ALABAMA: Gov Signs Anti-Immigrant Bills

In Alabama it's now a crime to "knowingly give a ride" to an undocumented immigrant. It's also a crime to enroll your undocumented child in public schools. And cops are now permitted to research the immigration status of any person stopped for any reason.

Gov. Robert Bentley said the law is the nation’s toughest, and groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center agree. The groups say they plan to challenge it. The legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mary Bauer, said Thursday that she expects a lawsuit to be filed before the provisions of law are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1. "It is clearly unconstitutional. It’s mean-spirited, racist and we think a court will enjoin it,” Bauer said. Bentley, who campaigned on passing the toughest anti-illegal immigration bill possible, said he believes the measure can withstand legal challenges.

Binational Couples Tell Their Stories

Learn more here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Chris)

Washington Post Calls For Moratorium On Deportations Of Legally Unioned Gays

The Washington Post editorial board has called for a moratorium on the deportations of foreign gays in legal-sanctioned relationships with American citizens.

DOMA has been an impediment to the rights of gay men and lesbians since its inception in 1996. It withholds from same-sex couples the legal protections, obligations and privileges enjoyed by their heterosexual counterparts. Repeal appears out of reach, but Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in February that the Justice Department would no longer defend DOMA in court, after concluding that it is unconstitutional.

The attorney general has vacated the court decision and asked the Board of Immigration Appeals whether Mr. Dorman’s civil union makes him a “spouse” under New Jersey law and whether, absent DOMA, he would be considered a “spouse” under immigration law. Mr. Holder should erase any confusion by declaring a moratorium on removal of foreign nationals in state-recognized same-sex unions until federal courts determine DOMA’s constitutionality. He should ensure that the government is not focusing on breaking up otherwise law-abiding families.

NEW JERSEY: Judge Temporarily Halts Deportation Of Gay Man

A New Jersey immigration judge today temporarily halted the deportation of Henry Velandia, who is legally married to a U.S. citizen. This follows yesterday's move by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who vacated the decision to deport another gay man in the same situation.

Henry Velandia, who faces deportation to Venezuela, is petitioning to be allowed to remain in the U.S. as the spouse of U.S. citizen Josh Vandiver. Judge Alberto Riefkohl granted an adjournment of the case Friday in a Newark immigration court. At issue is who can be considered a spouse under federal law. Velandia is a 27-year-old professional salsa dancer and Vandiver is a 29-year-old graduate student at Princeton University. They were married last year in Connecticut, where same-sex marriage is legal.

GetEQUAL had staged a protest against the deportation outside the Newark courtroom.

AG Eric Holder Vacates Deportation Ruling

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has vacated a ruling ordering the deportation of Paul Wilson Dorman, who under Section 3 of DOMA is not entitled to stay in the United States despite being in a legal union with an American citizen. Metro Weekly reports:

Saying the attorney general "has taken [an] extraordinary step" with the decision, attorney Eric Berndt -- the supervising attorney for the National Asylum Partnership on Sexual Minorities at the National Immigrant Justice Center -- told Metro Weekly, "It adds some heft to our requests for prosecutorial discretion in individual cases in which the foreign partner" of a same-sex bi-national couple is seeking a green card because of his or her citizen same-sex partner.

Immigration rights attorney Lavi Soloway: "This development could be a sign that the Obama administration is looking for a way to protect gay and lesbian bi-national couples who are currently barred from the regular marriage-based immigration process by the Defense of Marriage Act."

MSNBC Interviews Binational Gay Couple Facing Deportation

Superman Renounces U.S. Citizenship

In the 900th issue of Action Comics, Superman renounces his American citizenship after a "clash" with the federal government. GOP flacks are outraged. Outraged, I tells ya!

"Besides being riddled with a blatant lack of patriotism, and respect for our country, Superman's current creators are belittling the United States as a whole. By denouncing his citizenship, Superman becomes an eerie metaphor for the current economic and power status the country holds worldwide," Hollywood publicist and GOP activist Angie Meyer told Fox.

