigration law "or permanent partner" wherever the word spouse appears.

It’s not about gay marriage, although that would be great. If we could achieve marriage equality through repeal of DOMA, and I could make my permanent partner my spouse, then we have achieved the goal of UAFA – to allow gay and lesbian American citizens to sponsor their foreign partner – plus 1,137 other federal rights.

It’s not about comprehensive immigration reform, although America needs to fix this broken system. If UAFA is attached to a larger immigration bill and we keep all families together then our country re-validates the importance of immigrants’ contributions and emphasizes that we truly are a multicultural and welcoming society, ready to play on the global stage as the 21st century progresses.

The DREAM Act, which would allow the children of undocumented immigrants a path to US citizenship if they join the military or complete two years of higher education is a great bill. The people that it would help were small children – in some cases infants - when their parents brought them to the United States. They grew up as Americans – many of them having no idea they were not until they were in their teens and applied for a driver’s license or for financial aid for college and learned they would need a social security number for that.

Some of the young people who would benefit from the DREAM Act are no doubt LGBT. So are some of the people who want to fix the economy and breathe clean air. But – as advocates for a specific cause, we need to draw the line on how we will spend our precious volunteer energy and few spare dollars.

I am a volunteer for Out4Immigration. I run a full-time business and my paying clients need to come first. Some days I have an hour to contribute, others just 5 minutes. All too often I have pushed the work of a paying client into my weekend so I could devote an extra hour or two during the work day to advocate for equal immigration rights for same-sex couples. I am one of the volunteers with a more flexible schedule, without small children to raise – and yet I have to draw a line. Sitting in front of a computer all day, I am bombarded with emails asking for my support to make a phone call, sign a petition, help another cause go viral on Facebook. I could do nothing but online activism all day but then two things wouldn’t get done: my work and my advocacy for UAFA.

UAFA has been a bill in Congress now for 10 years (it was formerly known as the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, or PPIA). As the sun sets on another Congress, we once again watch our hard work (135 House co-sponsors; 25 Senate co-sponsors) evaporate and gear ourselves up for another fight. So many of us feel that the 111th Congress was our best hope in a decade. We had majorities in both Houses and a President who said he was sympathetic to our cause. We even had a successful hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is disheartening to think we have to do this all over again. As a volunteer who has motivated so many others who have come to Out4Immigration determined to raise awareness and make change, I wonder where I will get the energy to keep us moving forward. The one thing I can think of is to focus on achieving the goal that is outlined in UAFA.

Am I selfish because I have drawn a line? Or am I just focused on a very clear strategy. Very few visas last 10 years – but it’s been 10 years since legislation was first introduced to add three words to existing immigration law - "or permanent partner". We need to make advocating for this our number one priority – through any direct channel – inclusion in CIR, marriage equality, standalone bill. We cannot rely on other groups’ promises to have our back or keep waiting for "our turn".

Remember, while we debate this point, another same-sex binational couple examines their hard choices: live apart or up-end lives to the point that they will never be back on the financial, career or family path that you worked so hard for. That you, as an American citizen, are entitled to as part of your "pursuit of happiness".

You can support many things – but I urge all of you to only be an advocate for the one that will keep you standing. Yes, please support the DREAM Act by calling your Representatives in the House and Senate. Ask them to pass the bill – but do not hang up until you have also made sure they understand that you are part of a same-sex binational couple – and the inclusion of the language of UAFA to existing immigration law, the three words, "or permanent partner" wherever the word "spouse" appears, is what’s most important for your family.

Don’t let a day go by without thinking how you can get this message out to Congress in some way.

The Great Grassroots Wake Up Call

This week, after a long hot summer in most parts of America (and intensely foggy and cold one here in San Francisco), where comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) seemed to be quietly forgotten, our hopes for seeing the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) and Reuniting Families Act (RFA) pass this year grew dimmer, and key federal rulings on a challenge to DOMA and Proposition 8 were postponed – we got a wake up call at O4I.

Four new co-sponsors for UAFA, bringing our total to 128 in the House (as many as the DREAM Act) and attachments of the DREAM Act and repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) to a Defense Appropriations Bill (DAB) to be introduced for a vote in the Senate by Harry Reid next week.

We’ve also been informed today that Sen. Bob Menendez will introduce a Senate version of CIR probably this month.

There’s been an incredible response on our Yahoo Groups list serve from our core volunteers and activists – this includes direct action and debate. Many people responded to an action to call Sen. Reid’s office in DC and ask him to attach UAFA to the DAB bill. This action made sense on this front: the DREAM Act addresses an immigration issue (giving children of undocumented immigrants the opportunity to become US citizens through enrolling in college or military service); DADT addresses an LGBT issue – permitting gays and lesbians to openly serve in the military. UAFA addresses both LGBT and immigration issues. Surely, it has a place here as well.

