Leave a Comment Sagesse
Two Republicans announce support for Uniting America Families Act
December 19, 2012
By Jacob Combs
Two House Republicans have announced their support for the Uniting American Families Act, which would provide same-sex couples with the same immigration rights opposite-sex couples enjoy, the Huffington Post reported yesterday. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Richard Hanna of New York joined Senator Susan Collins, the only Republican to support the bill up until yesterday, and 145 Democrats as co-sponsors on the legislation.
In a statement to the Huffington Post, Rep. Hanna called his decision “pro-business”:
“Our laws force some couples to live apart rather than in the country of their choice, pressuring Americans to take their talent, innovation, and wealth elsewhere. Businesses large and small in New York, many of them multinational corporations, are struggling to keep some of their best workers in the United States … We can keep jobs, dollars and talent right here in the United States by simply allowing financially and emotionally committed couples to live together in the same country.”
New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler introduced the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in 2011. Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, non-citizens in same-sex marriages in the United States are often at risk of deportation, since their American spouses cannot sponsor them for citizenship the way that opposite-sex partners can.
As speculation heats up that President Obama may push for a comprehensive immigration solution in his next term, some immigration equality advocates hope that UAFA could be included in those discussions. As the Huffington Post reported in November, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus included immigration rights for binational same-sex couples in a press release containing their principles for immigration reform.
Of course, three Republican lawmakers is a tiny fraction of the party’s legislators, and UAFA is a long way from passage. But these small steps are a crucial part of building a coalition for change.
Having technical problems? E-mail equalityontrial AT couragecampaign DOT org for assistance!
5 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Sammy | December 19, 2012 at 8:37 am
Well and although she hasnt publicly said we can assume Republican rep ileana ros-lehtinen would also support this legislation as she also supports Respect for Marriage Act
2.
John | December 19, 2012 at 8:47 am
a few republikans with some common scense who woulda thought? Hope they can set good exampels for some others to come on bored with the plan.
3.
davep | December 19, 2012 at 1:40 pm
The GOP, and people who vote for republicans, should be ashamed of the fact that it makes headlines when a couple of republicans finally decide that it's a good idea to stop needlessly hurting people's families.
4.
Mike in Baltimore | December 21, 2012 at 6:32 pm
Some of the first critics, but not all the first critics, of the war in Viet Nam were members of the GOP. Whenever a Senator or Congressman came out against the war, it was 'Another Member of Congress Against the War' type of headline, though, and almost always never a headline that identified the specific member or members of Congress, or their party affiliation(s). A person almost always had to read at least the beginning of the article to get the specifics of who and what party(ies) (it was not unusual for members of both parties to make joint announcements with one or more members of the other party of their change in opinion re: the war in Viet Nam).
Same with the efforts to end discrimination, etc.
Maybe journalism has greatly changed in the past 30-50 years. My feeling, though, is that the politicians, especially GOP politicians, have changed much more than journalism.
5.
A&50 | December 23, 2012 at 1:10 am
keep on apologizing and justifying conservatism Mike. Your bias is showing
Leave a Comment
XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
TrackBack URL | RSS feed for comments on this post.