CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. (AP) - Faced with losing the life they've built together in the dusty California desert town of Cathedral City, Doug Gentry and Alex Benshimol are making a last-ditch effort to stave off the looming threat of deportation.
To a large degree, the couple is stuck. While the American information technology consultant and Venezuelan pet groomer wed at a romantic Connecticut ceremony last year, the federal government won't recognize the marriage between the two men _ and as a result, won't approve their application for a green card.
But the couple, and others facing a similar predicament, are still trying. The men don't expect to actually obtain a green card any time soon and have already been shot down once but hope filing an application might convince an immigration judge to at least refrain from deporting Benshimol while the fiery legal debate over the country's same-sex marriage laws simmers.
"There have been so many ups and downs on this roller coaster. I really don't know what to expect," said Gentry, 53. "It can't hurt (to refile). All they can do is deny it again."
For years, immigration attorneys warned gay couples not to bother seeking a green card for their foreign spouses since there was no chance they'd get one. Now, in select cases, they're starting to rethink that advice.
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It used to be that they would put people like that in jail.
ReplyDeleteSodomy is illegal!
Wow. The are not citizens AND they are a gay, married couple. You can just hear the redneck blood boiling through all of Delmarva.
ReplyDeleteLawrence v. Texas, 9:33, look it up!
ReplyDelete:o)
9:33- you are a moron, plain and simple.
ReplyDeletethey should find a lesbian couple in the same situation, get married in a way they government would recognize, then live as they have been living. except only now they'd have new friends to hang with :)
ReplyDeletea man can buy a wife from a foreign country & she can get a green card but 2 people who love each other can't. rediculous.
9:33 Lack of education is a dangerous thing.
ReplyDelete