Current Immigration Policy Disrupts Education
Current United States immigration policy tears same-sex bi-national couples and
their children apart or forces them to flee to another country in order to stay to-
gether, disrupting learning and creating barriers to educational access and eco-
nomic stability. The Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA) would help lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people with same-sex partners to stay to-
gether. PPIA would help to retain LGBT students in higher education.
Visa Denial = Educational Denial
Student visas and other visas can be
denied on the basis that there is good
reason to believe that the applicant
may overstay the term of the visa.
International students who are known
to have a same-sex partner in the
U.S. are at risk of having their visas
denied.
Campus as an International Community
Many U.S. students study abroad during their time in
college or come into contact with study abroad, ex-
change, and international students. Approximately one
quarter of all doctoral students in U.S. colleges are
international students. Indeed, college campuses are
often world communities, ripe with learning and height-
ened potential for cross-cultural, bi-national rela-
tionships, including relationships
that may be or become
long-term partner-
ships.
Data Collection
Collecting data about those who have been adversely affected by cur-
rent immigration policy is difficult to do. Many of those who have been
affected have left the country, been deported, or are now living in the
U.S. undocumented. Others are hard to locate and are unlikely to make
their stories public because of fear and stigma around these issues.
What Does the Permanent Partners Immigration Act Do?
The Permanent Partners Immigration Act (PPIA) would allow U.S. citizens and
permanent residents to sponsor their same-sex permanent partners for immigra-
tion to the United States. The bill was first introduced in the House of Representa-
tives by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) in February of 2000. The bill has
since been reintroduced by Nadler. In July of 2003, a companion bill was intro-
duced in the Senate by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT).