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Phil Fogel (left) and his partner, Chris Barr moved to the U.S. last year from Canada but say staying here legally has been difficult. (Photo courtesy of Fogel and Barr)
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HOME > NEWS > WORLD NEWS
By: CHRIS JOHNSON COMMENTS
 
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until I can find a way to get back to Canada.”
Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, said Barr and Fogel’s situation is “exactly symptomatic of what’s wrong with American immigration policy and its exclusion of gay and lesbian couples.”
Having Fogel dependant on a B-2 visa that continuously needs to be renewed is “really a half of a loaf — even sort of a slice-of-a-loaf kind of solution” because “a straight couple in their position would be eligible for a dependent visa that would have wider parameters and would be much easier to deal with,” Tiven said.
One piece of the legislation that could help Barr and Fogel’s situation is the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The bill, introduced last year in Congress, would allow same-sex partners of U.S. citizens and residents to obtain resident status through the same means available to spouses of citizens and lawful permanent residents.
Tiven said the legislation would “end the situation in which loving families are split apart” and are “forced to make a series of impossible choices — living separately or being forced to leave the country if they’re to be together.”
Immigration Equality is holding lobby days this week to urge lawmakers to approve the legislation and is expecting only “targeted couples” for its lobby days, Tiven said. A smaller number of people with vested interests in getting the law passed will be more effective in influencing lawmakers, she said.
During the lobby day, Immigration Equality plans to draw attention to a New Jersey mother whose two children — one gay and one straight — are encountering vastly different circumstances in trying to be with their significant others. The mother’s straight daughter fell in love with a man from Ireland. The daughter was able sponsor him for the green card and they now live in New Jersey. The mother’s gay son fell in love with a man from the Czech Republic. That couple is moving abroad because the son cannot sponsor his boyfriend for a green card.
“As [the mother] says, I think very movingly, ‘Look, if you want to make a mother angry, give one of her children something that you deny the other,’” Tiven said.
The House version of UAFA is in a Judiciary subcommittee. The Senate version of the bill is sitting in that chamber’s Judiciary Committee.
Tiven said she does not expect the bill to pass this year because there are not enough votes in Congress. Immigration Equality is focusing on educating members of Congress for a future vote.
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