Immigration Judge Postpones Deportation Proceedings For Two Years, Allowing Doug and Alex to Stay in

An immigration judge postponed a deportation hearing for Alex Benshimol and Doug Gentry for two years, allowing the legally married gay couple to stay together in the United States.

Benshimol and Gentry were legally married in California, yet they were scheduled to face an immigration hearing on July 13, 2011 because gay and lesbian married couples can not sponsor their foreign born spouses for citizenship like married heterosexual couples can.

Out4Immigration's Change.org petition calling upon elected officials to prevent the forced separation of Doug and Alex, received more than 12,000 signatures.

"We are pleased with the progress that this case demonstrates." said Mickey Lim, Vice President of Out4Immigration. "However there are thousands of same-sex binational couples who are still living with uncertainty because of the Defense of Marriage Act and many more that have already been exiled or separated by this unfair discriminatory law.  We applaud Doug and Alex's courage to put a face on the issue and will continue to work towards securing equal immigration rights for same sex couples!  We look forward to the day when we can welcome all of our friends and families back home!"

In a statement released by Out4Immigration, Lavi Soloway, founder of Stop the Deportations, and a lawyer for Doug and Alex said, "Today the Immigration Judge demonstrated compassion and understanding for Doug and Alex as a married binational couple, granting them a reprieve from deportation by postponing further proceedings to September 2013," said Soloway, "The Judge also gave the government 60 days to inform the court whether it will agree with our request to terminate these proceedings pursuant to prosecutorial discretion guidelines issued June 17 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton. We will continue to advocate for termination of these proceedings and a moratorium on all deportations of spouses of lesbian and gay Americans."

GetEqual also lobbied for the couple's right to stay together. GetEqual Executive Director Robyn McGeHee said, "Today's hearing was one more step in the march toward full federal equality for LGBT Americans and those they love," said Robin McGehee, "Doug and Alex's courage to stand up for their family and the tens of thousands of other families facing deportation from this country is nothing short of inspirational. We will continue to work on cases like these that highlight the lived discrimination that LGBT folks in this country face, and will not stop until we can rest our heads at night knowing that we are fully equal under the law."

Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) actively supported the couple's right to stay together. Lofgren said in a statement, "Legally-married couples are being torn apart today in America because our laws unconstitutionally discriminate against same-sex marriages. Each and every day, American spouses are being forced to make unacceptable choices: live their lives separated from one another by thousands of miles, abandon their lives in this country and move someplace else, or break the law and go into hiding. This is a heartbreaking situation all across the United States. I believe the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional and that the government should respect legally-married same-sex couples. I am confident that DOMA one day will not be law. The whole country will look back and understand it was simply discrimination."

In April, Representative Lofgren sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano  and Attorney General Eric Holder, urging them to use their authority to prevent further separations of legally married same-sex couples until Congress and the courts have the opportunity to decide the constitutionality of DOMA. The letter was co-signed by more than 40 representatives.

The Williams Institute estimated  more than 35,000 binational same sex couples live in the United States according to data from 2000 census.