Immigration reform proposals could help undocumented LGBT immigrants who have even fewer options than straight counterparts
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| IMMIGRATION ALLY | Lividia Violette was one of many LGBT people who turned out Saturday, May 1, to participate in the Dallas Mega March calling for reform of the country’s immigration laws. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice) |
Tens of thousands of people marched in Downtown Dallas for immigration reform on Saturday, May 1. Among them were members of the local Rainbow LULAC group and other allies from the LGBT community.
The Mega March was planned months ago to support immigration reform legislation that was expected to reach the floor of Congress once health care reform passed.
In the weeks before the march, however, Arizona passed a new law that requires police officers to check immigration status of anyone they stop. Anger about that law fueled larger than anticipated participation in the march.
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund condemned the new Arizona law and its particular effect on LGBT immigrants and their families.
"LGBT undocumented immigrants are among the most invisible of the invisible," said Lambda Legal Executive Director Kevin Cathcart in a written statement. "Many inhabit a double closet, afraid of disclosing their sexual orientation and/or gender identity and afraid of disclosing that they are undocumented."
Among those participating in the Mega March was a young man who knows exactly what Cathcart meant. Because of his immigration status, the young man asked that his real name not be used, and that he instead be referred to as Miguel.
Miguel said he came to this country from Mexico with his parents when he was 5 years old. He grew up in San Antonio but has lived in Dallas for the last 10 years.
He does not have legal status.
Although he is 22, Miguel said he feels like he isn’t where he should be at that age.
"I feel like I’ve been set back," he said. "Everything is harder for me."
Without documentation, Miguel has not been able to go to college, although he tried to register at El Centro College.
"Because I’m not a legal resident, they can’t give me loans," he said.
Miguel works two jobs, at a gas station and fast food restaurant, trying to save money for school. To get those jobs, he had to use someone else’s information.
Miguel drives, although he does not have a driver’s license. Texas does not issue licenses to residents who are not legal.
Miguel said that he’s trying to save money, but has spent much of it recently paying a couple of traffic tickets that included extra penalties for driving without a license. He’s careful to make sure any fines he incurs are paid so he’s not picked up later on a violation.
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| STANDING FOR A CAUSE | Jesse Garcia, president of the LULAC 4871-Dallas Rainbow Council, and Dallas City Councilwoman Pauline Medrano were among those who turned out to march for immigration reform. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice) |
If he were arrested, Miguel would likely be sent to Mexico, a place he hasn’t been since he was five and where he has no family. He does not speak Spanish well, and would have no place to live.
Miguel said he understands that he faces these dangers because he is in the country illegally. But he also noted that inequities in U.S. immigration law for LGBT people leave him with far fewer options than others in his situation.
Miguel’s brother married a woman who is U.S. citizen and is now in the United States legally. His sister married a man who is a U.S. citizen and now resides in this country legally.
Miguel’s boyfriend would like to do the same for him, but because they have a same-sex relationship that is not recognized by the federal government, he cannot.
"I’m screwed in two ways," he said.
The situation is not uncommon.
The former mayor of San Angelo, J.W. Lown, resigned soon after he was re-elected for his fourth term last year to be with his partner. Lown’s partner had returned to Mexico because he could not get legal status here. But that would not have been the case had they been a heterosexual couple.
Lown moved to Mexico so they could be together.
"Under the current laws, once you are out of status, it is very hard to gain legal status," said Cannon Flowers, executive director of the Human Rights Initiative. "It takes congressional intervention."
Flowers said that a comprehensive immigration bill was introduced in Congress last week that includes the LGBT-friendly Uniting American Families Act and the Dream Act. Either would help in Miguel’s situation.
UAFA would allow bi-national LGBT families to remain together legally in the United States, and the non-citizen could gain eventual citizenship, Flowers said.
The Dream Act would allow people who came to this country as minors to apply for citizenship. Flowers said those applying for legal status under this law would have to meet a number of criteria.
To be granted legal status under the Dream Act, applicants would have to be high school graduates, have been in the country five years before passage of the bill and be of good moral character.
