Wall Street Journal
By Reed Albergotti
June 26, 2013
The Supreme Court ruling striking down the law that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples came in the nick of time for clients of immigration attorney and gay rights activist Lavi Soloway.
Two of his clients, Sean Brooks, and husband, Steven, were married in New York in 2011 shortly after the state legalized same sex marriage.
But Steven, a Colombian citizen, had applied for a green card for permanent residency and was rejected. Immigration officials moved to have him deported. His final court hearing was Wednesday morning in New York. The couple, through their attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The couple met online in 2003 and began dating. “It was all exciting, I was in love,” Mr. Brooks wrote on the advocacy website Domaproject.org in December, 2011. In 2006, they began living together in New York City. “Being with Steven has been the most fulfilling and enriching experience of my life,” he wrote.
They married in City Hall. Steven’s twin brother attended the wedding. But Mr. Brooks soon learned that his marriage did not give Steven any immigration rights. “It makes a mockery of the victory of marriage equality to know that the most powerful government in this country, the federal government in Washington D.C., refuses to recognize our marriage because of the Defense of Marriage Act,” he wrote.
When Mr. Soloway learned of the Supreme Court’s decision on DOMA around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, he said his intern ran copies of the ruling five blocks to the immigration court and presented them to the judge.
The judge postponed the hearing so that immigration officials could consider the ramifications of the ruling.
Immigration experts said Wednesday’s decision marked the end of disparate treatment of same-sex couples seeking green cards. “The federal government now cannot distinguish between a valid marriage between a same-sex couple and a heterosexual one,” said Bill Hing, a professor of law at the University of San Francisco.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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