Bradford Wells, Gay San Franciscan, Fighting Against Husband's Deportation, Taken To Hospital

Anthony Makk, left, with husband Bradford Wells

​Update, 2:30 p.m.: Steve Ralls from Immigration Equality e-mailed SF Weekly to say that Bradford Wells did not have a heart attack.

"As you can imagine, it has been a very stressful and emotional week for both Anthony and Bradford, and no doubt the obstacles they've faced in their quest to remain together have added to Bradford's already fragile health conditions."

Original post:

This week, San Franciscan Bradford Wells has been waging a last-minute effort to save his Australian husband, Anthony Makk, from having to leave the country on Monday. This morning, things got much worse.

"Bradford just had another heart attack and I'm on the way to the emergency room, and I really do have to go," Makk said when we called him this morning to interview him about his immigration case. Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Immigration Equality, a nonprofit that is advising the couple in their immigration case, has not confirmed the heart attack.

"My understanding is he was at the bank to pick up some documents, and they informed Anthony they called an ambulance to take him to the hospital," he says. "They are under an incredible amount of stress at the moment." 
Makk, an Australian national, and Bradford Wells have lived together for 19 years in a Castro apartment, and married seven years ago in Massachusetts. Makk faces having to leave the country on Monday when his current stay expires. The couple plans to file Monday for a last-minute spouse visa and is asking California senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as well as Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to intervene to save Makk from having to leave. Wells is HIV-positive and recently had suffered a heart attack; Makk is his primary caretaker.

"Our request is [that immigration authorities] exercise discretion in this case, because of the hardship that anyone's removal would mean for Bradford, as clearly evidenced by today's events," Ralls says.

Because the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)  recognizes only heterosexual couples for federal purposes, gay Americans cannot sponsor their foreign spouses for visas as heterosexual Americans can.  We wrote a cover story last year about other San Francisco gay couples in which the foreign spouse lives here illegally, or the two are planning to move to Canada to be together.

The Obama administration announced earlier this year that DOMA was unconstitutional and that it would not defend the law in court. Gay couples have filed legal challenges for spouse visas, and federal lawmakers reintroduced a bill known as the Uniting American Families Act that would allow "permanent partners" to sponsor each other for visas. Legislators also asked the Department of Homeland Security to halt the deportation of such couples until the law could be voted on or courts could rule on the legal challenges.

Ralls says that Makk's petition should be held in abeyance until DOMA or the Uniting American Families Act is settled. "It doesn't make sense to use an unconstitutional law to separate couples that cotherwise would have oporutnity to stay together."

According to news reports, Makk had a special trader's visa for importing glass, but more recently has taken to exiting and re-entering the country since Australians can travel to the United States for 90 days without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program. But at his last entrance, immigration authorities informed him this would be his last time to do so. His current stay expires on Monday.

"We believe there's a good chance that either Pelosi or one of the senators will follow the filing by asking DHS not to deny those applications," says Ralls. "That's where their hope lies now."