An outline for immigration reform legislation, unveiled last week by Senate Democrats, includes a provision allowing gay citizens to sponsor their partners for citizenship.
Not surprisingly, the move has been hailed by gay rights groups and condemned by Catholics.
“Today’s inclusive framework is an historic step forward for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender binational families,” said the executive director of Immigration Equality, a group that advocates for binational gay and lesbian couples.
But the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged lawmakers not to include such language when they write legislation.
“While we support the general direction of the framework …. we strongly oppose extending marriage-like immigration benefits to same-sex relationships,” the bishops said in a statement. “This proposal threatens to undermine the opportunity to bring together the Congress and the American people around a common solution to the important challenge of immigration reform.”
The proposed framework reads, in part, “The proposal … will eliminate
discrimination in the immigration laws by permitting permanent partners of United States
citizens and lawful permanent residents to obtain lawful permanent resident status.”
When such language was proposed in a failed immigration bill last year, the head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference condemned the move and called it a “slap in the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration reform.”