Flowers said that last provision simply means the person has no criminal record, and he said he does not expect it would be used to exclude LGBT immigrants.
Flowers said the only current alternative for someone like Miguel is to go to Mexico and re-enter the U.S. with a work or student visa.
Many of the arguments for stricter enforcement of current immigration laws and deportation of anyone in this country without legal status are economic in nature.
Some argue that North Texas public schools and county hospitals are overwhelmed serving illegal residents.
But two of the property taxes paid in Texas fund the local hospital district and the independent school district, and an illegal immigrant who buys a home in Dallas County pays property taxes that support DISD and Parkland Hospital. And those who pay rent fund their landlord’s payment of those taxes.
However, in an e-mail to Dallas Voice, one writer pointed that out illegal immigrants do not pay federal taxes, and those taxes fund a number of local programs.
"Our schools, hospitals, etc. are not funded 100 percent by sales and property taxes," he wrote. "[Federal taxes] fund local programs like school lunches, general federal school funding."
A number of other local school programs that cover many non-legal students are funded with federal money. Title 1 grants support education for disadvantaged students and IDEA grants subsidize programs for disabled students.
Signs by counterprotesters at the Mega March called for the end to granting citizenship to "anchor babies." Those are children born to mothers who come across the border pregnant and give birth on U.S. soil.
But a number of studies indicate that undocumented workers actually have a positive effect on their communities.
The non-partisan Iowa Policy Project found that the average undocumented
family in that state paid about $1,254 in sales and excise taxes, $110 in property taxes and $307 in income taxes, for a total tax contribution of $1,671 each year.
The League of Women’s Voters did a study on the impact of immigration.
In North Carolina, for example, they found that foreign workers filled one-third of new jobs in North Carolina. Supplying services to those same people cost the state $61 million but their impact on the state was an $11 billion contribution.
Still, the issue remains volatile. One side would like the federal government to enforce current laws strictly and even build a wall across the border. The other side would like immigration laws to be reformed and enforced.
Under current laws, same-sex couples have no rights. Whether same-sex couples are included in any reform bill is at the whim of Congress. As the bill introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer of New York now stands, gays and lesbians would benefit.
One candidate for Congress in Iowa offered his own proposal this week to deal with illegal aliens.
"I actually support micro-chipping them," Republican candidate Pat Bertroche said. "I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I microchip an illegal? That’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under."
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 7, 2010.
I was there and so proud to be a part of the Hispanic community about immigration reform in Texas. We should all stand up for them and not allow legislation like this to come to this state. I will fight with you my Latino/Hispanic brothers and sisters.
Pualine and Jesse we got your back. (GET EQUAL)
Simply rediculous. We Gay People are always looking for some reason to march. No wonder some of society thinks we are weird. Arizona is not targeting gays. Texas needs to adopt a similar law.
Gay people ARE weird. And I am proud to be one of them—LOL!!!!
I learned a lot of factual information from this article.
Thank you, David Taffet, for writing an intelligent article!
Knowing these facts I can form educated opinions about the situation and determine what positive action I want to take.
Please write more articles for the Voice like this one. The photo was good too.
It is a sad situation and it’s made worse by our failing economy. When times were good, this was just a back-burner issue.
When times were good, greedy Americans had no problem luring illegals to do its dirty work…and to do it dirt cheap.
Now times are NOT so good and Americans want to ship all the illegals back to Mexico. I’m sorry, but America can’t have it both ways. And it shows a lack of respect for humanity.
I just think this is a well written article.
I hadn’t thought much about the effects of this racial war on people from the Gay community.
This makes it even more repulsive to me.
When are we going to stop hating people who,as the article points out-DO pay taxes,even being undocumented?Keep us informed,David-please
What isn’t a GLB issue these days? It seems the gay community is willing to take on any and every cause after digging (sometimes at length) for any connection to even a single gay person.
Immigration has nothing to do with gay rights. So what if there are illegal immigrants who happen to be gay? I don’t want to tolerate them any more than I want to tolerate straight law-breakers. Sexuality has nothing to do with it.
