According to Chris Johnson at The Washington Blade, even though LGBT couples don’t get explicitly mentioned in the DHS guidelines, the guidelines do identify as another low category an undocumented immigrant “who has a very long-term presence in the United States, has a immediate family member who is a United States citizen, and has established compelling ties and made compelling contributions to the United States.”
A DHS official who spoke on condition of anonymity said:
“One of the strongest reasons why we go with a family approach — focusing on the family relationship and not a marital relationship — is because we want to include individuals who are in long standing domestic partnerships so we can capture more same-sex couples.”
Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality explains why the new guidelines should have explicitly mentioned LGBT couples. Ralls goes onto say that without such explicit documentation, a foreign-born spouse could get shipped back to their homophobic country of origin.
