NCTE and Immigration Equality Urge Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to Take Action on Trans Policies
An example of our Blueprint in action: We joined with Immigration Equality recently to send this letter to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asking them to:
- Give non-citizen legal residents the same ability to update their ID that those of us with US passports have, and
- Make sure that trans people and their spouses who have a right to immigration benefits under current law aren’t unfairly denied.
Excerpt from the letter addressed to USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas:
We are writing to express our concern about the lack of action from USCIS on two policy matters of critical importance to transgender people and their families. We hope that you will ensure these matters are given prompt attention and appropriate action is taken to resolve them. In October and December 2009, we met with officials from the USCIS and submitted written recommendations concerning the need for (1) guidance on requirements and procedures for updating gender designations on immigration-related identification documents, and (2) clarifying revisions to the Adjudicator’s Field Manual (AFM) regarding marriages involving a transgender spouse. In October 2010, the American Immigration Lawyers Association also wrote to you regarding the need for guidance on gender change on immigration documents. Since 2010, several other federal agencies have taken positive action to address these issues within their own areas of operation, however there has been no action from USCIS on either issue. While we appreciate the strides taken by the USCIS to address other issues of importance to the LGBT community – especially in the area of refugee and asylum claims – we are concerned that no action has been taken by the agency on these two important issues
This is just one example of the work we’re doing with federal agencies every day.
