Advocates for
binational same-sex couples say the wrenching predicament of a
lesbian mother in California illustrates why Congress needs to
pass the Uniting Americans Families Act.
Shirley Tan, 43, will
likely be deported this Friday from her home in San Mateo. The
deportation would separate Tan from her 12-year-old twin sons,
her life partner, Jay Mercado, and her mother-in-law, sending
Tan back to the Philippines, where she was a victim of horrific
violence.
If Tan and Mercado were
heterosexual and married, advocates say, Mercado could sponsor
Tan for immigration, but federal law limits the definition of
marriage to a man and woman. The discriminatory circumstances
illustrate the urgent need to pass the UAFA, which would allow
gay and lesbian Americans to sponsor their foreign-born
partners just as straight citizens can.
UAFA was reintroduced
in Congress in February, and currently has 110 cosponsors in
addition to chief sponsors Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sen. Patrick
Leahy. Proponents are hopeful that a Democrat-controlled
Congress and a more supportive administration can move the
legislation forward.
"Until the UAFA
passes, families like Jay and Shirley's are at terrible
risk," Immigration Equality executive director Rachel B.
Tiven said in a statement on Monday. "We are hopeful their
members of Congress will introduce a private bill that would
spare their twin boys and the boys' grandmother from having the
country they love tear their family apart."
A potential short-term
alternative to UAFA, private legislation is introduced on
behalf of individuals who demonstrate compelling circumstances,
such as Tan's.
Tan applied for
political asylum in 1995, and thought her case was still
pending, until immigration officials knocked on her door this
January. She told the
San Jose Mercury News
that her former lawyer never told her a deportation order was
issued in 2002. Her bid for asylum failed because the threat to
her life in the Philippines came from a relative -- who shot
her in the head when she was young over an inheritance battle
-- instead of from the government.
Now, like 37,000 other
couples in the United States, Tan and Mercado face the
agonizing choice of either separating their family or going to
live in a country their children have never known.
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