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Sen. Blumenthal Stands Up for Lesbian Binational Couple
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Sen. Blumenthal Stands Up for Lesbian Binational Couple
Sen. Blumenthal Stands Up for Lesbian Binational Couple
Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is calling on the Department of Homeland Security to put on hold, rather than outright deny, a marriage-based green card petition brought by a Connecticut lesbian couple.
In a Thursday letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who voted yesterday to advance a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, asked that the couple's green card petition be held in abeyance until DOMA's constitutionality is determined by the courts.
The letter follows requests this past spring by a contingent of Democratic lawmakers to hold green card petitions involving married gay binational couples in abeyance, given multiple pending legal challenges against DOMA and an administration that has declared the 1996 law to be unconstitutional.
Blumenthal wrote of Kelli Ryan and her British-born wife, Lucy Truman: "Having been lawfully married in Connecticut, they now seek to establish long-term roots in our state. ... The United States stands to lose two highly intelligent and talented women to the United Kingdom if Lucy -- a talented clinician, scientist, and valuable member of our community -- is not able to stay in the United States."
Read more on the couple here via Immigration Equality.