Report on NQAPIA Conference and Briefing on AAPI Issues at the White House

by Amos Lim

I had the honor of representing Out4Immigration in attending the NQAPIA Annual Conference at Arlington, VA from July 19 – July 22.  The trip was partially financed from a grant from ARCUS Foundation. 

As part of the conference, the attendees were invited to a briefing on AAPI Issues at the White House. One of the issues that were to be discussed was LGBT Immigration. Felicia Esobar, Senior Policy Director for Immigration, attended the briefing.

While I did not get to ask my questions during the briefing (there were about 75 people in attendance), I did manage to hand a packet of materials and information for Ms Escobar about Out4Immigration and same-sex binational couples.  Included in the packet was a request for the Obama Administration to issue a Memorandum/Order similar to the one issued to the DREAM Act students that would, at the very least, hold green card applications in abeyance until the constitutionality of DOMA can be decided by the Supreme Court. (Click here to see the contents of the packet delivered to the White House.)

I want to thank all of those who contributed donations in time and money to help me prepare our message to the White House and to get me to Washington  for the WH meeting/briefing and conference.

I also want to thank my husband, Mickey Lim and my precious 4-year-old daughter for their support in allowing me to travel to from San Francisco to Washington, and most important, our angels at the National Center for Lesbian Rights and specifically Shannon Minter for putting me up at a hotel for the extra night needed when the White House opportunity came up. 

One of the most important things I learned from this trip to the White House as well as the conference itself is that there is power in telling your stories.  You might sometimes feel alone in this struggle, you might feel invisible in this struggle and you might feel that all is lost for your partner and you… but I can assure you that it is NOT!

Here’s some of the things that you can do:

• Use our blog to tell your stories.
• Submit a photo to the United by Love, Divided by Law Tumblr blog.  We have created a poster board with some of the pictures posted and they have been shown at Pride events in San Francisco and Sacramento as well as at the NQAPIA Conference.
• Make an appointment to meet with your Congressional representative! They will be back in their home districts in August while Congress is in recess so this is a great time to meet them and tell your story!

It has really been very empowering to bring your stories to the world, whether it is publishing them on our blog, or showing your photos to the world on our United by Love Divided by Law Tumblr blog, or sharing stories from the book, “Torn Apart”, or from the documentary film, “Entry Denied”.  Every story told is important because it sheds a light on the discriminatory impact laws like DOMA have on same-sex binational couples, and the more people find out about us, the more sympathetic they become to our issue and the word spreads about the need for change.

At Out4Immigration, we hope that you know that you are not alone in this struggle and that relief will come. It might not be as fast as we want it to be but if we all keep telling our stories, keep pushing, refusing to be ignored, it will happen!

I long for the day when all my brothers and sisters can be together in this country (or any country of their choice!) without fear! I long for the day when there is no need for an all-volunteer organization like Out4Immigration to exist anymore.

It can happen, but it won't happen without every single one of you getting involved.

Contact us at info@out4immigration.org for more information on what you can do to help.

Out4Immigration Volunteer Visits Washington, DC

by Erik Schnabel

I have been involved in Out4Immigration as a volunteer grassroots organizer for much of the last year. My motivation is to help change the current situation that my partner and I find ourselves in because of the unfair immigration system that currently exists. If we were in a heterosexual relationship our immigration issues would be easily solved by getting married and having our relationship federally recognized. But because our immigration system is broken, we remain "legal strangers" in the eyes of the US government. I volunteer with Out4Immigration to see if we can pass the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), either as a stand alone bill or as part of the current efforts to pass a comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) bill. This legislation would give me and my partner the same rights as an opposite-sex binational couple.

Several months ago, I heard about local efforts in San Francisco to bring together a coalition of immigrant rights groups to work for CIR. I began to attend meetings of the San Francisco Bay Area for Comprehensive Immigration Reform (SFBCIR), a group of immigrant rights advocates representing many diverse communities. While the organizations that made up the coalition were very supportive and open to Out4Immigration being involved, many were not aware of the issues of LGBT immigrants and same-sex binational couples. After several weeks of attending and helping to educate the groups about UAFA and what we were working on, they began to embrace our issues as well. Since then they have come around to supporting passage of UAFA and making sure that it is included in CIR, and helping to make sure it is discussed in every action we are involved in.

