Keeping families together, safe and strong was the theme of the fourth annual Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights ( ICIRR ) immigration integration summit at Benito Juarez High School Feb. 22.
Approximately 300 people attended the opening plenary and rally ahead of various workshops on LGBT rights, health care, tax issues, temporary visitors drivers licenses, citizenship, fighting deportations, labor organizing and immigration reform among others.
Featured speakers at the rally included ICIRR CEO Lawrence Benito, co-chairs Laura Garza of SEIU Local 1 and Jose Luis Gutierrez of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Sen. Dick Durbin, U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez, SEIU Local 1 President Tom Balanoff and "Fast for Families" founder and labor leader Eliseo Medina. Vincente Del Real of the West Suburban Action Project, 10-year-old Liz Marquez and Maria Pesqueira of Mujeres Latinas en Accion provided testimonies.
Other dignitaries in attendance included Illinois state Sens. Greg Harris, Sam Yingling and Elizabeth "Lisa" Hernandez.
For the first time, the ICIRR summit featured a workshop focusing on the needs of the LGBT immigrant community. About 15 people attended the workshop featuring Michael Jarecki, United States immigration and nationality law attorney and secretary of the Chicago chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; Keren Zwick, managing attorney for Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center's LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiative and Adult Detention Project and a member of LGBT Committee of the Chicago chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association; and Roberto Romero-Perez, principal at the Perrom Law Office, LLC and LGBT committee chair of the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois.
Marriage between same-sex binational couples, asylum, court proceedings, immigration detention and alternatives to immigration reform were the topics discussed.
Jarecki gave background information about the current status of immigration policy and explained how that affects the LGBT community in a post-DOMA ruling world. He noted there are about 12 million undocumented immigrants currently residing in the United States.
Until June of last year, same-sex binational couples were discriminated against when it came to any family-based immigration process that allows spouses of U.S. citizens or green-card holders getting benefits, said Jarecki. The Supreme Court ruling last June that found section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act ( DOMA ) unconstitutional, Jarecki explained, provided more than 1,000 federal benefits to same-sex married couples, including immigration access for same-sex binational married couples.
Jarecki noted that, in response to the Supreme Court DOMA ruling, the Obama administration has come out with guidelines that state that no matter where a same-sex binational couple currently resides, as long as they got married where same-sex marriage is legal they will be afforded the same protections under current immigration laws.
The DOMA ruling did not solve all of the problems for same-sex binational couples, Jarecki explained, because under current immigration law undocumented people who are married to U.S. citizens have to return to their home country and then prove they need to return to the States due to extreme hardship. He added that for LGBT individuals who might have fled anti-gay countries, returning to those countries would put their lives in jeopardy.
"The burden of proof is on the applicant to the U.S. government that they are married in good faith and they aren't doing it just as friends or to help someone get their green card and that is true for every couple," said Jarecki. "At the same time, there is a lot of education that is needed for the agency that handles green card applications because not all LGBT people might be out to their family or employers and/or they might not have the commingling of their lives that heterosexual binational couples have such as their living space and/or finances which raises red flags during the application process."
Zwick spoke about the Uniting America Families Act ( UAFA ), which did not make it into the immigration bill that the Senate recently passed. Many people in the LGBT community were upset that the UAFA ( the LGBT portion of the immigration bill ) was not included, Zwick noted, and walked away from the immigration issue. He added there are many reasons why the LGBT community should still care about immigration policy because there are still provisions in the Senate bill that will help LGBT undocumented immigrants.
Romero-Perez spoke about the asylum process, noting that asylum can be granted for LGBT people who have been victims of persecution in their home country and that there is a one-year deadline for those seeking asylum, although there are some exceptions to that rule.
Zwick said another factor involved with the asylum process involves getting help from legal experts who are familiar with and friendly to the LGBT community, while Roberto-Perez emphasized spreading the word within communities. Zwick noted that fewer than 30 percent of asylum seekers win their cases each year.
Another avenue for all undocumented immigrants is through the courts, said Jarecki: "If you've found yourself in immigration court and you've been here for a very long time in an undocumented status ... you can claim to an immigration judge that you have a qualifying relative including same-sex spouses and that by being sent back it would cause hardship to the person's family here in the U.S. This is called cancellation of removal." This is very hard because the undocumented immigrant has to prove that s/he has been here for 10 years; however, if s/he wins, that person is granted a green card right away.
Zwick explained that there are other remedies already in effect, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ( DACA ), which is for the DREAMers ( those involved with the DREAM Act ), and U visas for victims of violent crimes/domestic violence. Jarecki noted that there is also the option of prosecutorial discretion to stop deportations if the undocumented person falls under numerous priority categories and this depends on the judge who hears their case and/or where the person lives.
Immigration detention is also an issue, especially for LGBT people who make up a disproportionally large number of detainees, said Zwick.
If immigration reform does not happen there are some alternatives that can be used, Zwick noted. One of these involves states choosing to ignore current immigration policies and stop the detention and deportation process, said Zwick. Romero-Perez explained that law-enforcement officials across the country have assigned a low priority to detention of undocumented immigrants as a way around the law.
Zwick's opinion is that Illinois has the best model on a state level for immigration reform, especially regarding the LGBT community. That, he added, is vital to vote for pro-immigration reform candidates.
See www.icirr.org for more information.