Our community needs to stay focused on ENDA, DADT, and other substantive pieces of equality legislation directly affecting our community en mass, and stop meddling in other causes – especially since most racial minority groups don’t support GLB rights. And please, don’t offer anecdotes about how this Latino showed up at that event, or how that African American sits on this board, or that this Asian mentioned that gay person in a speech. Who cares? One must admit that, as a whole population, racial minorities are FAR less likely to support GLB causes than visa versa.
It’s time the GLB community stick to its own mission and let others stick to theirs. Otherwise, we become a jack of all trades and a master of none.
This issue is not a GLBT issue. That connection attempting to be made is a manner of resorting to creating sensationalism and hysteria to get GLBT people on-board. Instead of hysteria, this needs to be looked at in a logical view.
The AZ law states that there must be probable cause of a legal nature to check citizenship status, and that’s what we need to do. While there may be isolated cases of law enforcement using this law the wrong way, the amount of good it can do far outweighs that. If you only look at the possible negatives of that law, it’s like saying that repealing DADT is going to incite orgies in some military barracks. The good far outweighs the bad.
Furthermore, eligibility requirements for becoming a U.S. Citizen are not that difficult, and there is not indication that the gentleman named Miguel in this article has ever attempted to apply for citizenship. If he has been here for 17 years, he most certainly meets all of the requirements. Why not apply to become a citizen? It’s not that people supporting this law don’t want him here, we just want him to commit to being a part of this nation. With all of the rights and opportunities he will be afforded, why wouldn’t he want to do that? In my opinion, going 17 years without attempting citizenship is unacceptable.
THEY CAME FIRST for the immigrants,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a immigrant.
THEN THEY CAME for the Muslims,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Muslim.
THEN THEY CAME for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
To Gay American:
Your hysteria about catchy Holocaust sayings doesn’t address the substantive debate as to whether or not the gay rights movement is too broad in its scope.
Instead, I’d offer you:
They boycotted the buses in Montgomery, not for the gays, but for themselves.
They boycotted grocery stores and grapes in California, not for the gays, but for themselves.
They voted in November 2008, against gay rights in multiple states, but for a like president.
It goes on and on. The gay rights movement seems more than willing to devote its resources to any cause, regardless of the merits, which remotely appears to have an element of “equality” to it. And, what rewards do we get in turn? None.
We need to refocus as a community and become consolidated in our cause – gay rights. While certainly its fine to support racial rights, immigrant rights, etc. etc. etc., there won’t be, and hasn’t been, any profit to our own movement. I’m not suggesting that any person work against an equality movement, but I do argue that if a gay person is compelled to become involved at all, that they should contribute to the gay rights movement first and foremost, and let other groups work for their own cause. God knows they aren’t shy any numbers.
If you honestly believe that the immigrant rights movement will carry the banner of gay rights along with it – a movement which is largely Catholic and a Latino community which, on the whole, widely rejects gay rights – then you are sadly mistaken. To assert that gay rights will blossom from immigrant rights is more than naive, it’s negligent.
The LGBT community includes every race, gender, nationality, religion, and economic status which mean that this IS a LGBT issue. It seems from the majority of comments that LGBT issues only involve white males and that issues such as immigration reform, reproductive rights, and social justice (which are issues that predominantly affect people of color and women) are not issues that the mainstream LGBT feel are valid fights for them to participate. Hmm, I wonder why african american and hispanics voted for Prop 8? Probably b/c the mainstream LGBT movement doesn’t consider their issues to be important (until they need a freakin vote). We are quick to chant that gay rights are civil rights but when do we ever stand up for injustice outside of our own narrow agenda?
So Blacks and Latinos voted for Prop 8 because they were angry that LGBT movement doesn’t consider their issues important? Hogwash! That’s WAY overrating the sophistication of voters in 2008, and such an assertion reveals your lack of understanding of this issue.
Just because the LGBT community includes people of various demographics doesn’t mean that every issue has to be taken up by the gay community, which is still struggling for its own rights. My complaint is clear, and its that gays and lesbians are quick to take of the cause of others, while it is others who don’t so quickly take up ours. To spin it around and suggest that gays and lesbians aren’t one of the most tolerant communities in America is, again, revealing your ignorance.
