Immigration

Stars like Julianne Moore, Christy Turlington Burns, and Rosie Perez have joined up for the Fedoras for Fairness campaign, aiming to raise awareness about immigration reform, especially among women. The socially active celebrities are using their own family stories to get the message out. For example, Julianne's mother immigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1950, when she was 10 years old, while Christy shared that her mother was 8 years old when she immigrated to LA from El Salvador. By asking everyday people to take photos of friends and family wearing a fedora with the hashtag #fairdora, the campaign hopes to build momentum as Congress prepares to take up the comprehensive immigration reform.

The campaign, which frames immigration as a women's issue, says it's using the fedora as a metaphor for the many hats that women wear. And it is focusing specifically on the plight of immigrant women. Actress Rosie told us that women who immigrate to America often risk their lives and the lives of their children to come with hopes that life will be better for them than at home. "Even if they are here illegally," Rosie said, "they should be treated with respect." She hopes that Fedoras for Fairness will help bring the promise of "comprehensive immigration reform that specially offers decent human rights protection for women and their families" closer to a reality. Keep reading to see the celebrity-packed video from the campaign.

Foreigners married to American same-sex partners cannot get green cards. But as of yesterday, they will be allowed to apply for them — an important distinction that will keep some spouses together at least temporarily.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services has decided to stop denying same-sex green card applications until courts decide the uncertain future of the Defense of Marriage Act. Until now, DOMA meant that an application for permanent residency based on a same-sex marriage would be automatically denied, often leading to the deportation of the foreign spouse. Now applications will be accepted, although final decisions will be put off along with deportation.

Gay rights activists have criticized Obama for dragging his feet when it comes to change. But as of Feb. 23, his administration announced that it would no longer defend Section 3 of DOMA. Advocates say that without Section 3, there would be no ground to deny a US citizen from sponsoring a same-sex spouse.

Upon the new green card policy, the group Immigration Equality filed an application for Edwin Blesch and his South African husband Tim. Edwin, whose South African marriage is recognized in his home state New York, released this statement, which eloquently sums up the development: "Every day, we live with the very real possibility that, despite following every law and every policy of the United States, Tim will be forced to leave the country, and I will be left without my caretaker and the love of my life. Today's news gives us great relief, and great hope that we may soon be able to put that worry behind us."

"Controversial" is not a strong enough word to describe a Czech immigration policy that requires gay asylum seekers to watch straight porn while having the blood flow to their penis monitored. If they become aroused, residency is denied. The test is beyond problematic (what if they're aroused by the naked man?) and also irrelevant because how your penis reacts to porn doesn't change the fact that your perceived or self-identified homosexuality may cause you danger back home. That's what officials should be looking at.

Unsurprisingly, the "phallometric tests" have received backlash from EU human rights groups, and some countries are refusing to deport asylum seekers to the Czech Republic. What's next? Perhaps they'll want to witness immigrants consummate their marriages to verify they're not shams!

Start with staying off Facebook! Homeland Security is using social networks to keep tabs on couples believed to be in fraudulent marriages, particularly for immigration.

The idea capitalizes on people's online narcissistic tendencies — they must have seen this Venn diagram. National Security agents can friend suspected people without revealing their identity (another reason not to friend someone you don't know!). Once in a network, agents are privy to a trusted inner circle and able to observe day-to-day life through friends, photos, and wall conversations, making it easier to spot marriages of convenience.

Guess my dating-site idea to match people by the country they'd like to move to is a no-go?

For the last 22 years, foreign citizens living with HIV or AIDS have been forbidden to legally enter the US. As of Monday, that ban will be a thing of the past. On Friday, President Obama announced the decision to overturn the policy he called "rooted in fear rather than fact." He said:

"We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease — yet we've treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic — yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it."

Before this decision, the US joined a less-than-impressive list of countries that banned HIV-positive outsiders. The list still includes: Armenia, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Sudan, and Yemen. Considering there are already Americans living with HIV/AIDS, it served little purpose to "quarantine" the country. I'm happy to see that our HIV/AIDS prevention strategies will no longer include an ineffective and discriminatory ban.

Cheese. Wine. Baguettes. These are all seemingly welcomed signifiers of French identity. Burqas? Not so welcome.

France has been debating a ban on the head-to-toe garment for some time now. Most recently, the country's immigration minister Eric Besson said yesterday that burqas should not be worn on French streets because they are not part of the country's "national identity."

Besson wants the government to reaffirm national pride by having a "great debate" about what it means to be French. With more than five million Muslims living in France (the largest Muslim population in Western Europe), doesn't French identity include Muslim traditions? It sounds like Besson, who was born in Morocco, disagrees. Based on his previous statements, being French means speaking better French if you're an immigrant and having more opportunities to sing the national anthem if you're a kid in school.

Do you think the French government has a right to dictate dress codes under the guise of "maintaining tradition," or should it be more accepting of minority and immigrant group influences? Would you worry if US officials organized a meeting to decide what it means to be American?

Women don't have a single nationality or a common religion, but they do make up a defined group regularly subjected to domestic and sexual abuse. Yesterday, the Obama administration paved the way for women who are victims of severe abuse to receive asylum in the United States.

The administration signaled the policy change in its court filing in the case of a Mexican woman who is currently seeking asylum. The woman (who is known as "L.R.") says that her common law husband raped her at gunpoint, held her captive, and tried to burn her alive when he found out she was pregnant. L.R. maintains that if she were to be sent back to Mexico, she could be killed.

In its filing with the court, the Obama administration said that a woman such as L.R. should be granted asylum if she meets existing conditions for asylum and shows not only that her abuser views women as subordinate but also that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in her home country.

Do you think women who meet such conditions should be allowed to stay in the US, or do you worry that this policy will worsen the already overwhelmed US immigration situation?