Immigration Equality Action Fund Hails House Reintroduction of Inclusive Family Immigration Bill

LGBT-Inclusive Reuniting Families Act Sponsored by Rep. Mike Honda

WASHINGTON, May 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Immigration Equality Action Fund hailed today's reintroduction of an LGBT-inclusive family immigration reform bill.  Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) is reintroducing the Reuniting Families Act (RFA), a bill that that would ensure visas are allocated efficiently and alleviate lengthy wait times that keep legal immigrants and their overseas loved ones separated for years. The bill also eliminates discrimination in immigration law against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans and their foreign-born partners.

"Our country's broken immigration system is failing all families and the measures included in the Reuniting Families Act are desperately needed," said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of the Action Fund. "A Filipino-American in Chicago, whose siblings have waited three decades for a visa to reunite in the United States, shares a painful common denominator with an American citizen in San Jose facing separation from her wife. Both families – one straight, and one gay – are impacted by a system that forcibly separates Americans from their loved ones and undermines any notion of basic family values. That discrimination is a rallying cry that brings together the LGBT and immigrant communities, who are united in their support for Congressman Honda's bill."

Family immigration laws have not been updated in more than two decades, keeping spouses, children and their parents separated for years and even decades. There are currently 5.8 million people in the family immigration backlog waiting to reunite with family members already legally residing in the United States. The RFA reduces the long backlog for families trying to reunite with their loved ones by classifying lawful permanent resident spouses and children as "immediate relatives" and exempting them from numerical caps on family immigration. It also recognizes partners of LGBT Americans for immigration purposes.

"Just like other immigrant families, LGBT families know all too well the pain of being forced into exile and being ripped apart from parents, siblings and children, too," Tiven said. "We are proud to be one movement, with our allies and neighbors in America's immigrant communities, committed to ensuring that we are all afforded the opportunity to be with the families we love in the country we call home."

For more information on the Reuniting Families Act, visit www.immigrationequalityactionfund.org.

Immigration Equality Action Fund advocates on Capitol Hill for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive immigrants and their families. To end discrimination in U.S. immigration law, Immigration Equality Action Fund works to pass the Uniting American Families Act and LGBT-inclusive Comprehensive Immigration Reform. The Action Fund lobbies legislators and other policy makers, builds coalitions, and empowers LGBT immigrant families around the country to fight for change.

SOURCE Immigration Equality Action Fund