Citing DOMA, Obama Admin Seeks to Deport Husband of Gay AIDS Patient
The Obama administration is under criticism for its handling of the case of a married binational gay couple in San Francisco who stand to be split apart by deportation. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has denied immigration benefits to Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, an Australian national, who were married in Massachusetts seven years ago. The decision cited the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the Obama administration had previously backed off from and vowed to no longer defend in court. Makk has been ordered to return to Australia. He is the primary caregiver for his husband, an AIDS patient with severe health problems. In a statement, Immigration Equality said, "We are appealing to the Obama administration … to put into action what they’ve said repeatedly they can do. [They] have said again and again that they can exercise discretion in individual cases, but they have not done so for a single gay or lesbian couple yet."
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/10/headlines
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Permalink Reply by Derwin Sherwood on -
Bi-National Gay Couple in San Francisco Granted Deportation Stay
Meanwhile a bi-national gay married couple in San Francisco has won a reprieve against a deportation order that threatened to tear them apart. Bradford Wells, a U.S. citizen, and Anthony John Makk, an Australian national, have lived together for 19 years and were among the first same-sex couples to legally marry in Massachusetts. Makk has faced deportation after the Obama administration denied him and his husband the same immigration benefits routinely given to opposite-sex couples. The decision is based on the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law known as DOMA, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples. The Obama administration has said it would no longer defend DOMA in the courts, but the law still remains in effect. On Wednesday, Makk was told he had been granted a temporary stay on the deportation order allowing him to remain in the United States for two years.
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http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/5/headlines -
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