CNN Newsroom aired a special report Tuesday morning in which Soledad O’Brien covered the discrimination and difficulty faced by LGBT immigrant couples under current U.S. immigration laws.
In addition to discussing the legal impediments involved in keeping LGBT immigrant couples together and interviewing activists such as Immigration Equality Executive Director Rachel Tiven, O’Brien also profiled Frances Herbert and Takako Ueda — a same-sex couple currently grappling with the legal system in an effort to stay together in their home state of Vermont.
Frances Herbert is an American citizen; but Ueda is Japanese, and currently facing the impending expiration of her student residency visa. Despite the fact that she and Herbert were legally married in a Vermont ceremony earlier this year, Ueda finds herself among the many LGBT immigrant individuals dealing with the very real possibility of separation from a committed partner – one that can be enforced under existing immigration and marriage recognition policies regardless of a same-sex couple’s legal marriage status.
Herbert and Ueda have enlisted legal aid through Immigration Equality in an attempt to fight the latter’s forthcoming deportation. However, as Immigration Equality Communications Director Steve Ralls points out in a letter designed to raise awareness about the couples’ case, only alterations to DOMA and amendments to current immigration laws will prevent other LGBT couples from facing similar policies in the future.
Immediately following Soledad O’Brien’s CNN broadcast, Immigration Equality launched a petition requesting LGBT individuals, allies and advocates to help put an end to cases like Ueda’s by placing a moratorium on same-sex couple deportations until the federal courts or Congress issue a clear decision regarding the constitutionality of DOMA.
Watch the CNN report online, and sign the Immigration Equality petition here: www.immigrationequalityactionfund.org.
