The possibility that the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ) might be repealed under a sympathetic Obama administration has given hope to many gay and lesbian U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents ( LPRs ) in binational relationships.
Under federal law, straight married men and women are able to sponsor their spouses for citizenship. However, the presence of DOMA has meant that even those gays and lesbians legally married in states like Massachusetts have been prevented from accessing the same benefit.
In its March 16 issue, Windy City Times ran a piece on the implications of a possible DOMA repeal for binational couples. This week, Chicago community members related their experiences living in binational relationships and how they navigate and negotiate the constant awareness and sometimes imminent threat of deportation.
Looming behind all this is the Uniting American Families Act, which has the support of advocacy organizations like Immigration Equality ( IE ) . Lavi Soloway, the co-founder of IE, is also part of "The DOMA Project" and who seeks to argue that "removal proceedings [ against a binational couple ] should be terminated consistent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's ( ICE ) long-standing policy of prosecutorial discretion which favors family unification and the accommodation of sympathetic humanitarian circumstances," according to the project's website.
However, it is unclear if this can be applied to all cases where someone is awaiting deportation ( such as people with pending misdemeanor charges against them ) , and most immigrant rights activists argue that ICE has in fact been notorious for breaking up families by deporting individual members. Neither IE nor Soloway responded to requests for interviews.
IE, on its website, is cautious about pinning too much faith on the repeal of DOMA ( as is attorney Eric Berndt, who spoke with WCT in the previous article on binational couples ) and states, on its website, that " [ b ] inational couples suffer every day, and it would be dangerous to put all of our eggs into one basket when the result is so uncertain. We must continue to fight for UAFA to ensure that couples in every state can stay together, and we must continue to fight in case the DOMA litigation stalls."
What does all this mean for couples on the ground? Kevin Goodman is the associate dean of the Episcopal St. James Cathedral and has been in a relationship with his soon-to-be husband Anton Pulung-Hartanto for the last twelve years. The two met at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., where Pulung-Hartanto, who is originally from Indonesia, was working as a cultural representative and an attraction host on a Q-1 visa ( given for cultural exchange programs ) .
The two became a couple a year after meeting, in 2000, when Pulung-Hartanto was still on a Q-1. When that visa expired, he switched to an I-20 student visa and maintained legal status that way for 10 years. Most recently, he completed his culinary degree at St. Augustine's College in Uptown. Because Pulung-Hartanto is both gay and Christian and from a majority Muslim country, he fears having to return to Indonesia with a same-sex Christian partner. He filed for asylum last year—the case is pending—and was recently granted a work authorization visa.
Eric Berndt, an attorney with the Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center, is also the supervising attorney for NIJC's National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities. He has been involved with their case and working with the attorneys representing them, Timothy Payne and Marjorie Baltazar at Sidley Austin LLP, and was also present during the interview. Talking about Indonesia's climate for gays and lesbians, he gave the example of the cancellation of last year's International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Association's regional conference in Surabaya, after organizers received death threats from conservative Muslims.
According to Berndt, the outcry was so severe "that those who had already been sent [ by organizations ] had to be smuggled out of the country because of the threats against them. So we know that people who openly identify as gay and who claim human rights as people who happen to LGBT are going to face a very high level of violence."
Asylum cases can take anywhere from three months to ten years. Berndt explained that " [ a ] sylum is always, in our current system, a very risky endeavor because there's so much discretion in the hands of immigration adjudicators. And studies have shown that a lot of the variations for asylum seekers are based on who you get as a judge and not so much on the strengths of the case. So even though Anton has a very strong asylum case, it's still a risky endeavor that requires him to talk about some very difficult things and put himself in a very vulnerable position. It's not the preferred option." Goodman confirmed this, adding that applying for asylum was "the saddest decision we made because at the end of the process, Anton could be deported....at the end of the journey, it could mean we may not be together as a couple."
So, in the meantime, the couple waits anxiously for the resolution of the asylum case while Pulung-Hartanto looks for a job as a chef. Asked what advice they could give to others in their situation, Goodman said that they found it was critical to form support networks with other binational couples: "We've spent many a night with others in the same situation, and cried and found comfort if there is any comfort at all. [ It's important ] to reach out to each other, to hear each other's stories, and to pray that love wins."
Even having a partner with a job and an immigrant visa does not necessarily help make matters less stressful since losing that job can mean that the foreign-born partner has to leave. Such is the case with Daniel Johnson, an attorney with the law firm Jenner and Block LLP whose partner, Suresh ( not his real name, by Johnson's request ) , works as a management consultant.
The two met six years ago on gaydot.com and, as Johnson describes it, "We fell in love on the third date at Millennium Park." Suresh had come here from India as a temporary worker in information technology and then got a job in a start-up company in 2000. That company folded, so Suresh went to business school at the University of Chicago and gained a work visa as a consultant. However, consultancy is rife with layoffs and firings, and Johnson and his partner live with the anxiety of separation looming over them on a constant basis.
Would repealing DOMA help them? Johnson feels it would: "Yes, I would like to be able to marry him. Repealing DOMA would be the clearest route for permanent residency." Like Goodman and Pulung-Hartanto, Johnson spoke about the level of stress they endured. He also felt that, with regard to immigration reform in general, "it would make a whole lot more sense to make immigration less restricted for a number of reasons, [ such as ] are economic reasons and cultural reasons. The most important thing is to stay with him."
On that issue, Goodman was also concerned about the current climate and conversation on immigration reform and "concerned about how we take advantage to sustain privilege. The laws of this country are designed by rich landowners to keep white straight privilege in power and the more we push against white privilege, the more blaming, the more violence we do to each other in the name of justice."
