DOJ & DHS are fighting it out with House GOP over immigration law re same-sex bi-national couples [View All]

[Pirate Smile]

Defending DOMA, Fighting Back
In a case in California, DOJ and DHS are fighting it out with House Republican leaders over immigration law regarding same-sex bi-national couples

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Lui and Roberts have, though, found themselves in the middle of several complex legal and political questions being addressed by the Obama administration – from the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act to immigration reform – and in the middle of a dispute that, as Holguin says, ''blew up into major, major litigation'' involving all three branches of the federal government.

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On Friday, Sept. 2, the Department of Justice – on behalf of Attorney General Eric Holder, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas and the Los Angeles district director of USCIS – filed a brief in Lui and Roberts's case in federal court arguing that DOMA should be found unconstitutional, which would then allow USCIS to consider granting Roberts's I-130 petition.

Specifically, DOJ and DHS were responding to a motion made in the case earlier this year by the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) – a five-person panel controlled by the House Republican leadership – seeking to have Roberts and Lui's challenge to DOMA dismissed. The fact that BLAG intervened and filed a motion to dismiss the DOMA claim has not previously been reported, likely because filings in many immigration cases, including this one, are not available publicly.
Metro Weekly obtained a copy of the DOJ brief, which presents some of the facts of the case, notes BLAG's June 17 filing and lays out the federal government's case against DOMA – a case that Holguin says that the administration makes ''quite forcefully.''

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In other words, the Obama administration has taken a position in favor of the rights of bi-national same-sex couples by sidestepping the potential pitfall of the ''plenary power doctrine,'' a move that increases the likelihood that DOMA – and its ban on allowing immigration law to recognize same-sex couples – would be found unconstitutional.

http://metroweekly.com/news/?ak=6543