After evading deportation, Lesbian mom can celebrate Mothers' Day in US

SAN FRANCISCO — Shirley Tan can finally start making Mother’s Day plans with her family after narrowly escaping a 7-year-old order for her deportation last week with the help of Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif). "We can’t erase the smiles from our faces," said Tan’s life partner Jay Mercado. Tan and Mercado are in a same-sex relationship. On Wednesday April 22, Feinstein introduced a private bill into congress asking for the Pacifica woman’s relief from deportation on the grounds that her former counsel failed to notify her of the deportation order and that removal would cause “long-lasting harm" to her 12-year-old twin sons Joriene and Jashley Tan-Mercado. The bill’s filing offered the family a reprieve from a nearly 4-month-long race to keep Tan in the US Another deportation date is set for May 10. "They told me getting a private bill is a long shot because it’s so rare," Tan, 43, said. Private bills are acts that help a single individual by affording relief from another law, granting a unique benefit only to that individual. "Of course we tried to stay positive and hoped it would push through. It’s something unbelievable," she added. Amos Lim of immigration equality group Out4Immigration explained that Tan’s deportation is stayed while the private bill awaits approval by Congress—approximately one year and nine months remain in the current congressional session. "If her situation is not resolved by then, Feinstein will have to reintroduce the private bill," Lim said, adding that the next congressional session opens in 2011. [See: Lesbian mom given deportation reprieve in US] As a same sex couple, Shirley and Jay’s domestic partnership means nothing under current immigration law. Spousal reunification extended to heterosexual couples does not apply to them. Lim said that while the passage of the private bill would certainly resolve her own immigration dilemma, the real solution to the immigration problems facing same-sex couples hinge on approval of the Uniting American Families Act of 2009, a law that would allow U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents to sponsor their same-sex partners for immigration. “Shirley Tan’s family is not the only family that is going through this, lots of families are affected," Lim said, stating that there are an estimated 36,000 binational same-sex couples living in the U.S. Melanie Nathan, a Bay Area family mediator who worked as publicist for Tan, encourages other binational same-sex couples looking for immigration protection to support UAFA rather than pursuing private bills from their senators because “it holds up the politicians, it’s too much work and it’s counterproductive." “While Sen. Feinstein’s office certainly needs to be thanked, the passage of UAFA is really what will serve the higher good," Nathan said. “Anybody who knows somebody who is a binational needs to write a letter to their congressperson asking what the heck is happening with all the other Shirley Tans out there." Tan met Mercado in 1986 while visiting the U.S. from the Philippines. Three years later, after Tan obtained a visitor’s visa, the couple reunited in the U.S. to start a life together. Afraid to return to Philippines because of a violent family history, Tan hired an immigration attorney in 1995 and petitioned for political asylum. But when the court denied her asylum application in 2002, Tan said her attorney failed to update her. “Every time we followed up with my lawyer, she told us that I was okay and that it would just take a while because my case was in the 9th Circuit Court," Tan told Philippine News. “So I knew it in my heart that my stay here was really okay." But on Jan. 28, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents acting on an outstanding deportation order took Tan into custody. With the help of Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), the Immigration Board of Appeals extended her stay until April 22. The deadline was pushed back again to May 10 after Tan’s new attorney petitioned to reopen her asylum case. But when Mercado received the call from Feinstein’s office with the good news about Tan’s private bill, she said she was ecstatic. “You don’t know how happy I was to hear the news," Mercado said. “And I could hear the kids crying in the background when I called Shirl. Everyone was so happy." “Words can’t express how I felt because I was so happy and thankful," 12-year-old Joriene Tan-Mercado said. “Now both of them can be with us for Mothers Day." - Philippine News