San Francisco Immigration Judge Offers Reprieve to Same Sex Partner of U.S. Citizen

Alex Benshimol, a 47-year-old Venezuelan man who over-stayed his visa and married his American spouse Doug Gentry, has just been granted a two-year deportation reprieve from immigration judge Marilyn Teeter in San Francisco. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has 60 days to pursue the deportation or let it drop altogether. The judge has scheduled the next hearing in 2013 if ICE moves forward.

An American who marries a same-sex immigrant in one of the states that allow gay marriage cannot sponsor his or her spouse for a green card, due to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as between a man and a woman only.  Immigration judges around the country are growing more reluctant to deport same-sex spouses of American citizens, particularly after the Department of Justice announced the Obama administration would no longer defend DOMA in court in February. Since the Justice Department's position is that DOMA is unconstitutional, immigration judges , who are themselves a part of the Justice Department, find it increasingly contradictory to deport people who would otherwise qualify for citizenship if the law did not exist.