Or not – UAFA has nothing to do with national defense (unless you consider the American citizens among us who have served our country proudly in the military). We’re probably grasping at straws here. No harm done, though. Calls to Sen. Reid’s office were dutifully logged in by his staff. Maybe he received 10 calls about UAFA yesterday – more likely 100s. He is already receiving enough flak from Republicans threatening to pull support from DAB over “immigrants” or “gays”. Adding UAFA to the mix won’t help. But what did help – most certainly are our phone calls that yet again raised awareness in DC that there is a group of us out here who need immigration and/or gay rights bills passed now – and we are not going to go away.

A better shot at our efforts right now will be to call Sen. Robert Menendez’s office and ask him to “make sure to include the Uniting American Families Act (Senate bill number 424) in his Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation”. His number is (202) 224-4744.

Last year, Rep. Luis Gutierrez introduced similar legislation and left UAFA out. Our action alert to call his office resulted in so many calls he had no choice but to acknowledge he had made a major mistake. He now makes regular statements that say no CIR bill can go forward without UAFA, or UAFA-type language. Hold him to that statement and make sure Sen. Menendez’s legislation includes us from the start.

Our core activists have weighed in. Some urge us to continue calling Sen. Reid’s office (his number is (202) 224-3542. Others say we should put energies behind a repeal of DOMA. After all, getting federal marriage rights is another way to get equal immigration rights. This is a great idea for those in the group who want to pursue making alliances with key DOMA and marriage equality groups. (Marriage Equality USA – MEUSA is one of O4I’s biggest allies, and if someone has the bandwidth to work more closely with this group, please raise your hand!!)

For just about every member who sees the value in working toward getting UAFA included in CIR, there are members who argue we must focus on getting UAFA passed as a standalone bill. Putting our efforts into CIR may end up with us being tossed out at the last minute as part of a compromise (we should wait and see what happens with DADT and the DREAM Act as part of DAB next week for more direction here).

The bottom line with O4I is – and always has been – is that we push for equal immigration rights for LGBT Americans with foreign partners from every angle. And will continue to do so.

What we need are more of you to step up for equality and ask yourself how much time you can donate a week to making a difference. Is it 30 minutes? An hour? 5 hours? Choose an amount of time that is reasonable to you and fits into your life and then stick to it. Use that 30 minutes to make phone calls and take part in the weekly letter writing campaign and post links to your Facebook page or Twitter account to raise awareness. Use an hour to get started on getting your city or state to pass a resolution in support of UAFA and equal immigration rights for same-sex binational couples. Devote 5 hours to designing a campaign to raise awareness, contribute research on other groups we can work with and forging alliances or help us write blog posts, op-eds and issue timely media releases.

If everyone commits now to being involved, we will continue to keep the grassroots alive from the wake up call we got this week.

You can do it. Yes you can – email info@out4immigration.org with questions or for more info.

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Special thanks this week to Erik who is in DC getting more support for UAFA inclusion in CIR, Chris B., Tim K. Tom T. and Heather for posting timely information, co-sponsor info and those all-important phone numbers!

To join our Yahoo Groups list and get in on the daily discussions there, scroll to the bottom of the Out4Immigration webpage, click on the "Yahoo" icon and follow the instructions.

Four New House Co-Sponsors for UAFA

Great news this morning! The Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) has four new co-sponsors in the House, bringing our total to 128.

The new co-sponsors (and their phone numbers) are listed below. Please take a minute today to call each of them and thank them for their support. They have signed on due to the collective efforts of so many of us working hard to end immigration inequality, including your phone calls, visits to your representatives and the O4I weekly letter writing campaign.

Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA-43)
Phone: (202) 225-6161

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11)
Phone: (202) 225-1492

Rep. John Hall (D-NY-19)
Phone: (202) 225-5441

Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-17)
Phone: (202) 225-5261

Also this morning we have heard that Sen. Harry Reid is adding both DADT repeal and the DREAM Act to the Defense Appropriations Bill (DAB) he hopes to pass in the Senate next week. This is very significant as it shows LGBT and immigration legislation being added as amendments to a larger bill. This could very well happen with UAFA, too. Please call Sen. Reid's DC office at (202) 224-3542 and ask him to consider adding UAFA to this bill as well. It's worth a try -- and it will increase the dialog about the need to pass UAFA this year!

Papers the Movie: Stories of Undocumented Youth

by Kathy Drasky

It was great to see a screening of Papers today at Creating Change. This is a truly well done documentary about undocumented youth in America. Kids who were brought to the US when they were very young -- in some cases as infants -- by their parents, often to escape hardship and persecution in a third world country. One or both of their parents are undocumented. Typically these kids do not even know that they are undocumented until they are in high school -- and by then, the reality they face is chilling. What do they do when they turn 18 and graduate from high school?

The Dream Act is an immigration reform bill like the UAFA. It would help a segment of people who need immigration reform -- granting citizenship to undocumented youth who receive a 4-year college degree or enter the military. Please watch the trailer, and visit the film's website to learn more.