DOJ & DHS are fighting it out with House GOP over immigration law re same-sex bi-national couples

[Pirate Smile]

Defending DOMA, Fighting Back
In a case in California, DOJ and DHS are fighting it out with House Republican leaders over immigration law regarding same-sex bi-national couples

-snip-
Lui and Roberts have, though, found themselves in the middle of several complex legal and political questions being addressed by the Obama administration – from the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act to immigration reform – and in the middle of a dispute that, as Holguin says, ''blew up into major, major litigation'' involving all three branches of the federal government.

-snip-
On Friday, Sept. 2, the Department of Justice – on behalf of Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas and the Los Angeles district director of USCIS – filed a brief in Lui and Roberts's case in federal court arguing that DOMA should be found unconstitutional, which would then allow USCIS to consider granting Roberts's I-130 petition.

Specifically, DOJ and DHS were responding to a motion made in the case earlier this year by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) – a five-person panel controlled by the House Republican leadership – seeking to have Roberts and Lui's challenge to DOMA dismissed. The fact that BLAG intervened and filed a motion to dismiss the DOMA claim has not previously been reported, likely because filings in many immigration cases, including this one, are not available publicly.
Metro Weekly obtained a copy of the DOJ brief, which presents some of the facts of the case, notes BLAG's June 17 filing and lays out the federal government's case against DOMA – a case that Holguin says that the administration makes ''quite forcefully.''

-snip-
In other words, the Obama administration has taken a position in favor of the rights of bi-national same-sex couples by sidestepping the potential pitfall of the ''plenary power doctrine,'' a move that increases the likelihood that DOMA – and its ban on allowing immigration law to recognize same-sex couples – would be found unconstitutional.

http://metroweekly.com/news/?ak=6543

[dennis4868]

1. wait a minute...

a DUers just told me Obama has done nothing for Gay Rights...hmmmm...

Let's see what this DUers is ignoring:

FEDERAL LEGISLATION SIGNED INTO LAW

*Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability -- the first positive federal LGBT legislation in the nation's history
*Signed repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell
*Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act


POLICIES CHANGED

*Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
*Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees in 2009 and, further, in 2010
*Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
*Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
*Committed to ensuring that federal housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
*Conceived a National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders -- the nation's first ever -- funded by a three-year HHS grant to SAG

*Banned job discrimination based on gender identity throughout the Federal government (the nation's largest employer)
*Eliminated the discriminatory Census Bureau policy that kept our relationships from being counted, encouraging couples who consider themselves married to file that way, even if their state of residence does not yet permit legal marriage
*Instructed HHS to require any hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds (virtually all hospitals) to allow LGBT visitation rights
*Required all grant applicants seeking HUD funding to comply with state and local anti-discrimination laws that protect LGBT individuals
*Adopted transgender recommendations on the issuance of gender-appropriate passports that will ease barriers to safe travel and that will provide government-issued ID that avoids involuntary "outing" in situations requiring ID, like hiring, where a gender-appropriate driver's license or birth certificate is not available
*Extended domestic violence protections to LGBT victims
*Extended the Family and Medical Leave Act to cover employees taking unpaid leave to care for the children of same-sex partners
*Issued guidance specifically to assist LGBT tenants denied housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity
*Issued a National HIV/AIDS Strategy praised as "long-overdue" by the Task Force, Lambda and others
*Issued guidance to 15,000 local departments of education and 5,000 colleges to support educators in combating bullying
*Cut back authority to discharge under Don't Ask/Don't Tell from hundreds of generals to just 6 civilian appointees, effectively ending discharges while working toward a permanent end to the policy.
*Led the fight that reversed a 2010 UN vote removing sexual orientation from the list of things people should not be killed for
*Launched the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing
*Determined that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional, that discrimination against LGBT citizens should be subject to "heightened scrutiny" and that it will no longer defend this portion of the law in court.
*Vacated a court order that would have deported a gay American's Venezuelan partner


RESPECT & INCLUSION

*Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide FULL partnership benefits to federal employees
*Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamations since 2000
*Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
*Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King, joining past recipients such as Rosa Parks
*Appointed the first ever transgender DNC member
*Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
*Hired more openly LGBT officials (like these) in its first two years -- more than 150, including more than 20 "Senate-confirmables" -- than any previous administration hired in four years or eight
*Sworn in Ambassador David Huebner
*Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education
*Appointed Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, instead of conservatives who would have tilted the Court even further to the right and virtually doomed our rights for a generation. To wit (quoting McCain): "I've said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I've said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts. I worked as hard as anybody to get them confirmed. I look you in the eye and tell you I've said a thousand times that I wanted Alito and Roberts. I have told anybody who will listen. I flat-out tell you I will have people as close to Roberts and Alito ."

