By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops along with many other Hispanic and Christian organizations have withdrawn support of a major piece of immigration reform legislation after gay activists inserted language that would afford marriage-like immigration benefits to same-sex partners.
Bishop John Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Migration of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops are opposing a House bill (HR 6638) that includes the Uniting American Families Act, because it “would erode the institution of marriage and family by according marriage-like immigration benefits to same sex relationships, a position that is contrary to the very nature of marriage which pre-dates the Church and the state.”
Instead, the bishops’ conference is supporting the Senate version of the Reuniting American Families Act (S. 1085) which does not contain the provision.
Inclusion of the same-sex partner clause into the House bill is causing a clash between advocates for gay rights and those who support immigration reform, which is comprised mostly of Hispanics and religious organizations.
“The last thing the immigration debate needs is another politically divisive issue,” said Kevin Appleby, the bishops’ director of migration and refugee policy, to Politico.
Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, called the efforts to slip gay rights into the immigration debate a “slap in the face to those of us who have fought for years for immigration reform.”
Rodriguez, who has worked with evangelical churches to build support for a broader immigration bill that would expand visa laws, said that if the same-sex language stays in, it will “divide the very broad and strong coalition that we have built on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform.”
The split comes just days before President Barack Obama is scheduled to hold his first White House discussion on comprehensive immigration legislation.
While gay rights and immigration law reform both fall under the “civil rights” category, adovcates of these two issues do not have a history of blending well together. Churches and Hispanics are leading the charge for immigration reform and neither of these constituencies are not known for their support of gay rights.
For example, last year’s vote controversial Proposition 8 vote in California found 53 percent of Latinos voting for a ban on same-sex marriage, even though three-fourths of the state’s Hispanic population voted for Obama.
In spite of the potentially costly rift it is causing, backers of the new provision insist that same-sex couples should be given equal rights under immigration law.
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), a long-time advocate for gay rights and sponsore of the bill, said gay and lesbian rights issues are too often “discarded as part of the [legislative] process. It’s too big of an issue to me for it to be treated this way.”
However, the philosophical difference between advocates for gays and lesbians and religious leaders poses a strategy dilemma: How do they combine forces to seek a broad overhaul of immigration law without doing damage to either community?
Some leaders, such as Rev. Rodriquez, say advancing gay rights language into the bill “will back fire exponentially” on the effort to pass immigration reform.
“Good luck trying to pass comprehensive immigration reform without the faith community behind you,” he said.
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