Immigration Bill Excludes Protections For Homosexuals

House proponents of comprehensive immigration reform unveiled an ambitious proposal last week with much fanfare, but lost in the buzz was that their bill isn’t entirely comprehensive: They intentionally left out protections for gay and lesbian immigrants.

A bill introduced earlier this year by Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) dealing with family reunification policies for immigrants was completely rolled into the reform package, except for its provisions allowing same-sex partners of permanent residents to qualify for a visa. The decision behind the little-noted change sparked friction between liberals hoping to kick off debate with an all-inclusive bill and Hispanic leaders more focused on keeping religious leaders on board with the plan.

“All the evangelists, Catholics and churches that are part of this were whacking out” over the gay and lesbian provisions, said a Democratic lawmaker familiar with negotiations on the bill.

The lawmaker said Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who has led the House effort on comprehensive immigration reform, initially “didn’t want to deal with it. At all.” Then he tried to work out a “stupid” compromise whereby the same-sex partner provisions would be in the bill but they wouldn’t take effect for five or six years, said this Member.

But some liberals argued the idea was “really bad” since Hispanic lawmakers have strongly opposed an effort by the Senate to impose a similar five-year waiting period for immigrants to receive benefits under health care reform, said the lawmaker. A multiyear delay for same-sex partners would likely result in “more criticism for this stupid deal than for leaving it out,” said the House Democrat.

The decision was finally made to offer an amendment to the bill when it comes before the Judiciary Committee in February.

Gutierrez denied that he wanted to keep gay and lesbian language out of his bill. “That’s just not true,” he said, pointing to his long-standing record of supporting the gay community. The real issue, he said, is that same-sex partner matters have not come up in past immigration reform debates and people are still figuring out how to bring the two camps together.

“There has never been a serious, in-depth discussion between the gay and lesbian community and the immigrant community. It’s never existed,” Gutierrez said. “It’s a new conversation, but not one that I’m fearful of. I welcome it. But you can’t expect after nearly two decades of struggle for a new component” to be quickly embraced. [FULL STORY]