Clinton takes page from marriage equality playbook

Last week during a speech in Nevada, Democratic presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that any immigration overhaul must include “a path to full and equal citizenship.”

Many in the media and in the world of presidential politics have focused on the policy positions Clinton espoused in that speech.  But what struck us as veterans of parallel and intertwined fights – marriage equality and immigration reform – was the language she used to describe her vision for immigration reform.

{mosads}America’s most cherished ideal has always been full equality under the law, what President Lincoln described as where “humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions.”  Yet, as we know, this concept continues to be a work in progress in the quest for the more perfect union, with the enormity of the task increasing as the American family grows ever more diverse.

We continue to be reminded of the power of this phrase – full equality under the law – when it finds its way to the center of the debate.  Treating others the way we ourselves would want to be treated.  Nothing more, nothing less.  There is no partial equality.  No second-class citizenship.

The struggle for marriage equality is one recent example of this.  A critical turning point occurred when the framework shifted from “rights and responsibilities” to how gay couples are treated under the law and in their daily lives.  When people work hard and dream of building a good life with their families, why should they be treated like second-class citizens?

Now we see evidence that this concept of equality under the law is moving into the center of another critical debate of our day, the reform of America’s immigration system.

Full and equal citizenship.  It is a phrase that stands in stark contrast to those calling for some sort of “legal status,” which we suppose is a polite way of saying what it really is, second-class citizenship, much in the way that the term “civil unions” does.  In her speech, Clinton appeared to be extending this approach beyond the marriage equality debate and putting it squarely in the center of immigration reform.

And as Clinton put it, immigration and the path to citizenship is also at its heart a family issue, another bit of phrasing that draws parallels to the marriage equality movement.

Referencing the undocumented young people who have not known life in any other country and who want to build a future for themselves here in the U.S., she went on to say, “I don’t understand how anyone can look at these young people and think that we should break up more families or turn away young people with talent.”

In other words, full equality under the law is just as important to the US citizen married to an undocumented immigrant who fears her spouse being deported while their children can stay, as it is to the lesbian mom who is a legal stranger to the children born to her wife because she is denied access to second-parent adoption.   In both these scenarios, the lack of equality under state and federal laws has meant unequal treatment.  Similarly, both cases represent the legal limbo that millions of families in the US face – that their families will be torn apart because their relationship lacks the protections afforded others under the law. 

The promise of equality is as American as Plymouth Rock.  The idea of granting a class of people a special status that is tantamount to second-class citizenship is not easily reconciled with our notions of equality in America.  Equality is a fundamental truth that speaks to immigrants and non-immigrants, and gay and straight Americans alike. 

And so as we await justice to prevail on marriage equality, we fervently hope that the promise of equality will usher in a new and more successful approach to immigration reform that will be firmly rooted in the notion that all will be treated equally under the law.

First is a principal at The Raben Group, a former DOJ deputy assistant attorney general, and counsel to Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Cormier is a principal at The Raben Group and has been a leader in the fight for LGBT and marriage equality across the country.