Report: Testimony on LGBT detention issues in US

Source: ImmigrationEquality

Proposed Testimony for New York City Council Hearing on December 13, 20011 on the topic of LGBT detention. Presented by Clement Lee, Legal Fellow Immigration Equality.
Testimony on LGBT Detention Issues

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Video: In US, binational same sex couples struggle with deportation

2008 New Jersey civil union ceremony

Source: Pavement Pieces

After fleeing Peru in 2001 because he was persecuted for being gay, Jair Izquierdo settled in New Jersey, met his future husband, and started a life with him. But that life was brought to an abrupt halt last year when Izquierdo was deported for being in the country illegally.

Izquierdo and his partner, American citizen Richard Dennis of Jersey City, N.J., are one of thousands of binational same-sex couples in the United States that struggle with deportation. They were joined together by a civil union, but Izquierdo was an illegal immigrant, and because immigration law is federal, rather than state, Dennis was unable to sponsor him for citizenship.

“Most people don’t even realize how screwed up it is,” Dennis said of the current immigration law and how it applies to gay couples. “There’s so much subjectivity and fear and misinformation.”

The Defense of Marriage Act

The problem for couples like Dennis and Izquierdo is the Defense of Marriage Act, which ruled in 1996 that marriage is a legal union between a man and a woman. Because of DOMA, the federal government and its agencies, including those responsible for immigration benefits, are prohibited from recognizing same-sex marriages and civil unions.

“It’s very hard to explain to the many people who call us every day because it’s so patently unjust,” said Victoria Neilson, the legal director at Immigration Equality, a national organization that advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered immigrants.

In February, the Obama administration announced that it would no longer continue to defend DOMA in the courts. However, it will be enforced until Congress or the Supreme Court votes to strike it down. In the meantime, the administration claims to be focusing on immigrants with criminal records.

This makes sense, Neilson said, because the backlog of immigration cases in each state would ease up, and many immigrants with clean records and ties to the community would have their cases closed. But whether this theory is being put into practice is a source of contention.

“It doesn’t really seem like the word has reached the field of the actual attorneys and ICE agents who are charged with deciding whether to put people in removal proceedings or not,” Neilson said, referring to the people working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Dennis echoes Neilson’s concerns.

“They talk tough about secure communities and weeding out criminals, but I think that they just want to deport as many people as possible,” he said. “So the rhetoric doesn’t match the actions and it doesn’t match reality.”

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LGBT families not mention in new Obama immigration policy

Image by xtopher1974 via Flickr

Source: Washington Blade

By Chris Johnson

The omission of bi-national same-sex couples from recent guidance from the Obama administration is troubling advocates who fear the omission may mean LGBT families won’t be covered under new immigration policy.

The Department of Homeland Security issued guidance on Thursday to attorneys with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement detailing which undocumented immigrants could be deemed a low priority and taken out of the deportation pipeline.

The guidance is the result of the announcement from the Obama administration in August that it will conduct a case-by-case review of about 300,000 undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation. Those who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk will be a higher priority for deportation, while those who are deemed lower priority will be taken out of the pipeline.

Administration officials have said they’ll weigh a person’s ties and contributions to the community and family relationships in considering which immigrants are low priority, and these criteria would be inclusive of LGBT families.

According to the New York Times, the process for determining which immigrants could be taken out of the deportation pipeline began on Thursday.

But in the guidance spelling out the details for this review, no mention of immigrants who are in same-sex relationships with U.S. citizens is enumerated among the categories of people who are listed as those who could be considered low priority.

Categories that are identified as low priority include immigrants who had enlisted in the armed forces or those who came to the United States under the age of 16 and are pursuing a college degree. Such immigrants would be eligible for citizenship under passage of the DREAM Act.

Other categories deemed low priority are those who older than age 65 and have lived in the country for more than 10 years and those who have been the victim of domestic violence.

