Washington, DC – In front of the United States Capitol, the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) stood with Asian American, religious leaders, immigration advocates, and Members of Congress to announce the reintroduction of the LGBT-inclusive Reuniting Families Act of 2019 and urge for its immediate passage. Sponsored by Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), the Act will preserve our nation’s family-based immigration system while improving the family reunification process, reducing backlogs, increasing visa caps, and providing humane and timely adjudication. Family-based immigration is the predominate way that Asians have immigrated to the United States. The bill is LGBT inclusive and has specific protections for LGBT immigrant families, binational couples, LGBT asylum seekers and refugees in same-sex relationships, and LGBT parents of foreign-born children. The family of Glenn D. Magpantay, NQAPIA Executive Director, came to the United States through family based immigration. “My parents came over in 1965 and in the 1980s they petitioned for my uncles to come to the United States because of the unsafe conductions in the Philippines under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.” His was among hundreds of stories that are being shared with Members of Congress to urge immediate passage of the Reuniting Families Act. | |
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