In the context of press reports of backroom dealing the 'comprehensive' part of immigration reform that eluded the law passed by the last session (109th), I incorrectly indicted that Immigration Equality had an action alert out. That alert, their latest, is from a year ago this month.
The Uniting American Families Act or UAFA, HR 3006 by number if you want to look it up (also known as Permanent Partners Immigration Act), is a national partnership act, not marriage. It amends the US Code at various places "by inserting `or permanent partnership' after `marriage'" or "by inserting `permanent partners,' after `spouses'".
By remarking it, I don't mean to put it either here nor there. It is simply interesting in the general context in which AS invokes it.
I have not been able to confirm whether Immigration Equality is a lobby group for rights at all, but two of their founders wrote the legislation above. Whatever the case on that, like SLDN, their genesis appears to have been providing services to the LGBT community, legal services, information, contact, and general support.
With so many states banning gay-marriage (and some even partnership), it appears that any Federal remedy would establish a 'federal partnership' that might be recognized apart from a State. I haven't seen any proposal on how that would be administered or enforced.
Given such a knot, it would appear that immigration equality is a long way off, although immigration law can be quite complex and there might be something I'm missing.