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In US, LGBT couples facing increased immigration tensions

Goodman and Pulung-Hartanto

Source: La Raza

By Fabiola Pomareda, Translated by Edwin Franco

According to the Immigration Policy Center, there are approximately 36,000 same sex, bi-national couples living in the United States. These couples have to reach out to alternative methods such as student visas or other legal resources in order to remain together.

Kevin Goodman is associate dean at St. James Cathedral, in Chicago. He met Anton Pulung-Hartanto, who is originally from Indonesia, at Disney world in 2000.

“I went to Disney with a youth group, to try to show them that one could have a religious experience in a place like that, and that’s where I met my partner”, said Goodman at a forum on LGBT Immigrant Rights held at the Adler School of Professional Psychology on September 27th.

Pulung-Hartanto worked at Disney, in Florida, as a cultural host with a Q-1 visa, which is provided specifically for cultural exchange programs.

They have been together for 12 years and plan on marrying next spring in Vermont, said Goodman.

The Final Option

Goodman is from New Orleans and grew up tied to the All Saints’ River Ridge Episcopal church. He studied communication and worked as a television producer. But he’s always been interested in Asian cultures, which is why he traveled to Xi’an in the Republic of China and has taken Asian Studies courses. He also studied in the theological seminary in New York, where his work with indigent youth and people with HIV began.

When he arrived in Chicago he worked with The Night Ministry program, specifically with indigent youth in the Lakeview neighborhood. He was also working with the St. Matthew church in Evanston through the Ravenswood Community Services agency and now with St. James Cathedral.

When Pulung-Hartanto’s Q-1 Visa expired, he applied for a Student I-20 visa which allowed him another 10 years in this country. He studied culinary arts at Saint Augustine College.

When asked why they don’t move to Indonesia, Goodman explains that there they would be even further marginalized for both being gay, and him being White and a Christian pastor in a country which is mainly Muslim. The couple has concerns over their safety especially during a time in which the environment for the LGBT community over there can be increasingly challenging.

The couple decided to recruit the help of a lawyer from the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) in Chicago and last year petitioned for asylum. Currently, the case is in process but Pulung-Hartanto has received authorization to work while they wait.

Goodman and Pulung felt it necessary to follow through with this final option. “Under the DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), the idea that the federal government will recognize our relationship is something very, very far off”, expressed Goodman.

Back and Forth

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Has Obama administration moved to stop break up of bi-national same-sex families?

Source: Washington Blade

By Chris Johnson

The Obama administration unveiled on Thursday 18 August new immigration policy that could enable many undocumented immigrants facing deportation to stay within the United States — a move that could enable bi-national same-sex couples at the risk of separation to stay together within the country.

Under the new guidance, immigration authorities within the Obama administration will conduct a case-by-case review of the approximately 300,000 undocumented immigrants facing possible deportation to determine which cases are high priority and low priority. Those who have been convicted of crimes or pose a security risk will be a higher priority for deportation, while those who are deemed lower priority will be taken out of the pipeline.

Administration officials will weigh a person’s ties and contributions to the community and family relationships. During an on background conference call with media outlets on Thursday, a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said these criteria are inclusive of LGBT families and same-sex couples.

“The prosecutorial discretion memo provides for the use of discretion for people with strong community ties, with community contributions and with family relationships,” the official said. “We consider LGBT families to be families in this context.”

Under current immigration code, straight Americans can sponsor their spouses for residency in the United States through the green card application process if their spouses are foreign nationals. The same rights aren’t available to gay Americans because same-sex marriage isn’t legal in many places in the country and because the Defense of Marriage Act prohibits federal recognition of these unions.

Consequently, foreign nationals who are in committed relationships with gay Americans may have to leave the United States or face deportation — which could mean separation from their partner — if these foreign nationals are discovered to be undocumented or upon expiration of their temporary visas. The new policy guidance offers another opportunity for the Obama administration to cancel the deportation of these foreign nationals, enabling them to remain in the country with their partners.

