#brian willingham

[davidccouper]

Finding Hope in Flint

Finding Hope in Flint

The Opinion Pages | OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

  Finding Hope in the Flint Police Dept.

 [This article was printed last week in the New York Times. It is one of the best examples of the kind of policing I have promoted through the years. It is, in reality, what I call real “Community-Oriented Policing.” Unless our nation’s police are willing to work and serve like Officer Willingham, American policing…

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[thisisfusion]

Deportation case of undocumented man in same-sex marriage on hold

A gay Mexican man is fighting to stay in the United States, but embattled federal marriage laws don't allow his U.S. citizen spouse to sponsor him for a green card. (Stop The Deportations Campaign)

By JUAN GASTELUM Channel: Immigration

Alfonso Garcia, 33, is an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States from Mexico as a child and has lived in the San Francisco Bay area for 20 years. He was flagged down for deportation, even though he is legally married to a U.S. citizen, when officials learned of his immigration status during a routine traffic stop last summer.

Garcia and his partner of over a decade, Brian Willingham, 37, married in New York and are registered domestic partners in California. Willingham has filed a green card petition on Garcia's behalf. 

Federal courts, however, do not recognize same-sex unions under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and woman, and prevents U.S. citizens in same-sex couples from sponsoring their spouses for legal residency.

A federal appeals court is set to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the law this summer, but the case hasn't reached the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama has called for a legislative repeal. Democrats in the Senate Judiciary voted to send the repeal to the Senate Floor, but the measure is not likely to pass a Republican-led House.

Lavi Soloway, a prominent LGBT-immigration attorney who co-founded the "Stop The Deportations Campaign" and is representing Garcia, told CNN the couple is hoping DOMA will be nullified before Garcia's next hearing, which is scheduled for October 27.