Nadler, Leahy Reintroduce Partner Immigration Reform

[MountainLaurel]

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a senior Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, announced on February 12 the reintroduction of the Uniting American Families Act, an amendment to current immigration law that would allow gay and lesbian citizens and legal permanent residents to sponsor their foreign partners for immigration purposes on the same terms as other Americans sponsor their spouses.

Nadler, who represents Manhattan's West Side and portions of Brooklyn, made his announcement on a telephone press conference hosted by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the Washington-based LGBT rights lobby, and Immigration Equality, a New York group that works for equal treatment under immigration law for the LGBT community and those affected by HIV/ AIDS.

"The law should not be cruel unless it is unavoidable," Nadler said, noting that the exclusion of gay and lesbian family members simply because their unions are not recognized as marriages under federal law is "wanton cruelty, gratuitous cruelty."

Rachel Tiven, Immigration Equality's executive director, explained that an estimated 36,000 binational couples living in the US face an unpalatable set of options -- having the foreign partner jump through onerous hoops to patch together a series of temporary visas, forcing that partner to live underground, or leaving the couple with no choice but to emigrate from the US.

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20261456&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6

[Siyahamba]

1. K&R

Five years living in limbo, we can't take much more.