*Named open transgender appointees (the first President ever to do so)
*Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the President’s historic NAACP address (“The pain of discrimination is still felt in America. By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”) . . . to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation (“Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things”) and his Mothers Day proclamation ("Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by two parents, a single mother, two mothers, a step-mom, a grandmother, or a guardian. Mother's Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate these extraordinary caretakers") . . . to creating the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies . . . to including the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of Goldman Sachs in the small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange . . . to welcoming four gay couples to its first State Dinner
*Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act
*Spoken out against discrimination at the National Prayer Breakfast ("We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are -- whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.")
*Dispatched the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to call on the Senate to repeal Don't Ask / Don't Tell
*Launched a website to gather public comment on first-ever federal LGBT housing discrimination study
*Appointed long-time equality champion Chai Feldblum one of the four Commissioners of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
*Produced U.S. Census Bureau PSAs featuring gay, lesbian, and transgender spokespersons
*Appointed Retired Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer, an early public champion of open service in the military, to the Defense Advisory

Committee on Women in the Services
*Publicly invited the shunned MIssissippi high school prom student to the White House
*Successfully fought for UN accreditation of IGLHRC (the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission) -- against Republican attempts to block it
*Convened the first-ever anti-bullying summit to craft a national strategy to reduce bullying in schools
*Launched stopbullying.gov
*Awarded $13.3 million to the LA Gay & Lesbian Center to create a model program for LGBTQ youth in the foster care system
*Tweeted to 5.7 million BarackObama followers and nearly 2 million WhiteHouse followers the President's "It Gets Better" video
*Embraced that campaign with heartfelt messages from, as well, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of *Agriculture (aimed particularly at rural youth), the Secretaries of Education and Health & Human Services, the Secretary of Labor (in English and Spanish), the Director of OPM and LGBT members of the White House staff
*Issued a Department of Justice video urging kids to call a Justice Department toll-free number if their school is aware of bullying but taking no action
*Held the first ever White House conference on bullying prevention, led by the President and First Lady
*Hosted first-ever White House transgender policy meeting
http://www.equalitygiving.org/Accomplishments-by-the-Ad...


Here are a few links corroborating this.
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/gay-rights-preside...

[Pirate Smile]

2. Well, the Rec's certainly aren't flying in so some folks certainly don't want this news advertised.

But then again, the standard seems to be ignore the good, focus all attention and energy on the bad or what you can spin as bad.

[dennis4868]

3. EXACTLY!

:puke:

[treestar]

5. Rec'd

This is one constituency that should be behind Obama 100%.

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. WoW! You had three recs when I clicked on this thread. By the time I rec'd...

you had "0". What would be the purpose of suppressing this info? :shrug:

[Pirate Smile]

6. Good question. People on DU suppressing good news for Dems? Figure that out.

That seems to be the main purpose of some people on DU.

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. Welcome to Anti-Obama Underground.

:hi:

[madmom]

8. There I just gave you your 5th rec so off to the greatest page. ;o)

[vaberella]

9. This is why I don't take the "holding his feet to the fire" people seriously.

If they were really holding his feet to the fire...then when he did something good. They'd be all over that thread as well as when he's doing something bad. But rarely do you see them jump into the good threads. The more vocal complainers on the President---who claim they aren't hating him---rarely comment, if ever on the good threads he's done. Look how something as monumental as this is getting snuffed. But there are idiots quick to call the President homophobic despite the contrary.

[Tarheel_Dem]

11. +1000

:applause:

I think we've come to the same conclusion. Much of the noise has never been about "activism" or "holding his feet to the fire", but you can't really call it what it is, or you'll be deleted, and in some cases, banned. :hi:

[FrenchieCat]

10. Where's Greenwald when you need him????

:mad:

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Great question.

;)

[FrenchieCat]

15. In fact, where are all of the folks to trash the Republican candidates in the debate.....

I don't see them posting anywhere? :shrug:

[Tarheel_Dem]

17. Didn't you get the memo? We don't trash Republicans at DU anymore. The mission changed.

;)

[young but wise]

12. K&R.

[Tarheel_Dem]

13. K&R

:kick:

[tammywammy]

16. k&r n/t

[Pirate Smile]

18. kick