This statement is attributed to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLAAD, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, United We Dream and Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project, GetEQUAL, Lambda Legal, National Center for Transgender Equality, Equality Federation and National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance.
Today, the Senate passed a bill with the potential to transform the lives of 11 million immigrants, including 267,000 LGBT immigrants.
We are one step closer to reforming our immigration policies and keeping more families together. The Senate's action follows on the heels of the Supreme Court's historic ruling to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act, which provides an estimated 28,500 same-sex, binational couples with an easier road to citizenship.
This legislation includes many provisions that will particularly benefit LGBT immigrants, such as eliminating the one-year bar on applying for asylum, providing protections for DREAMers and improving conditions for people held in detention facilities. The Senate's bill limits the use of solitary confinement and explicitly prohibits the use of this practice based solely on a detainees' sexual orientation or gender identity.
For all the good in the legislation, there are several hard pills to swallow. In exchange for its passage, the Senate pledged $40 billion for 'border security.' Our border communities will pay a heavy price for this mistaken political calculus. We believe the Senate made the wrong deal. This reckless and injudicious spending will have a harmful impact on border communities, particularly LGBT immigrants living on the border, and undermine the principles of humane enforcement.
The Senate also failed to include several amendments that would have strengthened the legislation for aspiring citizens and addressed the root causes of our patchwork of failed and mismanaged immigration policies. As the legislative process continues, we will advocate for provisions that protect workers, reunite families and allow young children to access the path to citizenship expeditiously. We will also advocate for tax-paying immigrants to receive their fair share of benefits and access to health care.
Now it's time for the House to act. No more compromises, no more piecemeal provisions, no more extremist amendments. It's time for the House of Representatives to introduce serious legislation that reflects the will of the country: to give 11 million men, women and children the chance to come out of the shadows and have a clear and direct path to citizenship.
The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) sees progress in today's vote for the Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities we serve, but also some challenges and some hard questions that are yet to be answered as the bill moves to the House of Representatives. We continue to fight for comprehensive immigration reform legislation that works for all families, immigrant and citizen, LGBT and straight, alike.
The legislation includes provisions important to AAPI LGBTs, including: a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants; elimination of the backlog of family visas; elimination of the one-year deadline to file for asylum; and some specific improvements for conditions in detention centers. Unfortunately, the immigration package also strikes a twofold blow to AAPI LGBT families. The deal ends sibling sponsorship and family sponsorship for married children over 30. After bitter negotiation, it also fails to include the sponsorship privileges for foreign same-sex partners of Americans that married straight couples enjoy.
The vote comes on the heels of a celebrated historic victory for marriage equality at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The ruling resolves immigration issues for certain binational same-sex couples, but NQAPIA continues to fight for all those affected by the broken immigration system. At least 267,000 undocumented immigrants LGBT, a population that is disproportionately Asian. As crowds cheered on the steps of the Supreme Court for the ruling that overturned the Defense of Marriage Act and sent California's Proposition 8 packing, NQAPIA delivered over 2,700 postcards to the Senate in support of comprehensive immigration reform.
Joined by Tony Choi, an openly gay undocumented immigrant from Korea, NQAPIA gave postcards directly to Tony's Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the "Gang of Eight" who pushed the legislation through, as well as Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), the first openly lesbian Senator.
"History has been made on two different fronts." said Ben de Guzman, NQAPIA Co-Director for Programs. "We have been at the center of all the action on both comprehensive immigration reform and marriage equality this week. We have never been a single issue community, and today we prove that the movement can walk and chew gum at the same time. Now we take the fight from the Supreme Court and the Senate to the House, the next battleground for immigration reform."
HRC statement
WASHINGTON - Today, the United States Senate passed a bi-partisan immigration reform bill by a vote of 68-32. Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Chad Griffin released the following statement:
"The bipartisan immigration reform bill passed in the Senate today will benefit millions of immigrants across our nation — including LGBT immigrants," said HRC president Chad Griffin. "We thank Senator Leahy for his steadfast commitment over many years to the LGBT immigrant community and we join our allies in the immigrant and LGBT communities in challenging the House of Representatives to act without further delay and pass the Senate's bill."
The Senate's immigration bill provides a pathway to citizenship for the over a quarter million LGBT adults living in the U.S., and provides an expedited path to citizenship for undocumented LGBT youth who have lived in the U.S. for all or most of their lives and want nothing more than to be recognized for what they are — Americans. In addition, the bill removes the 1-year filing deadline that has arbitrarily denied LGBT asylum seekers refuge in the U.S. when they are fleeing their home countries after being persecuted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Moreover, the bill will lead to more humane treatment of LGBT immigrants who are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment in the immigration detention system because of increased requirements for immigration detention oversight and a ban on solitary confinement based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
While the Senate Judiciary Committee failed to get language in the bill to provide bi-national same-sex couples access to family-based immigration, yesterday's Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional will provide welcome relief. Find answers to frequently asked questions addressing some of the questions we anticipate LGBT families with immigration issues will have following the Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act by visiting: http://www.hrc.org/issues/immigration.
In April, the Human Rights Campaign launched a public education effort within the LGBT community on the importance of immigration reform. As part of this effort, HRC published Inclusive Immigration Reform: Nine Problems Deserving Solutions at: http://www.hrc.org/files/assets/resources/ComprehensiveInclusiveImmigrationReform.pdf.
HRC chronicled the stories of a diverse group of Americans who are harmed every day by this country's immigration laws on its blog. In addition, HRC used its presence at LGBT pride festivals across the country to inform and educate the LGBT community on immigration reform. During the Judiciary Committee markup of the bill, HRC activated its members to call on their senators to amend the bill to include language that would provide binational same-sex couples with relief from having to make the decision to breakup or live in exile.
The American Immigration Council Applauds Senate Passage of Historic Immigration Reform Legislation
Washington D.C. — The American Immigration Council applauds the U.S. Senate for passing comprehensive immigration reform legislation (S. 744) by a vote of 68-32 (including 14 Republicans). This vote reflects how far the country has come in understanding the significance of immigration reform to the health and well-being of the nation as a whole. Regardless of what may come next, today's vote reflects the irrefutable fact that the social and economic benefits of immigration reform are tangible and achievable. There will be much work ahead to continue to perfect the policies reflected in this bill. But for the moment, we should thank the Senate, led by the Gang of Eight, for the courage and vision to finally move the country forward on immigration.
"Today's vote is a game-changer. The debate around immigration reform is forever changed, the notion that the Senate cannot act on immigration is a thing of the past, and now we know that it is possible to find bi-partisan agreement one an issue once deemed toxic," said Benjamin Johnson, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council.
"There is little doubt that today's vote offers the country a chance to start again on immigration. While the compromises necessary to achieve a significant bipartisan vote were many, this is a lesson for us all in democracy—we can respect deep disagreements on policy grounds, yet still find a way forward. The Senate should be commended for giving us all a chance to change the conversation on immigration," said Mary Giovagnoli, Director of the Immigration Policy Center.