And, by the way, it’s not gays and lesbians who pander for votes. That would be your brotha, Nobama – you know they one who promised gays and lesbians the world so we’d vote for him, and hasn’t done a dang thing for us.
Immigration Reform = forgiving, in whole or in part, those in this country illegally. It’s not “reform,” it’s legalization of fluid borders.
Gay rights = the right not to be fired or denied housing, serve in the military, marry the person they love, or other basic human rights.
You must admit that gay rights deal with quite a few more fundamental issues that immigration “reform.”
To criticize the gay agenda as being narrow is outrageous. If anything, we spend too much time putting up with people with names like Latisha.
@Texan…if you can’t be a part of the movement of full equality of ALL people then you need step to the side and to shut da hell up.
What many LGBT organizations are missing is the need for collaboration. That our struggle is just a piece of the social injustice puzzle. Ever heard of the quote “An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere”?
Your racist rant does nothing to bring unity to our community and shows your absolute ignorance to strategy when it comes to the fight for equality.
David,
Please write more articles like this one. The more educated I am with factual information the better opportunity I have to not end up like some of the posters above.
I don’t believe anything from posters who let anger and uncontrolable emotions override their thinking and behavior.
For those interested in seeing the type of respectable, equality-minded advocate we have Latisha McDaniel, visit:
https://i42.tinypic.com/rcu71g.jpg
No doubt she’ll be taken very seriously by policy makers who witness her parading around in giant mock genitalia.
Indeed it is Latisha who stands best ready to tell GLBT organizations what they are missing. Certainly it is Latisha who brings an unmatched skill for strategy for our movement.
Can you imagine if any GLBT leaders posted these types of photos on their own Facebook (the location from which this photo was taken)?
Professionalism, Latisha. Act professionally, dear.
And… it’s pronounced (and spelled) “the,” not “da.” 🙂
Collaboration def. General: Cooperative arrangement in which two or more parties (which may or may not have any previous relationship) work jointly towards a common goal.
https://dallasvoice.com/instant-tea/2010/05/10/thanks-to-the-gays-in-dallas-lulac-national-sends-out-an-e-mail-urging-a-repeal-of-dadt/#more-15554
TexanAlways: simply put, you’re ignorant. You’re also a racist who can’t see past his own white experience.
Tisha Mcmuthafukk’nDaniel has the courage to use her actual name on her posts, unlike you, who doesn’t have the fortitude from either your own genitalia or a giant inflatable MOCK member. When you have to go look at her facebook and troll through her pictures to find a way to criticize her, you have run out of ideas. The best thing to do in that situation is just keep your mouth shut.
As far as respectability goes, I would rather have a giant vagina as the head of our movement than some saltine who spouts thinly-veiled racist comments on public forums.
You should probably know that immigration has much more to it than people illegally crossing our southern border. Not everyone who is here illegally came in illegally. There is also a fundamental LGBT equality issue when it comes to immigration. If you meet and fall in love with someone who is here on a temporary visa, you can’t marry them and allow them to stay here. They can choose to stay here illegally (as some do) or go back home and wait until they secure approval for a new visa and can afford to come back. Heterosexuals are permitted to marry and the immigrant is allowed to stay in the country indefinitely.
But of course you knew that already, right?
You also knew that LGBT people are disproportionately affected by poverty, right? You also knew that LGBT people are disproportionately denied access to healthcare, right? You also knew that LGBT people are often targeted by police, right? You do know that there is a much higher rate of drug abuse and alcoholism in the LGBT community, right? You also knew that there is a much higher suicide rate in the LGBT community, right? You also knew that LGBT seniors are often left with no means for care, right?
These issues we ‘meddle’ in directly affect the LGBT community, some much more so than the ‘ENDA, DADT, and other substantive pieces of equality legislation directly affecting our community en mass’ (read, white gay males).
Listen, shoog, go read a book and come back and tell me about it. Your ignorance offends my sensibilities.
And I will watch for you on this forum and call out your racism. It’s disgusting. Really.
I imagine everyone has heard the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall”. Well, it appears the gay community is divided indeed on many many issues. No wonder our struggle is so difficult and slow.