The religious right’s immigration bill?

Tell Sen. Chuck Schumer Include LGBT families in immigration reform

Dear Nosomosrubios,

A few years ago, Presente supported the “Trail of Dreams,” four young people who walked from Miami to Washington, DC, in support of the DREAM Act.¹ Two of those young people, Felipe and Juan, are now married. Juan is set to become a U.S. citizen, but Felipe is still undocumented.

If the current Senate immigration reform bill remains as is, 36,000 same-sex binational couples like Felipe and Juan will continue to have to make the horrible choice between the country
they love and the person they love.²

Tell Sen. Chuck Schumer to publicly support an LGBT-inclusive amendment to the immigration bill

Gay people were purposely excluded from the Senate immigration bill because the “Gang of Eight” who wrote it, which Sen. Schumer is a part of, did not want to lose the support of the religious right. But yesterday, Sen. Pat Leahy, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee now reviewing the bill, offered an amendment that would include same-sex couples in immigration reform. The Senate could vote on it any day now.³

If one single Democrat votes “no” on the amendment, it’s doomed. That’s why it’s critically important that the leading Democrat working on immigration reform, Sen. Chuck Schumer, comes out in public support of the amendment. Lots of Democrats will be taking their signal from him.

If at least 15,000 people sign this petition, we'll do an in-person delivery and force Sen. Chuck Schumer to give us an answer that will take away any excuse for any of the other Democrats to vote against this. Can you add your support?

Tell Sen. Chuck Schumer to publicly support an LGBT-inclusive amendment to the immigration bill

Felipe, who is now co-director of the LGBTQ advocacy organization GetEqual told us this:

"I fell in love and decided to build a family with Juan. It's sad to witness a few Senators using my life as a political football. We deserve to be treated equally!"

Sen. Chuck Schumer has been getting a lot of heat the past few weeks for pushing for increased immigration detention after accepting money from private prisons. He can’t afford to lose any more popularity, especially with the LGBT community. If thousands of us make our voices heard on this, he’ll be forced to come out in support of protecting families like Felipe and Juan’s from the shadow of deportation.

Can you sign this urgent petition?

Tell Sen. Chuck Schumer to publicly support an LGBT-inclusive amendment to the immigration bill

Thanks and ¡adelante!
Arturo, Gaby, Erick, and the rest of the Presente.org Team

P.S. Can you donate $5 to support our work? We rely on contributions from people like you to see campaigns like this through.

Sources:
1. "Trail of DREAMs.." Trail2010.org.
2. "Same-sex Couples and Immigration in the United States." The Williams Institute, Nov. 2011.
3. "The Morning Plum: Keep pushing for gay protections in immigration reform, Dems." Washington Post, May 8, 2013.

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