Another Reason why Same Sex Marraige and Unions should be a Federal Issue

Shirley Tan has been with her partner, Jay Mercado, for 23 years. The Pacifica women have twin 12-year-old sons and have been registered domestic partners since 1991. That means nothing to the federal government, which recognizes only a marriage between a man and a woman. Federal authorities ordered Tan, who is not a U.S. citizen, to be deported from San Francisco to her native Philippines. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

With the help of her congresswoman, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, Tan received a three-week stay of the deportation order, allowing her to remain with her family until April 22. In 1995, she applied for political asylum, saying she feared for her life in her home country."I was 14 when it happened, and I was shot in the head and beaten," she said. "It's a miracle that I'm alive." Any deportation action was stayed while the asylum request was being considered. But when the Board of Immigration Appeals turned down the request in 2002 and ordered Tan deported, no one - not even her previous attorney - told her. The respite ended Jan. 28, when immigration agents showed up at Tan's home in Pacifica to take her into custody.

Under the federal Defense of Marriage Act, domestic partnerships and even legal same-sex marriages, such as those last year in California and which still occur in Massachusetts, aren't recognized as valid in immigration cases.

A survey commissioned by Immigration Equality found that in 2000 there were about 37,000 same-sex couples in the country where one partner was a foreign national. About half of these couples had children under 18.

Since 2000, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has introduced bills to allow the "permanent partners" of U.S. citizens the same avenue to permanent resident status spouses now have. The bills have never made it out of committee, but that could change, said Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesman for Nadler.

So far, 93 members of the House and 17 senators have signed on as co-sponsors of either HR1024, the Uniting American Families Act of 2009, or its companion measure in the Senate, S424 by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.