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In US, one lesbian 'illegal' immigrant is stuck in legal limbo

Veronica

Source: AlmadaPatch

By Nancy Lopez

Let's call her Veronica. I met with her at an Alameda coffeehouse near the Island apartment she has rented with her girlfriend for the last two years.

Her orange hoodie highlighted her dark skin. She spoke softly — her voice wary, calm and resigned. Around her arms were beaded bracelets.

Under a brown fedora, Veronica’s hair is cut close to her scalp; she recently donated her hair in honor of a friend with cancer. At 5-foot-7 and with an athletic build, it's not surprising that Veronica played soccer and volleyball in college.

But unlike most of her friends who graduated and went on to work at “regular jobs," Veronica has worked under the table as a nanny for the last five years, ever since she left college in 2005, two courses shy of a degree.

When Veronica's student visa lapsed six years ago, she got a job babysitting. Since then, she has built up a loyal clientele. Now she works regularly for four families.

“I’ve always been a natural with kids,” Veronica said. “They’re drawn to me and I’m drawn to them.”

“I can, as normally as possible, support myself."

Veronica measures her words when she speaks. She aims, she says, to always “mean what I say and say what I mean.”

Straight talk can be a challenge, though: there are many aspects of her life she has a difficult time explaining. The details of her legal situation are complicated and painful to talk about.

“I don’t have a way of starting or growing a career. I don’t pay taxes. I don’t pay into retirement funds. I’m not moving forward in terms of what socially you’re expected to do,” Veronica said.

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Russian lesbian wins US asylum

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Kramer Levin

Associates Yekaterina Chernyak, Gariel Sands Nahoum and Matthew W. Olinzock obtained asylum for a woman who fled Russia to escape persecution because she is a lesbian.

Our client left Russia after being twice beaten because of her sexual orientation and having faced a lifetime of discrimination. The Kramer Levin team successfully convinced the Immigration Court that the persecution, threats of violence and physical attacks that our client survived made it unsafe for her to return to Russia and warranted a grant of asylum.

Associate Aaron Frankel supervised the case. The matter was referred to Kramer Levin by Immigration Equality, who recently recognized Kramer Levin's longstanding work on behalf of over two dozen LGBT asylees.

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In US, anti-immigrant legal moves will impact LGBT says group

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Immigration Equality

Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals, has filed an amicus brief in support of a constitutional challenge to Utah’s recently enacted Illegal Immigration Enforcement Act (“HB 497”). The group says the law – which mirrors the controversial measure passed last year in Arizona – could place LGBT binational families in legal jeopardy under a provision that criminalizes “harboring” and “sheltering” undocumented individuals. That provision, the brief filed yesterday argues, would criminalize LGBT Americans who live with undocumented partners from abroad.

“Utah’s unconscionable new immigration law actually criminalizes sharing a home with an undocumented person, even if that person is a partner or spouse,” said Victoria Neilson, the group’s legal director.  

“No one should be arrested for sharing their home with the person they love, but that is the very real possibility presented by this law. With this legislation, families who previously had no legal recognition are now in legal jeopardy. That is unacceptable and unconstitutional.”

A couple cited in Immigration Equality’s brief, who asked not to use their names for fear of prosecution, is among the countless families who face potential prosecution under the law. The American citizen, a lifelong resident of Utah and a social worker, is considering leaving the state because his partner of two years, who received training to become a doctor, overstayed his visa. Under current immigration laws, the American has no ability to sponsor his partner for residency, as married, straight couples are allowed to do.

Merely living together, as many binational couples do, turns the American citizen into a criminal under the Utah law. A copy of the organization’s brief is available online at www.immigrationequality.org/issues/law-library/legal-briefs/. The brief was filed with pro bono support from the law firm of WilmerHale – including attorneys Alan Schoenfeld, Doug Curtis, Brian Sutherland, Patty Li, Michael Gottesman and Shauna Friedman – and local counsel, Brian Barnard of Utah Legal Clinic.