Wired weighs in:

In an age rife with immigration paranoia, it’s refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it’s as important to him as any other country on Earth — which in turn is as important to Superman as any other planet in the multiverse. The genius of Superman is that he belongs to everyone, for the dual purposes of peace and protection. He’s above ephemeral geopolitics and nationalist concerns, a universal agent unlike any other found in pop culture.

PhoboQuotable - William Gheen

"Targeting anybody for importation into the country based on their sexuality doesn't sound like something that Congress should be messing with at all. They're looking to bring in anybody challenging the established culture inside the United States that they want to bring down. And though the majority culture of the United States for the last 200 years has been predominately European Christian, they are looking for anybody that would take issue with that. And, of course, Christianity preaches against sodomy." - William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, denouncing the Uniting American Families Act.

Expat Glenn Greenwald On UAFA

Today MNBC interviewed Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald about the pending Uniting American Families Act. Greenwald was forced to emigrate to Brazil in order to stay with his partner.

Canada Citizenship Guide Adds Gay Rights

A new edition of Canada's citizenship guide includes the message that gay rights are upheld there, although a mention of same-sex marriage was removed from the draft version.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney showed off the guide to new citizens yesterday in Vancouver, but said he didn’t personally order the information removed. Other new additions to the booklet add forced marriage to a list of gender-based crimes that aren’t tolerated in Canada, and a paragraph that says “violent, extreme or hateful prejudices” aren’t tolerated here. The study guide was last updated 15 years ago.

(Tipped by JMG reader Paul)

40 Activists Walk Into A Room....

Pictured above are the journalists, activists, researchers, allies and bloggers that attended this weekend's Haas Fund-sponsored conference on LGBT youth homelessness, suicide prevention, and immigration equality. All very good people.

UPDATE: Via the Windy City Times, here's everybody's names (from left to right).

Michael Rogers, Eden James, Phil Reese, Andrés Duque, Karen Ocamb, Jeremy Hooper, Jean Albright, Tracy Baim, Ksen Pallegedara, Zack Ford, Joe Mirabella, Carl Siciliano, Chris Geidner, Rod McCullom, Daniel Villarreal, Adam Bink, Chris Johnson, Ed Kennedy, Jerame Davis, Caitlin Ryan, Jason Cianciotto, Bil Browning, Rex Wockner, Elizbeth Plata, Matt Comer, Shannon Minter, Sunni Brydum, Andrew Belonsky, Joe Jervis, Cynthia Laird, Michael Jones, Liza Sabater, Ann Haas, Ed Plata.

DOMA Renews Immigration Challenge

This week's DOMA news has set activists into high gear on many fronts. Immigration Equality founder Lavi Soloway emails us today with his latest move.

In New York, New Jersey and California three married, same-sex binational couples, two gay male couples and one lesbian couple, are facing Immigration Judges in deportation proceedings. Each will brandish a pending green card petition filed by the American spouse on behalf of the foreign spouse. In each case their lawyer, Lavi Soloway, will argue that deportation proceedings should be halted because the only thing standing between each couple and a green card is the Defense Of Marriage Act which the President and the Attorney General announced this week will no longer be defended in court based on their finding that the statute is unconstitutional. Soloway, an immigration lawyer and long time gay rights activist, argues that the Department of Homeland Security should cease giving effect to this unconstitutional law and put all deportation proceedings on hold where they involve married gay binational couples, who but for DOMA, would be eligible for green cards on the basis of their marriages.

Soloway notes that the issue is quite urgent because deportation from the United States stipulates a ten year ban on ever returning.

Too Butch For Asylum

American immigration officials examining the cases of gays seeking asylum here are often denying such requests if the applicants "don't look gay enough" to be persecuted in their home countries.

“Judges and immigration officials are adding a new hurdle in gay asylum cases that an applicant’s homosexuality must be socially visible,” said Lori Adams, a lawyer at Human Rights First, a nonprofit group, who advises people seeking asylum based on sexuality. “The rationale is that if you don’t look obviously gay, you can go home and hide your sexuality and don’t need to be worried about being persecuted.” Jhuan Marrero, 18, who was born in Venezuela but has lived — illegally — in New York since he was 4, said the immigration officer at his asylum interview last week challenged him about his macho demeanor. “I was brought up by my parents to walk and talk like a man,” said Mr. Marrero, who volunteers at the Queens Pride House, a gay and lesbian center in Jackson Heights. “The officer said: ‘You’re not a transsexual. You don’t look gay. How are you at risk?’ I insisted that if I was sent back to Venezuela, I would speak out about being gay and suffer the consequences.”