I was excited when SFBCIR asked O4I to participate in a national lobbying day in DC through the national efforts of Reform Immigration for America (RIFA), a nationwide effort to pass immigration reform. Through the work of RIFA, an effort was made to bring 1,100 (representing the number of people deported every day) civic leaders to DC push for immigration reform. This national effort called Relief, Reform, and Respect was an effort to make national congressional leaders understand the true human impact of our broken immigration system, and to call for a stop to the racist scapegoating that has gone on for too long, while pushing for immediate action.

Yet while the local coalition has embraced the issues of LGBT immigrants, I found a much harder sell with the national groups. Because national groups are desperately trying to bring in moderates and faith leaders, including the US Catholic Conference of Bishops and national evangelical leaders who have said they will not support a CIR bill that is inclusive of LGBT families, I quickly found that we could not publicly as a group push for the passage of UAFA. But we didn’t give up easily, and I quickly got reassurance for the local leaders that they would help to push UAFA where they could. All of the organizations expressed their personal support for including LGBT families, and many have individually endorsed these efforts. They have however found themselves constrained because of keeping together the larger coalition that is needed to push obstructionist Republican maneuvers on immigration reform.

I knew going to DC would be hard because of the difficult questions that would have to be raised and the frustration of trying to push legislation that not everyone agrees with. But I knew there we enough people committed to work on this that any efforts would be productive. Along the way, I was able to connect with Immigration Equality, who expressed interest in getting involved with efforts as well and who helped us strategize and to work on our efforts. In addition, we gained more allies along the way because of the participation of San Francisco Supervisor David Campos, who is an openly gay Latino man who came to the US as an undocumented immigrant and who has become a strong spokesperson for the rights of LGBT people and immigrants. We also had the support of an Episcopal priest who is himself in a binational relationship. Our testimonies and persistence were so powerful that we kept finding strong supporters and unlikely allies.

With RIFA leading the movement for CIR right now we have had some issues about pushing UAFA and inclusive CIR as part of their work. But it was really great being there and talking with national leaders of RIFA about the importance of including UAFA as part of inclusive CIR. I came bearing letters for all the Board members of RIFA coalition about this, and received good responses from many. Many RIFA organizations have endorsed UAFA and inclusive CIR but not all. And I did get commitments from many RIFA Board members to make sure to help push UAFA resolutions and try to get more commitments on this.

I'm feeling really hopeful and it would be great if more people want to help push these organizations to embrace UAFA. If you want to help me do this, you can send me an email at erikschnabel@hotmail.com.

(To read more about Erik's visit to DC - including his encounter with one of our strongest allies in the Senate, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), please click here.)

Out4Immigration Rallies in DC, San Francisco for Comprehensive and Inclusive Immigration Reform

Thanks to all Out4Immigration members who rallied in DC over the weekend as part of the Reform Immigration for America (RIFA) march and in San Francisco yesterday, with a march through downtown to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office. Thanks in large part to the actions of Todd Fernandez (second from left in the photo) in organizing an 11th hour phone bank to the Center for Community Change (CCC) on Friday afternoon, a same-sex binational couple was given a speaking slot at the DC rally. Until Todd put out the word to our members and allies – there were no plans for an LGBT voice among the more than 200,000 immigrant rights’ activists who descended on Washington (although there were plenty of us in the crowd -- those pictured with Todd, including Donald Hitchcock from ACT On Principles, second from right, wore face masks to protest our silence). It is essential that whenever there is a rally for immigrant rights and comprehensive immigration reform in the coming weeks that we come out and demand our families are included in this battle.

