Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Sign Our Petition To Stop The Deportation of Sujey Pando

On August 19th in Denver, Violeta and Sujey Pando will face the worst nightmare for any lesbian or gay binational couple: a final deportation hearing in an Immigration Court. They are legally married, but Violeta, a U.S. citizen, cannot sponsor her spouse, Sujey, who is from Mexico, because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In fact, because of DOMA, this loving, committed couple of five years, who married last year in Iowa, may be torn apart by a judge’s order next Friday if action is not taken to prevent it from happening.

The President has said that DOMA is unconstitutional and has endorsed its repeal. The President must immediately direct the Department of Homeland Security to halt all deportation of spouses of lesbian and gay American citizens to prevent DOMA from destroying marriages. If Sujey Pando is deported she will be barred from returning to the U.S. for ten years.

None of this would be happening to an opposite-sex couple in the same situation.



Urge President Obama, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, and Attorney General Eric Holder to take action: exercise prosecutorial discretion, respect Violeta and Sujey's marriage, and prevent this married lesbian couple from being torn apart.

Sign our petition to the President and send a message that we need immediate executive branch action to protect all lesbian and gay binational couples.



To help Sujey and Violeta further:

  • Follow STOP THE DEPORTATIONS: The DOMA Project for further updates

  • Call your elected officials to urge them to help couples like Violeta & Sujey Pando before Sujey's final hearing on August 19th
    U.S. Representative Diana DeGette: 202.225.4431, Denver 303.844.4988
    U.S. Senator Michael Bennet: 202.224.5852, Denver 303.455.7600
    U.S. Senator Mark Udall: 202.224.5941, Denver 303.650.7820

  • Share our petition urging the officials to halt DOMA deportations. To share this petition via email, facebook, or twitter, use the buttons below.


3 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I want to sign the petition but there is no listing for my place of residence, Washington DC. Can you please correct this?
    Thanks!
    Scott

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  2. I'm the foreign half of a bi-national couple. I signed the petition. Best wishes Violeta and Sujey!
    Any idea if Sujey is allowed to stay in the US, will she be granted employment authorization? Also, what do you think of as a protest having all the Americans in a bi-national couple applying to sponsor their same-sex spouses on the same day? It could make a huge splash in the news media.
    Thanks for all the work you are doing!
    Bruce

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  3. I am with you. I hope everything is going well. I hate that you two have to go through this and with you many others that get treated unfairly by US law!

    ReplyDelete