Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk spoke with guest host David Shuster on Countdown last night to discuss the
immigration problem that plagues their family. After 19 years of lawfully residing together in this country, Anthony Makk has run out of options, and will face the choice of illegally overstaying his visa in 13 days or returning to Australia and leaving behind his husband of seven years, partner of 19. His husband Bradford suffers from AIDS and Anthony is his primary caregiver. Wells' health problems preclude him joining his husband in Australia, though that might be an option legally.
Here, their options are running out, but still, Wells says he loves the country that is tearing his husband from him, and Makk remains hopeful a solution will still present itself.
Teddy Partridge has provided a transcript of the Countdown video here.
CNN interviews Anthony and Bradford as well, going into greater detail how Bradford's medical condition affects their situation, and how he depends on Anthony to help him cope day to day.
While I certainly don't envy the couple's circumstances, I find it hard not to envy the very obvious love, affection and commitment these men have found in one another. This perpetual bachelor knows far too well how rare it is to find and maintain connections like this in life. There can be no Earthly reason to object to our government supporting these families, not destroying them.
Immigration Equality, the group representing Makk and Wells, has said they are taking the case to the White House. Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the group, told Countdown:
“I would think the White House would get political points. Do you want a dying American to be here with his caregiver or not?”
The organization has drafted a
petition that reads, in part:
The government has the power to keep these families together. Your administration can — and should — allow lesbian and gay couples to remain together while the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act is challenged in the courts, and in Congress. You have acknowledged that DOMA is unconstitutional and indefensible. Why, then, are you letting it separate loving, married couples?
No American should have to choose between their beloved and their country.
We urge you to take action and instruct federal government agencies to halt the removal of LGBT spouses. There must be a moratorium on the separation of LGBT families while Congress, and the courts, review this injustice and end it once and for all.
We join the 60 Members of Congress who have asked the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to stop these separations. Loving families should not be forced to live under the threat of deportation, and American citizens should not have their families taken away.
Change.org has a similar petition on these couple's behalf here. It garnered over 3,500 signatures in it's first day.
How Would A Moratorium Work?
This is a perfectly lawful route. Nothing in DOMA prevents the administration from exercising this prosecutorial discretion, which in fact,
they have exercised in the past.
- Allow legally married LGBT binational couples to apply for marital green cards, same as other couples.
- Hold the applications in abeyance. They will essentially go to the bottom of the pile. No residency decision will be made one way or another until DOMA's Constitutionality is resolved. At such a time when that is determined, they will proceed accordingly.
• If the courts find it Constitutional, well, that's bad news. But legislative opportunities may present themselves, like passage of the Respect For Marriage Act, Uniting American Families Act, or comprehensive immigration reform. Or the non-citizen may be asked to leave.
• If DOMA is found unconstitutional, then everyone's happy. The administration can be glad they didn't tear apart a family needlessly over an unconstitutional law. And the couples' application can proceed forward through the application process like any other.
This isn't an idea that's crazy or outside the mainstream. Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have already been lobbied by Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and other 12 senators to take exactly this action. Click on letter above to enlarge, text below:
Specifically, we ask the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to hold marriage-based immigration petitions in abeyance pending a legislative repeal or a final determination on DOMA litigation. In addition, we ask DHS to exercise prosecutorial discretion in commencing and prosecuting removal proceedings against married noncitizens that would be otherwise eligible to adjust their status to lawful permanent resident but for DOMA.
We also call upon the Department of Justice to institute a moratorium on orders of removal issued by the immigration courts to married foreign nationals who would be otherwise eligible to adjust their status to lawful permanent resident but for DOMA.
Signatories included Sens. John Kerry (D-MA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
18 House Representatives lead by Rush Holdt (D-NJ) urged the administration in March to take the same action.
Lavi Soloway, a leading attorney in binational LGBT immigration cases told Metro Weekly in March:
"The best thing for the Department of Justice to be doing now is to be holding off on decisions. We're arriving at a new day, and that means a lot of new opportunities."
Saying, "It's not exactly rocket science," Soloway noted when speaking about these issues previously that the administration "has twice dealt in a very special way with groups of individuals facing deportation."
He explained, "They put a moratorium on the widows of U.S. citizens in 2009, and, in 2010, the administration announced it would defer action on the deportation of individuals who are likely eligible under the DREAM Act. So, the administration has shown that it does use its executive branch muscle when it comes to discretion about who to deport."
The administration has repeatedly assured supporters that
its record numbers of deportations include only "
violent offenders and people convicted of crimes—not just families, not just folks who are just looking to scrape together an income." It strains credulity to see how law-abiding LGBT married couples can meet this standard. How can Anthony Makk be a deportation priority?
DOMA No Longer Applies In Federal Bankruptcy Court
Oddly, DOMA seems to be an optional law in Federal bankruptcy court, but not immigration court. After initially objecting to a married same-sex couple filing for joint bankruptcy in California's Ninth Circuit,
in July the US Trustee withdrew their objection and is allowing the bankruptcy to proceed, as though the couple were married under Federal law.
Following consultation with the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), the U.S. Trustee asked to withdraw its appeal in its challenge to the attempted joint bankruptcy petition filed by Gene Douglas Balas and Carlos Morales, a married gay couple who live in California -- a move a Department of Justice spokeswoman says represents the DOJ's new policy on all such bankruptcy filings.
DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler wrote to Metro Weekly that the July 6 filing in the Balas and Morales case represents a new policy, writing, "The Department of Justice has informed bankruptcy courts that it will no longer seek dismissal of bankruptcy petitions filed jointly by same-sex debtors who are married under state law."
Schmaler was quoted by
Reuters as saying the policy change, "avoids generating costly and time-consuming constitutional litigation." This is an odd thing to say as stopping same-sex couples from applying for joint bankruptcy would be enforcing, not litigating, litigation has been tasked to the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group. Maybe the
DOJ is too busy brokering settlements for the big banks? In a follow-up report the next day
Metro Weekly's Chris Geidner concludes:
The move appears to be the first time that the federal government is, as a matter of policy, recognizing same-sex marriages for purposes of applying federal law. Before this week, married same-sex couples' joint bankruptcy petitions were opposed by the government as impermissible under the Defense of Marriage Act.
Good to know that if Bradford and Anthony wanted to go to the Federal poor house together, that would be fine with the administration. Staying together on American soil? Not so much.
Contact Information
BARBARA BOXER
CALIFORNIA
202-224-3553
email
112 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
415-403-0100 559-497-5109 213-894-500 619-239-3884
312 N. Spring St. Suite 1748, Los Angeles, CA 90012
DIANE FEINSTEIN
CALIFORNIA
202-224-3841
email
331 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
415-393-0707 310-914-7300 619-231-9712 559-485-7430
11111 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 915 Los Angeles, CA 90025
NANCY PELOSI
CALIFORNIA
202-224-3841
email
90 7th Street, Suite 2-800, San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 556-4862
235 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4965
WHITE HOUSE
202-456-1111
email