An LGBT group led by Rainbow LULAC joined the March for Citizenship through downtown Dallas on May 5. Provisions that would protect transgender immigrants and non-resident same-sex partners of U.S. citizens have been stripped from the immigration reform bill working its way through Congress.
In September, Lucy Martinez applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, under a presidential executive order. At the march, she said it took about two months to get approved, and she is now documented.
But DACA provides no path to citizenship and the permit to work must be renewed every two years. Martinez was at the March for Citizenship to support the DREAM Act, which is currently part of the immigration reform bill, to provide a path to citizenship.
Alejandro, also portrayed in our September story on immigration reform, was at the march to protect the omission of the United American Families Act from the bill. UAFA would allow an American citizen or permanent resident to sponsor a same-sex spouse just as heterosexuals can now sponsor their partners.
Nell Gaither participated in the march to protest the treatment of transgender immigrants. She carried a sign that read, “Stop solitary confinement for trans immigrant women.”
This year’s march was much smaller than the Mega March held in 2010, which drew an estimated 500,000.