Some asylum attorneys have advised their clients to appear as flamboyant as possible during their hearings. Adding to the problem is a surge in applicants falsely claiming to be gay in order to escape economic problems in their home countries.

Richard Dawkins & Peter Tatchell Debate Immigrant Values In The UK

In an interesting episode of the BBC's Big Question series, famed LGBT activist Peter Tatchell and Richard Dawkins debate others on the right wing and anti-gay attitudes brought by some in Britain's burgeoning immigrant communities. Dawkins goes off beautifully at 15:00.

Sarah Palin: Jan Brewer Has The Cojones That Obama Should Have On Immigration

Tweet Of The Day - Sen. Harry Reid

Interesting move. Certain to be filibustered by the GOP, I'm betting. The DREAM Act has been languishing in Congress for ten years thanks to Republican opposition.

IRELAND: Immigration Rights Granted To Gay Couples In Civil Partnerships

Gay couples in civil partnerships have been included in Ireland's immigration reform bill.

According to gay group GLEN, inclusion of civil partners in immigration law will build on progress already made in providing recognition for same-sex couples in immigration regulations. In provisions for people in de facto relationships, non EU same-sex partners of Irish or EU nationals are now entitled to apply for permission to remain in the state on the basis of their relationship. GLEN director of policy change Eoin Collins said: “This is a very important advance and will help deliver greater security for same-sex couples worried about separation due to immigration difficulties.”

Ireland's civil partnerships law goes into effect on January 1st. Binational gay couples in the United States remain screwed.

Cindy Jacobs: If Latinos Vote Against Gay Marriage, God Told Me He'll Grant Them Comprehensive Immigration Reform

God has personally spoken to evangelical whackadoodle Cindy Jacobs to let her know that IF the nation's Latinos vote against candidates who support gay marriage, he'll reward them by allowing the advancement of comprehensive immigration reform. God is SO motherfucking omnipotent, but he's also not above a little vote trading. So Sayeth Cindy.

(Via - Right Wing Watch)

Joy Behar's Blowup About Sharron Angle

As I noted in a post early today, Joy Behar called Sharron Angle an "evil moron" and "bitch" for her racist ad about immigration. Tonight Behar is being digitally tarred-and-feathered by the teabaggers and is getting a bit of criticism from the left as well. Below is the original View clip. Not embeddable here but equally worth watching is Behar's follow-up on her own HLN show, where she stood by her words, calling Angle a "stupid race-baiter."

UPDATE: Courtesy of Dave Evans, here's the above-linked clip from Behar's HLN show.

FLORIDA: Show Us Your Papers (Unless You're Canadian Or European)

According to Florida's proposed Arizona-style immigration law, if cops suspect you of being in the country illegally, they will release you if you show a Canadian or European passport. Passports from other nations? That calls for further investigation.

​Florida state Rep. William Snyder, the slow-drawling ex-Miami-Dade Police officer who has drafted Tallahassee's version of the hotly debated Arizona immigration bill, is adamant that his law would not lead to racial profiling. "Race, ethnicity, and national origin cannot be used in making arrests. It's immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional," he said in a recent radio interview. So why does his bill explicitly offer a free pass to Canadians and Western Europeans, who need only show a passport to be "presumed to be legally in the United States"? "That language makes it clear that police are targeting only a specific minority," says Susana Barciela, policy director at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. [snip] Even if an officer has "reasonable suspicions" over a person's immigration status, the bill says, a person will be "presumed to be legally in the United States" if he or she provides "a Canadian passport" or a passport from any "visa waiver country." What are the visa waiver countries? Other than four Asian nations, all 32 other countries are in Western Europe, from France to Germany to Luxembourg. In other words, Snyder's bill tells police to drop their "reasonable suspicions" of anyone hailing from dozens of countries full of white people. How is that not racial profiling?

Teabagger gubernatorial candidate Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott has promised to sign the bill if elected.