Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano has officially clarified that the same-sex partners and spouses of U.S. citizens are eligible for relief under the Obama administration’s new policy of putting a lower priority on certain deportation cases. 
 
 The action was a response to a letter from Congress led by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who for years has crusaded for immigration relief for same-sex couples. Heterosexual immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens are allowed to apply for immigration rights that are denied to same-sex couples under the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. 
 
 The most notorious case in the country was that of a San Francisco couple, Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk, above, who won relief only through Pelosi’s personal intervention. 
 
 Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality, a gay rights group, said this is “one of the very first times LGBT families have been recognized within federal immigration policies.” 
 
 The group’s executive director, Rachel B. Tiven, called the move a “huge step forward…Until now, LGBT families and their lawyers had nothing to rely on but an oral promise that prosecutorial discretion would include all families. Today, DHS has responded to Congress and made that promise real. The Administration’s written guidance will help families facing separation and the field officers who are reviewing their cases.” 
 
 A DHS memo in June 2011 first listed factors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the field should use when classifying certain removal cases as a “low priority” for removal, a policy known as “prosecutorial discretion.” The guidelines included family ties to a U.S. citizen. Obama officials said that they would include gays and lesbians in the family category. But there was no written policy. The Pelosi/Nadler letter asked the administration to put it in writing. 
 
 Napolitano has done so, including not only married spouses but “long-term, same-sex partners,” according to Napolitano’s letter. 
 
 Pelosi welcomed the directive to “issue written guidance to clarify that ‘family relationships’ includes LBGT couples is welcome and will provide a measure of clarity and confidence to families dealing with separation in immigration cases. Our nation is served when loving families are kept together.” 
 
 Pelosi called for passing the “Uniting American Families Act” and the “Reuniting Families Act,” to grant immigration privileges to same-sex couples and “to relegate DOMA to the dustbin of history.” 

 WASHINGTON -- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she will instruct immigration agents to consider same-sex relationships the same as heterosexual ones in determining whether an individual should be deported, a victory for advocates and members of Congress who worried verbal instructions could be ignored. 
 
 Although the administration had previously told reporters and others that same-sex relationships will be taken into account when making deportation decisions, putting it in writing for field officers is considered to be an important change. 
 
 "This is a huge step forward," Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of gay rights and reform group Immigration Equality, said in a statement. "Until now, LGBT families and their lawyers had nothing to rely on but an oral promise that prosecutorial discretion would include all families. Today, DHS has responded to Congress and made that promise real." 
 
 DHS released guidelines in 2011 instructing agents to consider a variety of factors -- including family relationships, the age an individual came to the U.S. and other ties to the country -- when determining whether the immigrant is high-priority for deportation. 
 
 More than 80 House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), called in late July for the Department of Homeland Security to add a specific mention of same-sex couples to its guidelines. 
 
 Napolitano responded on Thursday to that letter with individual, but identical, messages to each of those members. There will be official guidance next week to ICE offices around the country. 
 
 "In an effort to make clear the definition of the phrase 'family relationships,' I have directed ICE to disseminate written guidance to the field that the interpretation of the phrase 'family relationships' includes long-term, same-sex partners," she wrote in the letter. "As with every other factor identified in Director Morton's June 11 memorandum, the applicability of the 'family relationships' factor is weighed on an individualized basis in the consideration of whether prosecutorial discretion is appropriate in a given case." 
 
 Honda, one of the signatories of the letter, said in a statement Friday that he will continue to push for immigration reform legislation, such as his Reuniting American Families Act, which would allow Americans to petition for legal status for their same-sex partners in the same way heterosexual couples can. 
 
 "No one should have to choose between their spouse and their country, and no family should be left out of the immigration system," he said in a statement. 
 
 Judy Rickard, an American, and her partner, Karin Bogliolo, who is a British citizen, heard the news on Thursday from Honda. Bogliolo entered the country legally under a tourist visa, and is still authorized to stay because her application for a green card is pending. But her application could be turned down because the federal government does not recognize same-sex couples under the Defense of Marriage Act. 
 
 "We're glad beyond measure that someone is recognizing our status and making us safer," Rickard said. "It doesn't solve everything, but I'm confident now that Karin won't be told to leave the country."
– Janet Napolitano put it in writing yesterday: Same-sex couples in "long-term" relationships will be less likely to get deported from the United States, the Huffington Post reports. The Obama administration had already said as much, but Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, solidified it in messages to 80 House Democrats who had asked to see it added to department guidelines. "This is a huge step forward," says an LGBT advocate. DHS released guidelines last year telling its agents that various factors, including family relationships, could make a person "low priority" for deportation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. But the term "family relationships" remained vague until Napolitano wrote in her letter that it "includes long-term, same-sex partners." The new policy will be disseminated to immigration and customs agents next week, she said.