Making Sure Immigration Reform Keeps LGBT Families Together

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Rep. Jared Polis, and Rep. Mike Quigley walk into a bar ...

Actually, they walked into a press conference today in Illinois, to deliver some news that's far more important than any joke punchline. Instead, the three were speaking about immigration reform, and the necessity to make sure that as debates over immigration reform policy move forward in the coming days and weeks, that LGBT families are not thrown under the bus.

Speaking in Chicago, Rep. Gutierrez (long a supporter of immigration policy friendly to the LGBT community) and his colleagues said that they were coming together to share their "unwavering support" for immigration reform that would allow legal family-based immigration for same-sex couples. What does that mean? In a nutshell, it means that according to these three legislators (and numbers of others in Congress), LGBT people should be allowed to sponsor their same-sex partners for visas.

Call it family reunification. Or just call it a policy rooted in recognizing the dignity of two people (and sometimes their children!) who want to share their lives together.

The question will be whether Rep. Gutierrez's commitment to LGBT immigration equality can survive what's likely going to be a partisan and rigorous debate in Congress. Certain conservative religious groups that are tentatively behind immigration reform (hello U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops) have made it pretty clear that if LGBT families are part of the immigration debate, they'll take their pails and head to a different sand box. Why? Because including LGBT people in immigration reform is a move too close to recognizing same-sex marriage.

Of course, the legislation championed by Gutierrez, Polis and Quigley has nothing to do with marriage. As Eric Berndt, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago put it, "[LGBT immigration reform] isn't predicated on recognition of a marriage and it doesn't give any benefits besides allowing couples to stay together."

In other words, this isn't a debate about gay marriage. It's a debate about keeping loved ones together.

"It doesn't matter to me whether (a) little girl has one mommy or two mommies. It's none of my business; it is none of the government's business, and it should not make a difference when it comes to our immigration policies," Rep. Gutierrez said.

He's right. And any effort to fix our immigration system that does not take into account the issues faced by LGBT couples (not to mention LGBT students) will not address the true brokenness that lies at the heart of current U.S. immigration policy.

Photo credit: alex-s