ICE Drops Gay Spouse's Deportation Case

[cbayer]

Source: SFWeekly

By Caroline Chen Mon., Aug. 22 2011 at 2:00 PM




In what seems to be a slow but sure reversal of policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has decided to close a second deportation case involving a married, same-sex couple, allowing Californian couple Alex Benshimol and Douglas Gentry to stay together. Benshimol, who is a Venezuela native, has been Gentry's partner for six years. They married in July 2010.

Last July, San Francisco Immigration Judge Marilyn Teeter gave ICE 60 days to decide whether to drop the deportation proceedings and respond to a lengthy request by Benshimol's attorney which cited a memo by ICE Director John Morton. The memo instructs the agency to use discretion when dealing with deportation proceedings against family members of American citizens.

In less than a month, ICE responded with a motion to close the deportation proceedings. In early July, ICE dropped a similar deportation case involving another Venezuelan man, Henry Velandia, who lives with his spouse in New Jersey.

Meanwhile, there is an ongoing case closer to home -- Australian national Anthony Makk made headlines recently when he and his San Franciscan spouse, Bradford Wells, were denied a marriage visa, again on the grounds of the Defense of Marriage Act, which reserves marriage benefits for straight couples. They have appealed the decision and are waiting on the feds. Makk's case received unusually high media attention as he is also the primary caretaker of Wells, who has AIDS.

Read more: http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/08/immigration_drops_gay_spouses.php

[Zenlitened]

1. K&R. - n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

2. I hate to say I told ya so. Fuck that. I told ya so!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=221x183596#183602

I know it is in vogue to hate President Obama, but god forbid someone try being logical.

[Pab Sungenis]

6. Well, bless my soul,

but he actually IS evolving. Well done, and keep it up.

[EFerrari]

10. The administration knows their ICE policy has been screwed up

because they have put 300,000 cases under review and they should get credit for that.

[Number23]

17. I swear I'm not stalking you but that's a HELL of a post

I feel like every time I see a post that makes me nod so hard in agreement that my eyes start to water, many times it's got your name attached to it.

As to the points you raised in your post, wow. You have my sincere admiration.

[readmoreoften]

21. So if someone first targets me and then releases me from his sights, he's an ally?

I think this is a positive situation but it doesnt call for hysterical "Obama Is My Hero!1!" toldyaso posts. This does add to the "might be better than Bush in some small ways" column, however.

[Liberal Veteran]

22. Original responses were essentially "GRRR! ARRGH! FUCK OBAMA!!!! GRRR!!"

Which seemed to be ridiculous (AHA! SEE HE'S REALLY A HOMOPHOBE!!!!!).

So yes, a certain amount of credit is due in this and the people who were using this a excuse to bash Obama original deserve to eat a bit of crow for exploiting the case in such a manner.

[DeSwiss]

3. About damn time. K&R - n/t

[Tx4obama]

4. On the issue of immigration ....

Obama halts some immigration cases
08/18/2011

The Obama administration took one of its boldest steps yet toward addressing illegal immigration today by announcing it would halt potentially thousands of cases in federal immigration court if they do not involve criminals or people with flagrant immigration violations.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said today that the agency will launch a case-by-case review of 300,000 cases pending in immigration courts across the nation to focus on the federal government’s top priority, detaining and deporting criminals and serious violators of immigration law.

Immigrants classified as low-priority cases could receive a stay of deportation and the chance to apply for a work permit.

The move is likely to inflame political tensions nationwide as a campaign issue in 2012, and it has major implications in Massachusetts, which has the second-highest immigration court backlog in the United States. All manner of immigrants in the court pipeline could stand to benefit from the policy shift, from factory workers snatched in the 2007 New Bedford raid, to same-sex couples about to be separated, to youths facing deportation.

SNIP

Rest of article here: http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2011/08/immigration/xVwK5kIcuveuzkoAFlilFJ/index.html

[Kaleko]

5. That's great.

I applaud that move.

[Pab Sungenis]

7. About time.

Thank you for doing the right thing. It's finally starting to become a habit, isn't it?

[UndertheOcean]

8. Yohooo !!!

[placton]

9. hear hear!! n/t

[LeftyMom]

11. Would they have dropped it without all the publicity?

The only decent thing would have been to treat that couple with decency and compassion to begin with, but decency is in short supply.

[Liberal Veteran]

14. I happen to agree wholeheartedly, but some took the initial reports as proof of malevolence...

...on the part of the executive branch.

The right wingers have poisoned so much of our processes, it will likely take decades to fix and at times the best we can hope for is mitigation of the damage such as was done in this case while we work the barbed spines of REAL malevolence on the part of the republicans so the wounds can heal properly (ie, fix things things so they aren't leaving maiming scars).

[alp227]

12. REPEAL DOMA n/t

[SunDrop23]

13. Awesome!

:applause:

k&r

[burrowowl]

15. K&R

[Pisces]

16. Excellent news!!!

[blkmusclmachine]

18. Good for them:

While I wait for the other shoe to fall..

[krispos42]

19. Yay!

Big kick and rec!

[Harmony Blue]

20. Indeed!

Amazing news! :toast: