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08-15-2011, 08:00 AM
It has been all over the news the last few days; an Australian gay man, caring for his American citizen husband, is about to be "deported." You can see an example of one such story in the San Francisco Chronicle, "S.F. Gay Married Couple Loses Immigration Battle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/08/BAO71KKPEC.DTL&type=gaylesbian)."
The couple themselves had to have expected this. They filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=c67c7f9ded54d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCR D&vgnextchannel=db029c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1 RCRD). It cannot be a surprise that it was denied. The federal government does not yet recognize same sex marriages. It is the position of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"), that they will not approve such petitions until the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") (http://www.californiaimmigrationlawyerblog.com/DOMA.pdf) is held to be unconstitutional and/or Congress repeals it. The San Francisco couple was testing the law.
It is a bit of sensationalist journalism to say that the Australian man is going to be deported. USCIS is not deporting him. They have given him a date by which he needs to leave. He may leave voluntarily. He has not been placed into deportation proceedings. I suppose though, proceedings could be the next step if he does not leave.
What I am curious about is what the couple plans to do when the deadline to depart comes. They purposefully tested the law and placed their relationship in jeopardy. It takes great courage to do this. The Australian citizen may receive a reprieve or be allowed to stay for a temporary period of time. Yet, this is not what they want. They want the law to be changed. I do not think the filing of their petition is going to do it, but it has brought some attention to the law. Hopefully they will be able to take advantage of the law when it does change. Until then, I think they unfortunately have a bit of a wait. Let's hope it is not too long.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=7Q72WNTAKBA (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:7Q72WNTAKBA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?i=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:V_sGLiPBpWU (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:V_sGLiPBpWU) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=qj6IDK7rITs (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:qj6IDK7rITs)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom/~4/K_utscJFFUE
More... (http://rss.justia.com/~r/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom/~3/K_utscJFFUE/australian_gay_man_in_same_sex.html)
The couple themselves had to have expected this. They filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=c67c7f9ded54d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCR D&vgnextchannel=db029c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1 RCRD). It cannot be a surprise that it was denied. The federal government does not yet recognize same sex marriages. It is the position of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS"), that they will not approve such petitions until the Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA") (http://www.californiaimmigrationlawyerblog.com/DOMA.pdf) is held to be unconstitutional and/or Congress repeals it. The San Francisco couple was testing the law.
It is a bit of sensationalist journalism to say that the Australian man is going to be deported. USCIS is not deporting him. They have given him a date by which he needs to leave. He may leave voluntarily. He has not been placed into deportation proceedings. I suppose though, proceedings could be the next step if he does not leave.
What I am curious about is what the couple plans to do when the deadline to depart comes. They purposefully tested the law and placed their relationship in jeopardy. It takes great courage to do this. The Australian citizen may receive a reprieve or be allowed to stay for a temporary period of time. Yet, this is not what they want. They want the law to be changed. I do not think the filing of their petition is going to do it, but it has brought some attention to the law. Hopefully they will be able to take advantage of the law when it does change. Until then, I think they unfortunately have a bit of a wait. Let's hope it is not too long.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=yIl2AUoC8zA (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:yIl2AUoC8zA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=7Q72WNTAKBA (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:7Q72WNTAKBA) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?i=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:V_sGLiPBpWU (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:V_sGLiPBpWU) http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?d=qj6IDK7rITs (http://rss.justia.com/~ff/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom?a=K_utscJFFUE:C 4UWjdWih68:qj6IDK7rITs)
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom/~4/K_utscJFFUE
More... (http://rss.justia.com/~r/CaliforniaImmigrationLawyerBlogCom/~3/K_utscJFFUE/australian_gay_man_in_same_sex.html)