Gay in NJ

projectqueer:

By Andrew Harmon

Brian Andersen (left) and Anton Tanumihardja CNN

A gay Indonesian man fighting to remain in the U.S. with his American husband has been denied a reprieve from deportation — a decision that appears to contradict Obama administration promises that members of same-sex binational couples can be considered lower-priority cases among the nation’s 300,000 current deportation proceedings.

During a brief Friday meeting at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Philadelphia office, Anton Tanumihardja, who in June married his American spouse, Brian Andersen, was denied a request for what’s known as deferred action. He was ordered to return to the local branch on January 13 for another appearance.

If the Department of Homeland Security or an immigration appeals board within the Justice Department does not intervene, immigration officers will require Tanumihardja to make travel arrangements back to Indonesia or be taken into custody and removed from the U.S. by ICE.

Lavi Soloway, the couple’s attorney and cofounder of Stop the Deportations, said he believed that the Friday decision means the administration has not implemented recently updated deportation guidelines in the field, which could have severe consequences for binational gay couples such as his clients.

“The Obama administration made a commitment to stop deportations that would tear apart families, including same-sex couples, and yet in its decision the ICE Office in Philadelphia is failing to make good on that commitment,” Soloway said. “The administration must take immediate action to ensure that the new deportation policy is being implemented fairly and consistently by ICE deportation officers in local offices, or this policy announcement is meaningless.”