NEWSBYPRERNA LAL

Last year during my first round of law school final exams, Congress was getting ready to vote on the federal DREAM Act, which would have given undocumented youth in the United States a pathway to citizenship.

This year, during another set of final exams, President Obama has decided to send me a notice to appear in court for removal proceedings.

My name is Prerna Lal and I am facing the trial of my life as I sit for my exams at The George Washington University Law School.  You may know me as one of the founders of DreamActivist or from the Immigrant Rights blog here where I have penned hundreds of articles over the past two years to help stop the deportations of several members of our community. I serve as a board member for Immigration Equality and I was the recipient of a Changemaker Award at the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) summit this year.

I just paid $800 to the State of California in business taxes. And I’m expected to appear in an Immigration Court in San Francisco for this trial. That is some heavy taxation without representation. To make matters more complicated, my entire family is American and they have done nothing to deserve this treatment.

Married same-sex bi-national couples across the United States had only 24 hours to celebrate an announcement by USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) that the agency would no longer deny green-card applications filed by the couples.

Today, the Obama administration is already backtracking, with USCIS officials telling the media that same-sex couples could go back to being denied a life together in less than a week, contrary to what officials told advocates late last week. Thousands of married couples living together in the United States would again face the prospect of choosing between the person they love and the country they call home.

Bi-national same-sex married couples across the country can breathe a huge sigh of relief tonight.

After a long struggle with the law, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has confirmed that it will no longer deny green card applications (I-130s) filed by married same-sex binational couples. They will hold them in abeyance till a final decision can be reached on the legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Note that "holding in abeyance" does not mean processing, but it could result in a de facto deferred action.

Chris Geidner from Metro Weekly quotes Christopher Bently, a spokesman for USCIS, confirming the new policy: "USCIS has issued guidance to the field asking that related cases be held in abeyance while awaiting final guidance related to distinct legal issues."

On March 19, 2011, the United States, France and the United Kingdom launched attacks on Libyan defensive infrastructure and ground forces. With a war against Libya underway and violent turmoil within the country, is the Obama Administration still deporting Libyan nationals and requiring visitors and students to abide by visa restrictions to return to the warzone?

We hope not. But one glance at the USCIS site, and there is currently no press statement or policy in place for nationals from Libya who may be in the United States currently visiting or studying. Granted the population of Libyans in the United States is probably minuscule when compared to populations in the rest of Europe, but that is all the more reason for the Department of Homeland Security to come out with a statement or policy immediately.

Newlywed Maryland couple Edwin Echegoyen and Rodrigo Martinez can breathe a sigh of relief. Rodrigo has received an official stay of deportation from an immigration judge in Baltimore. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also called off the intended deportation to allow Rodrigo to pursue all legal options, asking the couple to check in once a month.

The continued deportations of LGBT individuals married to U.S. citizens and permanent residents makes little sense, given that even President Obama and the Department of Justice (DOJ) are no longer defending Section 3 of DOMA and regard it as constitutionally suspect. With Congress re-introducing a DOMA repeal bill on Wednesday, there is even more reason to stop these deportations.

Nine University of California - Los Angeles students, their friends, and family members are celebrating a minor victory after the City of Los Angeles decided to drop all charges against them for shutting down a busy intersection.

Last week, the City of Los Angeles dropped charges against the protesters who had shutdown Wilshire Boulevard in support of the DREAM Act. The protest took place in May 2010 and was closely covered by Change.org.  Nine young students sat down near the federal building on Wilshire Boulevard to show their support for the federal DREAM Act, a legislation that would give many of their undocumented youth friends a pathway to citizenship.

Edwin Echegoyen, an American citizen, and Rodrigo Martinez, a citizen of El Salvador, celebrated eight years together by getting married in Washington D.C. a few days ago. Alas, since they are a same-sex couple, Edwin cannot sponsor Rodrigo for citizenship as Rodrigo faces imminent deportation from the country.

Edwin recounts how meeting Rodrigo in 2003 changed his life for the better. At that time, they were not aware that it would be so difficult to get legal status for Rodrigo, who had overstayed a tourist visa. It was only when the Department of Homeland Security ordered Rodrigo to report to authorities that the gravity of the situation sunk in for both of them. For the Maryland couple, deportation is a death sentence when all they want is a normal life together surrounded by family and friends.

Rodrigo and Edwin are not asking for special rights. They want the same rights already afforded to heterosexual U.S. citizens and permanent residents who currently get to sponsor their foreign citizen spouses for citizenship. Advocates argue that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is the only legal obstacle that prevents federal recognition of same-sex marriage and prevents same-sex binational couples from seeking immigration benefits available to heterosexual couples.

Brought to the United States when he was only two years, Mariano Cardoso faces deportation after living in Connecticut for over twenty years. He aspires to be a civil engineer, but those dreams were put on hold when ICE burst into his home without a warrant in August 2008, and arrested and placed him in a detention facility.

Mariano is a hard-working student at Capital Community College who has worked to fund his college education without the benefit of government loans. His Physics teacher, Leonel Carmona, has attested that that Mariano excelled academically. "His plan is to graduate from Capital Community College this May, and then pursue an engineering degree at Central Connecticut University. When graduating with this degree, Mariano will indubitably become a productive citizen of his community and this country," says Mr. Carmona.

The debate over Israel and Palestine has spilled over to our university senate meetings, corporate board rooms and now municipal train systems.

The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system has taken on the fun task fueling a political ad war between pro-Palestine and pro-Israel advocacy groups, making revenues out of a serious political crisis.

The battle over the Middle East transit ads has been brewing for a while.

Yesterday, we reported on Anton Tanumihardja, set to be put on a 1 p.m. flight to Indonesia. Despite a pending asylum claim, he faced involuntary removal from his home in Philadelphia and his U.S. citizen partner, Brian Anderson. Instead, we're able to report today on the welcome news that Anton received a stay of deportation from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) so the Board of Immigration Appeals can reopen and adjudicate his asylum case.

Under our current system, individuals in removal proceedings who seek to reopen asylum cases remain in deportation because different parts of the immigration bureau handle these claims. As a result, someone can have a pending asylum case, yet still be deported from the country.

Anton, 45, had his initial asylum claim filed by an attorney who did not have the best grasp on the persecution that Anton could face if sent back to Indonesia. After his initial claim was denied early in the process, Anton got a new lawyer and petitioned to reopen his asylum case. However, he remained in deportation and forced to leave the country and his partner, Brian, until DHS granted him a last-minute reprieve.