Last Valentine’s Day, Anton Tanumihardja was given an 11th-hour reprieve from deportation and, one year later, he and his now-husband are continuing to fight through new avenues to keep him in the United States.
Tanumihardja and partner Brian Andersen met with officials from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in Philadelphia Feb. 13 to discuss their green-card application.
The couple requested that, instead of an outright denial based on the Defense of Marriage Act — which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage — officials instead hold the petition in abeyance, as the constitutionality of DOMA is determined in court.
USCIS will notify the couple via mail of its decision.
Andersen and Tanumihardja brought extensive documentation of their relationship, and the representative said he believed their marriage to be bona fide.
“He said he was prevented from approving it because of DOMA,” Andersen said. “I guess it’s a good sign, but it’s still disappointing.”
Tanumihardja, a native of Indonesia, was denied asylum numerous times and has a standing final removal order, although he also has a pending petition to reopen his asylum case.
The couple’s attorney, Lavi Soloway, said the green-card application “further strengthens the argument for deferring any action on the existing deportation order because he is the beneficiary of a pending immediate-relative petition filed by his spouse.”
Soloway said the past year — in which the Obama administration announced it was dropping its legal support for DOMA — has changed the legal landscape for many binational couples such as Andersen and Tanumihardja.
Change has abounded in their relationship too: Since last Valentine’s Day, when Tanumihardja’s deportation was halted hours before his plane to Indonesia departed, the couple has moved in together and married in June in Washington, D.C.
“All of the challenges and hardships we’ve faced has caused us to be a lot closer,” Andersen said. “We’re standing together and saying that this is what we believe in and this is what we’re going to fight for.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].