This is how we roll at the Reform Immigration for America Summit. These Summits are often exhausting, especially when there are so many people to speak to (some that you only see in person once a year) and so much work to be done and stories and angles to cover. Add to the mix that I’m running with a two year old and it makes it even more exhausting. Pero as amigo Kyle said to me yesterday, you run on adrenaline.

Today should be a really interesting day. There is a Town Hall Meeting on Immigration Reform that will feature some of the top legislative supporters of immigration reform. It will be interesting to see what the set up is at the Town Hall as sometimes these events aren’t very “towny” in that participation is limited. And as Kyle pointed out in a post yesterday from the Summit, there remain many questions that need to be asked.

For instance, why is it that traditional notions of comprehensive immigration reform include reuniting heterosexual married couples, while same-sex binational couples are left out in the cold. Another important issue is the way Reform Immigration For America will treat migrant youth. Will migrant youth be treated as leaders in the push for the DREAM Act? Or, will they be coopted or ostracized for pushing the DREAM Act independent of the migration reform?

This is one of the largest challenges I see for the immigration reform movement at large. There is much talk about representing the interests of families and the undocumented pero you can’t create a static heteronormative standard of family that threatens to leave so many out. You can’t use the stories of the undocumented and not allow them their own voice based on their very real experiences.

From Dream Activist over at the Sanctuary:

Equal rights for LGBT families do not threaten immigration reforms but bigotry certainly puts us behind. If the tent is not big enough, we can build another one that approaches immigration not just from a legalization standpoint, but also fights back against the retention of migrant detention.

It’s all connected. It’s about the state retaining power over migrant bodies, our bodies. Power to label and categorize, to include and exclude as it sees fit.

Ideally, we should be able to sponsor our friends and colleagues under immigration law. Unfortunately, we have regressed in this arena and are now up against the enforcement-first immigration agenda.

The movement for immigration reform–permeated in heterosexuality–has to incorporate queer voices and politics, and not just from ‘Immigration Equality,’ which mainly advocates for gay American citizens without really questioning the problems with the conception of ‘citizenship’ — a construction imbued in routine violence. Given the experiences of a second-class queer citizenship, what should constitute immigration politics is an inclusive effort to recognize citizenship as a violent construct that must not be denied to those who seek it.

The concept of citizen has historically evolved violently from property-owning white males to include white women, freed slaves, immigrants of various nationalities, and people from colonized islands. Marriage as a regressive institution aside, to oppose expanding citizenship to undocumented immigrants and LGBT partners is not only socially regressive but ignores the fact that citizenship has never been an immutable concept. And hopefully, one day we can decenter, deconstruct and destroy it.

In the meantime, UAFA supporters are not asking for marriage; they are asking for the right to live with the person we love, to keep their families together.

Lets open our arms and invite them to the party. Actually, look around. We are already here. It’s just time to acknowledge our presence.

Related to my post yesterday, amigo Roberto Lovato reminded me to ask the leaders present at the Summit :

“What moral arguments are there for not including detention and deportation reform as part of “Comprehensive” immigration reform?”

Morals aren’t about being divisive or trying to play one group over another. Let’s be real here. Immigration Reform is not just a policy issue. I have said it a million times. These are people’s lives we are talking about.

That reminds me, I haven’t heard one mention yet of Luis Ramirez or Marcleo Lucero hmmmmm……