Teaching Family-Based Immigration

This past week, I taught family-based immigration. I debated whether to teach Adams v. Howerton. After all, an optimistic person might question the case's continued relevance post-Windsor and Obergerfell. Ultimately, I decided that I am not an optimistic person. And the post-Windsor USCIS same-sex marriage regulations (which I assigned) were not fait accompli given that Adams was a pre-DOMA case.

If you, like me, are continuing to teach Adams, I suggest these materials:

• The original 1975 letter of denial ("You have failed to establish that a bona fide martial relationship can exist between two faggots" is even starker when seen in its original form).
• The January 2016 approval
• And here is a great story with lots of extra photos of the couple.

I paired the Adams case with a discussion of Kerry v. Din, although I did not assign that decision as reading. I thought it was important to bookend the discussion of spouses by noting that even those who clearly fall within the statutory definition are not guaranteed entry to the US. The NY Times has a photo of Fauzia Din and Kanishka Berashk.

In teaching marriage fraud, I utilized numerous resources including:

• Nina Berstein's 2010 article for the NYT: Do You Take This Immigrant (assigned reading). Note - this article has great photos from inside NYC's Stokes Unit.
  
• Video from Conan of a little-known actress admitting to marriage fraud.
• The BuzzFeed marriage fraud quiz (which I encourage students to take with their current partner).
  
• The USCIS Fraud Referral Sheet.

And, of course, there's the DHS Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, Table 6! Happy teaching.

-KitJ