In a sign of the U.S. government’s shifting positions on same-sex marriage and deportation policies, and a further entanglement in the growing web of conflicting federal and state policies, federal officials have dropped deportation proceedings against Henry Velandia, a Venezuelan immigrant married to an American man, the couple’s lawyer said yesterday.

Velandia, 27, of Princeton, New Jersey, immigrated to the U.S. in 2002 and legally married Josh Vandiver, a Princeton graduate student, last year in Connecticut. However, he was denied legal residency as Vandiver’s spouse under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which the Obama administration has said it will not defend in court on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, but will continue to enforce.
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Almost ten years after it was first introduced to the Senate, the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act will be the topic of today’s hearing of the Senate Subcommittee of Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. The hearing at 10:00am will feature representatives from the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security, Education and Defense, as well as the Center of Immigration Studies and the U.S. Army Reserves.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) authored the DREAM Act a decade ago and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) re-introduced it early last May. If successful, more than 2 million undocumented immigrant students will have the right to earn legal status if they meet specific requirements. To be eligible for legal status, individuals must have arrived in the U.S. before age 16, be long-term residents, have “moral character,” complete high school or obtain a GED, and complete two years of college or military service.
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The Center for the Study of the Immigrant Integration (CSII) at the University of Southern California just released two publications on immigration in Los Angeles County. Learning from Legalization: The Experience of IRCA-Era Mexicans in Los Angeles County and Measures of Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles County look at the economic and social progress of immigrants who have integrated into Los Angeles community, and the impact of legalization under the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986.

In their aim to create scenarios to discuss immigrant integration in the U.S. and show the benefits of increased integration for the native born and for immigrants, these reports focus on the 3.5 million immigrants residing in Los Angeles. Learning from Legalization: The Experience of IRCA-Era Mexicans in Los Angeles County studies a sample of Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles who arrived from 1975 to 1981 and benefited from IRCA’s amnesty. Results show that such measures helped reduce the gap between natives and immigrants in terms of income, school attainment, and home ownership.
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Same-sex marriage is celebrated in states like Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. But the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed by President Clinton in 1996 still defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman—that is, a male husband and a female wife.

This means gay and lesbian U.S. citizens and permanent residents cannot obtain immigrant visas for their spouses. It’s a situation that affects 36,000 same-sex couples across the country including people like Josh and Henry Velandia. Henry, a Venezuelan, risks deportation and separation from his spouse of 4 years due to the inconsistency between state-level marriage law and federal immigration policy.
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