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Video: binational same-sex couples torn apart in USA

Source: alloutorg



Because they are gay, Josh can't sponsor Henry's visa to stay in the US even though they are legally married in the state of Connecticut. No one deserves to be taken away from the ones they love. On May 6th, Henry faces deportation to Venezuela. If we don't act, their family may be torn apart. The head of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano has the power to stop the deportations, but it will take a massive public outcry to force her to stand up for Josh and Henry - and the 36,000 other families who face a similar fate. Sign the petition to keep Josh and Henry together: http://www.allout.org/tornapart

Source: MSNBC



Judy Rickard took an early retirement and a reduced pension so she could be assured of more time with her partner, a British citizen whose stays in the U.S. are limited to six months.

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In US, violent, sexual abuse of LGBT refugee detainees draws too little attention

COMMENT

By Paul Canning

Over the past year a number of American non-government organisations have reported on the abuses prevalent in that country's vast and expanding immigration detention system. This website has covered those reports.

One transgender woman detained in California was abused and singled out for public searches where guards forced her to remove her outer clothing and mocked her exposed breasts.

Both transgender and lesbian or gay people in immigration detention are often segregated and kept in cells for 22 hours per day. They have far less access to recreation compared with the general detainee population. When this transgender woman asked why she could have recreation access for only a couple of hours she was abused by a guard, told it was to “teach her not to be transgender.” When she asked for toilet paper she was abused.

Transferred to a Jail she suffered further mistreatment and discrimination, including denial of access to a doctor.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has documented the prison-like conditions to which immigration detainees of all ages are subjected. This means confining detainees in general in small cells for up to 12 hours a day, forcing them to wear prison uniforms, and routinely depriving them of access to education, health care, and privacy.

Mass immigration detention is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. Prior to the 1980s, only those immigrants deemed “a danger to national security” were detained for any period of time. Mass detention as we know it today evolved under the Reagan administration, as a means of deterring large influxes of Cuban, Haitian, and Central American refugees.

Read more »

Event: national call-in on American LGBT asylum and refuge law

Image via Wikipedia

Source: National LGBT Bar Association

For decades, immigrants have requested asylum by the United States from their home countries due to political strife, economic hardship, or social injustice. With regards to LGBT individuals in many communities abroad it is mortally dangerous to be open with their lifestyle therefore political asylum is critical.

On Wednesday, March 16, the National LGBT Bar Association, in partnership with Immigration Equality, will host a national call-in to discuss developments in the field of LGBT immigration and asylum seekers. It will be led by Justin Connor, with speakers Victoria Neilson, Legal Director at Immigration Equality, Scott Titshaw, Assistant Professor of Law at Mercer University, and Chad Ellsworth, Associate at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen and Loewy, LLP.

• LGBT Immigration and Asylum Seekers
• Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 5:00pm EST
• Please RSVP to receive dial-in instructions.
• This call will be approximately one hour in length and is open to the public.
• You may submit questions before and during the call to Immigration@LGBTbar.org.

Description:

United States asylum law is derived from international agreements written after World War II. With the large influx of migrants from other countries, the U.S. wrote an internationally universal standard that would outline who would be considered as a refugee. Since then, however, courts have needed to expand such definition and circumstances that would consider one who might need asylum. In 1994, Attorney General Janet Reno declared the Matter of Toboso-Alfonso case as precedent, which was pivotal for helping to categorize homosexual men and women as a “particular social group”—which, as explained in the Refugee Act of 1980, is a possible definition for a refugee into the United States. Now in the U.S., as it pertains to the 36,000 binational same-sex marriages, asylum law is a very important issue when it comes to the Federal government recognizing LGBT unions and granting protection.

Moderator:

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Persecution claims of Caribbean LGBT asylum seekers 'not exaggerated'

Source: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian

By Wesley Gibbings

At least one T&T national was granted asylum in the United States last year, based on the claim that he faced continued persecution in this country as a result of his sexual orientation. Immigration Equality (IE), a US-based human rights NGO, handled 37 asylum claims from T&T in 2010. There were 38 successful actions by Jamaican nationals and four from Grenada.

