After the United States Supreme Court barred the United States Government
from discriminating against lawfully married same-sex couples in its landmark decision
United States v. Windsor, the United States Department of Homeland Security quickly issued
guidance on how that decision affects relevant immigration-related filings including
immigrant-based ("Green Card") and nonimmigrant-based visa petitions. The
result has been foreign-national spouses in same-sex relationships receiving
immigration benefits.
However, there is a less celebratory but equally important side to immigration
law of which many are not aware and which involves assisting individuals
who are victims of abusive or criminal activity. Such individuals are
sometimes left without what they believe is the sole basis of resolving
their immigration status: their relationship with their United-States-citizen
or Green-Card-holding spouse or partner. These same individuals may even
face discrimination at the local level pertaining to obtaining justice
for their victimization. As a client of mine learned after he had been
violently attacked by his United-States-citizen boyfriend of many years
and would-be fiancé, a great deal of courage is required to overcome
structural societal biases that still linger even in major metropolitan
areas of the United States:
Nevertheless, despite the obstacles my client faced in having law-enforcement
authorities investigate and prosecute what many would find a clear case
of domestic violence, he remained active in seeking some form of justice,
including resolving his immigration status. Such resolution came when
the same law-enforcement authorities that he had initially believed were
being unhelpful nevertheless certified that he was a victim of a crime,
e.g., domestic violence, and was helpful in the investigation of that
crime. The client was wise to seek skilled immigration-related legal counsel
to assist him in obtaining that certification because law-enforcement
authorities may have certain procedures in place or personnel to be contacted
regarding such certification requests. Not abiding by those procedures
or not contacting the correct personnel may lead to a denial of a certification
request, the granting of which is
solely within the relevant law-enforcement authority's discretion. In my client's case and due in no small part to his courage, he was
successful in obtaining lawful immigration status.
It is important to note that the ability of LGBT victims to resolve their
immigration cases favorably based on their victimization does not necessarily
rely on whether or not they are married or in a relationship with a United-States
citizen or Green-Card holder or even on whether such victimization occurred
within a domestic relationship at all. It may not even require a police
report or other contemporaneous documentary evidence of the victimization.
Nevertheless, although the spectrum of relevant scenarios is wide, the
difficulty may relate more to overcoming structural societal biases, something
which, as my client above has shown, is clearly possible.