Senator Patrick Leahy on Equal Immigration Rights

by Michael A. Jones

Published March 09, 2009 @ 12:41PM PT

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has brought his A-game to the 111th Congress.  Last week he held hearings about a possible truth commission to investigate crimes committed by the Bush administration in regards to the War on Terror, and he's also become one of the leading champions for immigration equality for LGBT people, introducing the Uniting American Families Act in the Senate.  Dare we say that Senator Leahy has come to this session of Congress to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and well, it looks like he's all out of bubble gum.

Leahy gave an interview to Vermont Public Radio outlining why he thinks it's so critical for the Uniting American Families Act to pass:

If you're married in a heterosexual relationship, you can get special visas to bring your spouse here to the U.S., if one is a U.S. citizen, I'm trying to do it for a same sex couple in a committed relationship.

Immigration Equality has spelled this out in no uncertain terms: current U.S. immigration policy dictates that if one partner in a same-sex relationship is foreign born, the couple will either have to choose to live in exile, or completely break-up (including separating any children they may have, and completely dismantling the family unit).  Basic humanity dictates that both of those scenarios totally suck.

Several folks in the U.S. Senate however, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, think that the Uniting American Families Act will lead to same-sex marriage and threatens the very institution of marriage.  That's certainly an argument we've heard again, and again, and again, and again.  Cornyn's off the range on this one, though.  As Senator Leahy himself put it:

My wife and I have been married for 46 years and I don't think my putting in the legislation suddenly is putting my marriage at risk.

Leahy's exactly right.  The Uniting American Families Act is about ending government-sponsored discrimination in immigration policies.  It's really as simple as that.  And if Sen. Cornyn and others are so interested in preserving the family unit, they ought to throw their unending support behind the Uniting American Families Act, because that's exactly what the bill would do - it would keep families together and keep children from having to separate from their parents.