Love Sees No Borders - 9-11 Aftermath

Terrorist Attacks Affect Binational Same-Sex Couples

The recent events of Sept. 11th have created a massive wave of ripple effects. One of the most invisible is the effect that the attacks had on the binational same-sex couples community. The anti-immigrant backlash is hurting hundreds of thousands of binational same-sex couples that are struggling to remain together in this country. Here are some examples of the many scenarios same-sex binational couples are facing in this post 9-11 world:

- On Dec. 12, the INS raided the homes of Middle Eastern students in the San Diego area, arresting 10 men and women. These students are suspected of violating the terms of their student visas by not attending school. Many same-sex binational couples rely on student visas to remain together. Unfortunately, foreign tuition is astronomically high being 10 times more expensive, making it impossible for many couples to afford tuition for the foreign partner. Therefore, many couples find that failing to attend school is the best solution to their problems since they find absolutely no other legal solution. If these couples were granted recognition for immigration purposes, many legitimate American families would not need to fear raids such as the one that occurred in San Diego County.

- On Dec. 05, the INS announced that it is joining forces with the FBI to track down over 300,000 foreigners with a deportation order who remained in the country regardless of this order. A segment of the binational same-sex couples community rely on risking defying the law since they find no other means to remain together in the U.S. If our relationships were recognized for immigration purposes, these orders would have never been issued to members of our community in the first place.

- On Nov. 19, the State of New Jersey announced it will not issue drivers licenses to foreigners who have a visa that will expire within a year, making it impossible for the foreign half of a binational same-sex couple in this situation to conduct daily business like driving to and from work, cashing pay checks, or traveling. In addition to curtailing the life of the foreigner, this regulation has the potential of affecting Americans and place them in a position of hardship since the household income may be affected by this. Given the last-minute-solution of this community, this restriction will indeed become a serious burden to same-sex binational couples living in New Jersey.Other states making it harder for foreigners to get ID cards or drivers licenses are Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin.

- On Oct. 16 the Wall Street Journal reported that "a bill sponsored by Sen. Christopher Bond (R., Mo.) would require employers to tell federal authorities within 14 days when they release a worker on an H-1B temporary work visa and give a reason why, or the company would be banned from hiring H-1B workers for a year." During the first days of the economic slowdown thousands of H-1B visa holders have been laid off, yet even the INS is unsure on how long an H-1B visa holder has to find a new job, especially in this job environment. Love Sees No Borders believes that more efficient and better-funded intelligence agencies can act more appropriately in tracking down terrorists than the INS or Corporate America. Love Sees No Borders urges Congress and the INS to take the pressure off same-sex binational couples and to keep in mind that the vast majority of H-1B visa holders are tax-paying and law-abiding members of society who may be in stable relationships with Americans.

- Asylum is a tool utilized by same-sex binational couples because many times the foreign half has been a victim of persecution in his or her home country. Yet, a recent debate arose about arrested illegal immigrants. If an illegal alien finds him/herself in deportation proceedings, he/she is released if a hearing is requested. Many never return for the hearing and remain illegally in the country. Jailing them while their case is tried is a possibility right now. The INS has a similar policy of releasing aliens seeking asylum, assuming they do not pose a flight risk. According to a report from the General Accounting Office, more than one-third of these individuals failed to appear for their asylum hearings between 1997 and early 2000. This may mean that now even asylum, many times seen as the golden solution, will become a reason for fear rather than joy because asylum may be incarcerated in the future while their cases are processed by the INS.

- The INS froze "hundreds of thousands of applications and visa petitions from immigrants while it conducts a national audit of applicants and assigns a bar code to every one," endangering same-sex couples seeking to remain together in the U.S. In addition of threatening existing same-sex binational couples, the U.S. Government is installing a national identification system applicable only to foreigners through its barcode system. In recent debates, national I.D. cards have been considered a violation of civil liberties of Americans, but the U.S. sees it fit to discriminate against foreign nationals with regard to the same civil liberties. Love Sees No Borders would like to remind the U.S. Government and the American people that no immigration policy such as this one would have prevented the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995. The best way to protect the nation and the world of such heinous activities is by increasing intelligence on known groups--both domestic and foreign--and monitoring their activities. Love Sees No Borders urges the U.S. Government to think twice before passing xenophobic measures that only hurt law-abiding, tax-paying foreigners and their American halves in same-sex relationships by de-stabilizing their family nucleus.

- 80,000 refugees worldwide were locked out of the United States, many of them very likely seeking asylum based on sexual orientation. Many likely come from homophobic countries and found that asylum was their only way to be in a safer country with their American partner. Now, couples are very likely separated with the foreign half suffering persecution while the American half can't do anything to help.

- The attacks of Sept. 11th have aggravated an already fragile economy, causing even more layoffs and hiring freezes. A large percentage of same-sex binational couples rely on H-1B visas, or work visas to remain together. Thousands of couples are seeing their dreams of building a future together vanish as the economy crumbles. Since Sept 11th, over 470 thousand layoffs have been announced.

In addition, many employers who recruit at job fairs and "pink slip" parties are prominently displaying “NO H-1B SPONSORSHIP AVAILABLE” signs in their booths. This makes it unlikely that highly qualified foreigners will be able to find a new employer in the event of a layoff, forcing a same-sex binational couple to be separated.

- Sen. Fienstein proposed banning the issuing of student visas to the following countries: Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Cuba. Unfortunately to many couples where the foreign partner is from these countries, a student visa is their only ticket to attempting to build a family in the United States. Most of these countries are incredibly hostile to gays and lesbians and many punish this by execution. At the same time, this environment has caused that many students from various countries in the world now are afraid of having their entry denied if they visit their families abroad over the holidays.

- Sen. Feinstein wants to require the INS to conduct a background check before the State Department can issue a student visa to foreign nationals. Homosexuality is a crime in many countries, and some people may have been jailed once because of it. For example, in Egypt 52 men were arrested because of their alleged homosexuality. We praise Feinstein's efforts to protect the United States, but this kind of legislation places more stress on legitimate same-sex couples that only wish to live together.

- Severe anti-immigration legislation sought by the White House would incarcerate any person suspected of being involved in terrorist activities without being proven guilty first. Secret evidence will be used against these people, who will never know why they were detained. Since Americans in same-sex relationships cannot sponsor their foreign partners like Americans in opposite-sex relationships can, their families are more exposed to the risk of abuse.

- In addition, INS officials are now caught up in a hunt for terrorists, taking them away from their usual duties. This could potentially cause an even bigger backlog in processing immigration cases for people who have no terrorist links whatsoever, people who simply would like to stay in this country because of the very freedoms it provides. The impact this could have on binational couples is hard to calculate.

Same-sex binational couples are an invisible segment of the LGBT community because the fear of coming out of the immigration closet is larger than coming out of the gay closet. Love Sees No Borders fights to increase the visibility of this marginalized group of our society, and bring to light their suffering.