University couple may see progress

On Wednesday, 12 senators — led by John Kerry of Massachusetts — wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano urging that the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages, no longer be defended in federal courts.

“With DOMA as law ... we are creating a tier of second-class families in these states that have authorized same-sex marriage,” the statement read. “The same second-class status is imposed upon marriages between same-sex partners in which one spouse is not a U.S. citizen.”

“We didn’t realize that it was coming until yesterday,” Vandiver said on Thursday. “It came as a huge surprise ... It’s huge to have 12 senators call the Department of Homeland Security to make those changes.”

Referring to the fact that the DHS has not yet commented on the letter, Vandiver explained that “it takes a bit of time for these things to percolate through the media, and, of course, the department also takes time to decide how to respond.”

The letter came on the heels of New Jersey Rep. Rush Holt’s statement to the DHS Tuesday requesting that the deportations of the foreign-born spouses of American citizens be halted until the DOMA conundrum is resolved after the Obama administration recommended in February that the law no longer be defended in federal courts.

“It doesn’t go against the spirit of DOMA to have proceedings on hold until the situation is resolved,” Vandiver said.

These developments constitute a positive turn of events for Vandiver and Velandia after a tumultuous week. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services briefly gave hope to DOMA’s opponents last week by stating that it would delay decisions on the immigration cases of some same-sex couples. Yet, one day later, the USCIS clarified that no policy changes had been made and that DOMA would continue to be enforced.

Attorney Lavi Soloway, who represents the couple, explained in an email that these events “spawned a series of confusing and conflicting reports” that did not impact Velandia’s case “in the way that readers of those articles might fairly conclude that they do.”

“What did happen last week is that we learned officially that some offices of USCIS were holding off denying petitions and applications for green cards filed by married same-sex couples,” Soloway said. “This has nothing to do with the fight for prosecutorial discretion in deportation cases.”

Currently, 19 countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United Kingdom allow same-sex partners to sponsor each other for immigration purposes. Yet in the United States, deportations of the foreign-born spouses of gay Americans continue daily.

“One of the things immigration law seems to do really well is pull families together and keep them together,” Vandiver said. “It’s surprising that, in our case, our government — my government — is coming to destroy my family and separate me from my spouse.”

Vandiver added that DOMA, which was passed in 1996 before any states recognized same-sex marriages, also creates moral dilemmas.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

“Right now, we’re apparently supposed to submit our taxes as single [individuals],” he said. “But we are married. It seems that we are going against the statement that we swore to [on our tax documents] that we are being honest and straightforward. That we’re not committing fraud. If we file as single, we are in effect lying to the federal government ... But if we don’t file as single, we will have penalties levied against us.”

Velandia could be forced to leave the country if his May hearing goes against him. While Velandia would have the option of appealing the ruling, “they don’t have to take the appeal, necessarily,” Vandiver explained.

“If we can get Napolitano to institute a stop to deportations and maybe an abeyance policy for I130 petitions and green card petitions, that’ll impact a lot of couples—thousands of couples,” he added.

Support for the couple’s fight continues to grow, with their online petition nearing 3,000 signatories and their Facebook group “Save Our Marriage — Stop the Deportation of Henry Velandia” having over 10,000 supporters. On Wednesday, All Out, a global gay rights project run by the nonprofit Purpose Foundation, extended its official support.

“They have had several campaigns where they’ve gotten tens of thousands of signatures for key issues, often for people in other countries who are facing some kind of discrimination or infringement of their human rights,” Vandiver said of the group. “We’re really excited to be working with All Out.”

Vandiver and Velandia added that they regularly receive many letters from supporters and couples in similar situations. “Many couples write to us, and they’re writing even more now,” Velandia said. “Now they’re writing, ‘We’re with you, you have our support, you’re our voice,’ ” Velandia added.

“They’ve written to us from Germany, England, Italy. A Princeton undergrad — he’s now in Italy in order to stay with his partner,” Vandiver added. “We’ll continue working with all our supporters around the country ... There are so many people who want to see change on this issue.”

While their fight might focus on immigration laws, Vandiver and Velandia both said they see their fight as being more about ensuring equal rights and treatment.

“It’s really normal, it’s really human what we’re going through,” Velandia said. “People often don’t think of same-sex ... [couples] as human.”

And regardless of the outcome of the upcoming hearing, separation is not an option for the two.

“We’re in love,” Velandia said. “We’re going to stay together.”