Immigration Now - Facing Deportation

Since Kat Long, author of Forbidden Apple: A Century of Sex and Sin in New York City, will be speaking at the museum tomorrow night, we figured we'd mention how sex and immigration policy have become entwined today. The Mercury News reports that newcomers to the States involved in same-sex partnerships with U.S. citizens are facing deportation, since immigration rights don't apply to civil unions.

Shirley Tan's calm and happy life — San Mateo County housewife, mother of twin 12-year-old boys, singing in the church choir — blew up at 6:30 a.m. on Jan. 28, with a knock on the front door.

Within minutes, the immigration agent standing there had the 43-year-old Tan in handcuffs. She is scheduled to be deported to her native Philippines on Friday.

If Jay Mercado, Tan's partner of 23 years and the mother of her sons, were a different gender, it's highly unlikely that knock ever would have come. As a U.S. citizen, Mercado could have sponsored a wedded spouse for legal permanent residency. But although Mercado and Tan married in San Francisco in 2004, federal law limits the definition of marriage to a man and a woman, and same-sex partners of U.S. citizens don't have a route to legal permanent residence extended to straight married couples. Read more.