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| Rodrigo & Edwin celebrating their marriage |
On Wednesday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, told The Advocate that she agrees with Nadler on deferring deportation proceedings in cases involving married, gay binational couples such as Echegoyen and Martinez: "I think [DOMA] is unconstitutional and that the federal government ought to respect couples who have married in states that permit marriage," she said.
Lofgren said she has friends and constituents in her San Jose, Calif. district facing immigration challenges as a result of DOMA. "It's a heartbreaking situation across the United States," she said. "This administration, as with any administration, has tremendous flexibility under current law to make its own judgment for fair treatment" of such couples.
Yes, yes, yes. We had to go into exile to keep our family together. I don't even want to think what would have happened if my partner, now husband, were deported to his homophobic, unsafe, brutalizing country-with a dictator that thinks of us as less than dogs. I would have went with him, that's what I would have done.
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