The names of applicants are not usually disclosed and not all claims are handled by the organisation. Legislative shortcomings that do not address discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation were cited in most instances.

“In many cases, the clients who turn to Immigration Equality for help are literally running for their lives,” IE executive director Rachel B Tiven said in a press release. This, US-based Puerto Rican immigration attorney Sheila Velez said, frequently occurs because there was a lack of access to adequate anti-discrimination legislation in the Caribbean and the result can often be acts of violence including torture and outright job and other discrimination. Local activists do not believe such claims were exaggerated.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) spokesman, Cyrus Sylvester, told the Guardian: “While some may be of the opinion that this claim is overstated, for many members of the GLBT community here in Trinidad and Tobago, persecution based on sexual orientation is a frightening reality.

“While all claims for asylum will not be of the same merit, I strongly believe that some of these cases can amount to legitimate claims for asylum in other, more tolerant societies,” he said, adding he was aware of other successful applications in Canada and Europe.

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In US, gay asylum seekers gaining ground?

Image by Matt Algren via Flickr

Source: WGLB

By Kilian Melloy

An American organization that assists GLBT asylum seekers reports that it helped a record number of gays from hostile home countries secure safe haven in 2010.

Immigration Equality, working together with legal volunteers, successfully assisted 101 GLBT asylum seekers last year, according to a press release issued by the organization on Feb. 7. The largest number from a single country was 28; those refugees came from Jamaica, one of the most violently homophobic nations in the world.

Gays in Jamaica are reportedly subject to mob violence, sometimes beaten and even murdered in their own homes. Homophobia is deeply rooted in Jamaican culture, with anti-gay songs played at dance halls. Homophobia is further inculcated into the society by anti-gay religious leaders.

A further 10 gay asylum seekers came from other Caribbean nations, the press release noted.

Other sexual minorities who won the right to stay in the United States and not be shipped back to face anti-gay persecution--which can often be life-threatening--came from Russia (seven of the 101 individuals), Uzbekistan (four asylum seekers), and Ghana (three individuals), among other nations.

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New York Times gay asylum article misled, say advocates

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Two leading NGOs which support LGBT Asylum Seekers in the United States have written to the New York Times protesting the impression left by a widely circulated article that heterosexual people are commonly claiming to be gay in order to win asylum in America.

The article Gays Seeking Asylum in U.S. Encounter a New Hurdle, said that "desperation [has] led some straight immigrants to feign being gay in hopes of winning asylum."

It gives an example of one lawyer whose client applied for asylum on the basis of sexual orientation, then showed up a few weeks later with his wife, and the 2009 case of Steven and Helena Mahoney of Kent, Wash.who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a consulting business in which, among other things, they coached straight people on how to file gay asylum claims.

Victoria Neilson, legal director of Immigration Equality, and Lori Adams, staff attorney of the Refugee Protection Program, Human Rights First, told the New York Times:

"While we appreciate your coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender asylum seekers, the article is not consistent with our experience in several ways."

"Each year, Immigration Equality and Human Rights First provide legal representation to hundreds of asylum seekers, and our legal team and pro bono lawyers win safe haven for most of these individuals."

"In our experience, however, it is exceedingly rare for asylum seekers — whose families and home countries often stigmatize gay and transgender people — to present themselves falsely as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender to immigration officials. We have not seen an emerging trend of straight individuals claiming to be gay for immigration purposes."

"Indeed, asylum seekers undergo rigorous evaluation by immigration officials to ensure that their claims are authentic. Nor have we seen a “new hurdle” for L.G.B.T. asylum seekers having to prove that they are “socially visible.” While there have been a few cases where adjudicators have demonstrated a bias in L.G.B.T. cases, we have found that most United States officials do their jobs, and verify claims made in asylum applications while respecting an individual’s identity as an L.G.B.T. person."

"Until L.G.B.T. rights are respected around the world, asylum remains a lifeline for those fleeing persecution."

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