2016 Reports

Issue Brief: LGBT Immigration

Pace, Kendall Charles; Smith, Raymond Arthur

Often when LGBT immigrants are deported from the United States, harsh punishments such as death and exile await them in their native lands. Because of strict and antiquated marriage laws that do not account for same-sex relationships, LGBT immigrants are not treated with the same privileges as opposite-sex couples, and these people generally find it much harder to successfully immigrate into the US. This unfortunate reality has caused several LGBT identifiers to attempt to reform US immigration legislation via protest in hopes of making the immigration process fairer.