Free Republic

Wary of criminal record restrictions in Obama ‘deferred action’ policy for dreamersGay immigrants are mounting a campaign to demand that they be included in any unilateral moves President Obama makes this year to halt deportations, arguing that they face unusual circumstances that otherwise might leave them on the outside. The demands pose a tricky test for Mr. Obama, who has made major inroads with gay rights groups during his time in the White House, but who will have to draw lines somewhere as he seeks to craft a more lenient deportation policy without canceling deportations altogether. "We hope that he...

Mickey Kaus is right, of course. Not remotely is this an obstacle to passing the Gang of Eight bill. If anything, it’s a little nudge towards passage from Schumer and company. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has told advocates that he will offer an amendment during the bill markup next week allowing gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for green cards, just as heterosexual couples can. The measure is likely to pass because Democrats face pressure from gay rights advocates to deal with it in committee, rather than on the Senate floor, where the odds of passage...

Evangelicals who have come together to support immigration reform have expressed concern over the White House's decision to include support for same-sex couples in their official immigration proposal. While not mentioning the issue during his Tuesday speech demanding comprehensive immigration reform, President Barack Obama's proposal does include measures that pertain to same-sex couples. The Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, told The Christian Post that he questioned the inclusion of another hot button issue in an already tense subject. "It seems to me that … you are combining two disparate issues when it hasn't been resolved...

Hopes that foreign-born partners of gay and lesbian Americans could follow the same path to citizenship as heterosexual spouses got a boost Thursday when U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Chicago said he would fight to include such a proposal in the campaign for comprehensive immigration reform. Six months ago, when Gutierrez first laid out plans to introduce an immigration reform bill in the U.S. House, the inclusion of same-sex partner rights seemed too politically risky. But the Democrat now says he believes the coalition in favor of immigration reform is strong enough to make the bill "truly inclusive." "The underlying...

Saying that now there's a president in the White House who is not a “guaranteed veto” for the legislation, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler reintroduced a bill Feb. 12 that seeks to enable gay Americans to sponsor their foreign same-sex partners for legal residency in the United States. U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy reintroduced the companion bill in the Senate. Speaking to reporters on a telephone conference call, Nadler said it would be hard to say what the “odds” are for the bill—the Uniting American Families Act”—to pass. Nadler's remarks to reporters were interrupted by a phone call from the White House...

(AP) — SAN ANGELO, Texas - The mayor of this West Texas sheep ranching town offered a stunning explanation when he suddenly resigned: He was in love with a man who was an illegal immigrant and had gone to Mexico. They had to move, he said, because there was no legal way for them to remain together in the United States. "It wasn't a decision that any U.S. citizen should have to make," former Mayor J.W. Lown said in an interview from Mexico. "I left a home. I left a ranch. I left a promising political career."