Comprehensive immigration reform is not “comprehensive” unless it includes everyone affected by the broken immigration system. This includes same-sex binational couples, LGBT Americans with foreign partners who are denied the same rights as our heterosexual counterparts to sponsor our partners for a green card.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, we are welcomed into the immigrant rights’ fold, thanks in large part to Amos Lim. From the very early days of the battle for same-sex binational couple immigration rights, Amos worked from the ground up to build coalitions with other immigrant rights' groups. He saw the fight for the passage of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) as two-fold: the bill could pass as a stand-alone, or someday it could be included as part of a much larger immigration overhaul that the United States so desperately needs. When the Bay Area needs someone to talk about our families – there is only one call they make: Amos Lim from Out4Immigration.

Amos’s speech (see text below) was well-received by the crowd of 1,500. It was interrupted by applause several times. “I feel the immigrant community here is finally understanding that we are affected, too. They understand that when we talk about family, our family is no different from theirs, and we should not be discriminated against.” Afterward, Amos was approached by many of the marchers who want to tell him we have their support and to thank him for speaking out.

Chris Barnett is another Out4Immigration member who traveled at his own expense to Washington DC last weekend to rally for our rights. He joined up with a small group of other same-sex binational couples who were holding a vigil at the Washington Monument, passing out stickers and fliers, and holding up photos of their partners who they are currently separated from due to our broken immigration system. On Monday, Chris followed up on a recent Bay Area meeting O4I had with Senator Feinstein’s staff and met with her DC staff. It has been a relentless goal of O4I to get Sen. Feinstein to co-sponsor UAFA. We have been told by her staff that she supports CIR and would prefer to see a bill that reforms the whole system rather than piecemeal legislation. This is good news – but it doesn’t stop us from continuing to ask the senior Senator from the most populous state to stand up for her same-sex binational constituents.

So – again, a big thanks to those mentioned above for stepping up representing all of us. We hope this post inspires you to take a lead in the coming weeks as CIR moves to the center of the national stage. In San Francisco, we owe special thanks to Erik Schnabel for organizing for O4I to have a presence yesterday and Martha McDevitt-Pugh from Love Exiles, who came home from The Netherlands to be at the march. Thanks also go to the sponsors of the march and rally, including Reform Immigration for America, SIREN, CCISCO, BOCA, PIA, SEIU, UFCW Local 5, Dolores Street Community Services, Asian Law Caucus, EBASE, ICIR, and Padres Unidos.

VIDEO: Sunday's March for America in Washington DC

Several Out4Immigration members made the trek to Washington, DC for Sunday's March for America, the immigration rights march for a comprehensive inclusive immigration reform bill in the US. We've got eyewitness accounts to post soon. In the meantime, big hat tip to DC Agenda for this video clip. You can read more about the rally at their website under "Immigration Rally Includes LGBT Voices".

Call to Action: March 21, Stand Up Around the World and Demand Immigration Reform for Same-Sex Binational Couples

A grassroots action is forming on the back of a major Reform Immigration in America (RIFA) taking place in Washington DC on March 21.

Many Out4Immigration members expressed interest in trying to get to DC for this march, but for many of us this is logistically and financially impossible.

That's why we are asking for volunteers around the world to stand up and form local coalitions of people who support equal immigration rights for same-sex binational couples, and on March 21, take your group to a local landmark, local LGBT center or local RIFA event -- and ask your local press to meet you there.

Wear your O4I t-shirt, make signs, bring friends, family and coworkers. Bring a camera and take a picture. (We know some of you cannot be open about your situations -- but that's no reason to sit this out. Disguises and masks or turning your back to the camera are okay -- in fact, this often underscores the need to fix our broken immigration system!)

We will post photos here and on our website, and we will also ask you to send copies to major mainstream and LGBT press around the country with a copy of a press release immediately following this action. We hope there will be dozens of simultaneous actions like this happening at 1 pm Eastern time on Sunday, March 21.

We will provide talking points so that you can tell those you meet how they can help reform immigration in America and garner support for the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA).

Please watch this space for more details as they form, or join our Yahoo Groups list serve via our website (scroll to the bottom of our homepage and click on the Yahoo icon). You can also email Kathy at kathy@out4immigration.org for more info or to propose your idea for organizing on March 21.

And -- if you can make it to DC on the 21st, Immigration Equality is organizing a contingent and we urge you to meet up with them. To find our more about IE's actions in DC on March 21, click here.