Senate Immigration Bill Advances; Senator Leahy Files Gay Couples Amendment

Today the so-called "Gang of Eight" immigration reform bill advanced and received a wide thumbs up vote in the U. S. Senate.  Politico describes it this way:

The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly agreed to launch a major effort to rewrite U.S. immigration laws, setting the stage for weeks of debate on securing the nation’s borders, legalizing undocumented residents and modernizing the country’s immigration system.

Senators voted 82-15 to move forward on the Gang of Eight immigration bill; 60 votes were needed for passage. All 15 votes against the motion were from Republicans. The bill cleared a second procedural vote later Tuesday.

The overwhelming bipartisan vote gives the Gang of Eight room to negotiate, but finding an acceptable approach to tightening border security is emerging as major challenge for the bipartisan coalition.

Part of the negotiation process will be about including same sex bi-national couples with the same immigration rights as married heterosexual couples.  To make sure this happens, Senator Patrick Leahy filed an amendment for this purpose.  Here are highlights from Politico on the ammendment:

 

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy is trying again on immigration and gay rights.

The Vermont Democrat filed an amendment to the Gang of Eight immigration bill on Tuesday that would allow gay U.S. citizens to petition their foreign spouses to become permanent residents. He had withdrawn the measure after an emotional debate during the committee markup, after several Democrats said they would vote against his amendment in order to preserve the overall bill.

Seeking equal protection under our laws for the LGBT community is the right thing to do,” Leahy said in a statement Tuesday. “I withheld my anti-discrimination amendment during the Senate Judiciary Committee markup. As the entire Senate turns to debate the immigration bill, the fight for equality must go on.”

It is unclear whether Leahy’s proposal will get a vote. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have yet to reach an agreement on amendments.

And the political dynamics for Leahy’s amendment are different on the floor. In the committee, the amendment would have required just a simple majority for it to pass. On the floor, it will almost certainly need 60 votes.

If Democrats do not support the Leahy amendment, in my view, they need to pay a price in terms of votes and money.  I seem to be on every national level Democrat committee donor mailing list known to man and I am now routinely reply to ask for money with a statement that (i) no money will be forth coming until gays are covered under the immigration reform act and Obama signs an ENDA executive order for federal employees and (ii) please remove me from the mailing list.   The boyfriend and I are supporting state level candidates - a McAuliffe staffer has been living in our home for a month now - but the Democrats at the federal level can kiss my ass until they put blather into actual action.  They don't get it that "support" is a two way street.

Senator Patrick Leahy Submits Immigration Bill Amendments to Include Gay Couples

Many Republicans - including Senator Marco Rubio who I do not like and consider a hypocrite - and the child rapist protectors of Roman Catholic Church hierarchy have indicated that they will do all in their power to kill substantive immigration reform if it includes provisions giving same sex bi-national couples the same protections and benefits as those afforded to heterosexual couples.  For the Republicans, if gays are included in the bill, it will provide a convenient smoke screen to avoid admitting that today's GOP is racist and strongly anti-Hispanic.  Nonetheless, Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced amendments to the "gang of eight"  immigration bill.  BuzzFeed has details on Leahy's amendments.  Here are some highlights:

WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has submitted two amendments to the "Gang of Eight" senators' immigration bill that would extend to same-sex couples to similar immigration rights as opposite-sex married couples. 

"For immigration reform to be truly comprehensive, it must include protections for all families," Leahy said in a statement. "We must end the discrimination that gay and lesbian families face in our immigration law."

Amendments on the bill were due to be submitted by 5 p.m. Tuesday. The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin considering the bill and amendments on Thursday morning.

Leahy's moves Tuesday included an unexpected amendment that would provide recognition to same-sex couples who are legally married for immigrations purposes — an effort praised as "brilliant" by the Human Rights Campaign.

Because the Defense of Marriage Act bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples' marriages, binational gay and lesbian couples — those where one partner is not a U.S. citizen — have been denied the ability to seek a green card that straight couples have been eligible to obtain for their spouse in a similar situation.

Among Leahy's amendments is one that would include the Uniting American Families Act — a bill that would create a new category of "permanent partners" to enable a U.S. citizen in a same-sex couple to sponsor a foreign partner — in the larger immigration reform legislation. This amendment had been discussed and was expected to be filed.

A second amendment, according to a news release from Leahy's office, "provides equal protection to lawfully married bi-national same sex couples that other spouses receive under existing immigration law." The provision asserts that a person would be considered a married spouse under the Immigration and Nationality Act if the marriage "is valid in the state in which the marriage was entered into" or, if "entered into outside of any state," was valid where entered into and would be valid in a state.

Lavi Soloway, an immigration rights lawyer who represents same-sex couples and co-founded The DOMA Project, told BuzzFeed the second amendment was "nothing short of a strategic master stroke."

Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the Gang of Eight, reiterated earlier Tuesday his statement that inclusion of same-sex couples in the bill "will ensure that it fails."

It was not immediately clear if Rubio would have the same position regarding the second amendment, as he also said Tuesday, "I understand this is an issue that's moving across the country and different states are dealing with it differently. I understand all that, I do."


Human Rights Campaign vice president Fred Sainz echoed Soloway, telling BuzzFeed Tuesday evening, "I think it's brilliant."  Explaining, he continued, "This is basically meant to ferret out the Republicans. If you believe in a federalism concept, then I love this because it really narrows, and makes more circumspect, the objections. It's hard to object to marriage, if they're already married. If you're not creating a whole other category of 'permanent partners,' then the objection, on their part, is much more difficult. I think it's a game-changer."

 It truly is far past time that religious based bigotry and discrimination be removed from the nation's civil laws.  Indeed, religion needs to be removed entirely from public policy and public discourse.  It needs to be confined to the inside of houses of worship and believers' private homes.