Tan, who lives in Pacifica with her 12-year-old twin sons and a partner of 23 years, was originally scheduled to be deported three weeks ago but won a temporary stay with help from U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo. Federal immigration officials then gave her until May 10 to leave the country voluntarily.
Tan, 43, has been in California since arriving on a visitor's visa in 1989. She applied for asylum in 1995 because she was afraid of a cousin in the Philippines who had killed her mother and sister and critically wounded her when she was a teenager. She was unaware the petition had been denied until federal agents took Tan away in handcuffs at the end of January, said her 48-year-old partner, Jay Mercado.
She said Thursday that before the Democratic senator interceded, Mercado had halfheartedly considered undergoing a sex-change operation or moving the family to the Philippines or to a country where gay marriage is legal.
Sen. Feinstein gets reprieve for foreign-born lesbian mother ordered to leave Calif. family - KSTU (http://www.fox13now.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-gay-marriage-immigration,0,7227906.story - broken link)
What a painfully messy situation. Not sure how I feel about this one.
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