While the Republican party is warning that if the Uniting American Families Act that would extend the automatic green card privilege granted to heterosexual spouses to the foreign-born partners of American gays, lesbians and bisexuals is injected into the immigration Reform Bill working its way through Congress will be a “deal-breaker for most Republicans.  President Obama on a visit to Central America  Friday he said that he might accept a rewrite of the nation’s immigration laws even if it did not allow tens of thousands of same-sex couples to apply for legal status for their foreign-born partners.

After a series of meeting with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla spoke to reporters telling them that: “I’m not going to get everything I want in this bill,” he said. “Republicans aren’t going to get everything they want in this bill.”  And while Obama stated that recognizing same-sex relationships in the bill is “the right thing to do.” he says it would be premature to telegraph what he will or won’t do before lawmakers send him a bill and would not specify if  would veto the bill without the inclusion of the Uniting American Families Act.

Obama said, the legislation that the bill that has been introduced in the Senate “has the opportunity to do something historic that we haven’t done in decades.” and that the legislation includes his four requirements – border security, restrictions on employers, a legal immigration program and pathway to citizenship – and that he will determine whether to support the legislation based on whether it makes the system better. If there are problems, he said he would attempt to fix them at a later date. “As is true with every bill, we go back at back and fix what’s not there,’’ he said

Will our “fierce advocate” throw the LGBT community and bi-national couples who worked so hard on immigration reform under the bus and sign the bill when it reaches his desk if it does not include Uniting American Families Act?

Only time will tell.

Source:  Miami Herald