“I’m feeling really let down, kind of betrayed by my own country”

A Filipino HIV positive registered nurse in Vancouver fighting to be reunited with his American partner has been ordered deported to his homeland triggering a North American lobby to allow the two to be together.
Aurelio Tolentino, 39, met his partner Roi Whaley of Gulfport, Miss. in 2004 when the Filipino native was in the U.S. on a work visa.
Then, during the process of applying for his green card, authorities discovered Tolentino’s HIV-positive status, and immigration officials informed him he would have to leave the country. That was back in 2006, before President Barack Obama rescinded the policy prohibiting HIV-positive people from entering the U.S., either as immigrants or tourists, according to the couple’s supporters.
Tolentino wasn’t too keen on going back to the Philipines. For one thing, it would mean leaving his partner, Whaley, reported the Dallas Voice.
On top of that, he had already been attacked and beaten for being gay in his home country, and if he were to return, it would likely happen again.
So Tolentino applied for asylum in the U.S. That application was denied.
Left with no other option, Tolention moved to Vancouver, Canada to live with his mother, who already has legal status as a permanent resident.
He applied for status in Canada and once again, was denied.
Now he may have no other choice than to return to the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic country which frowns on the gay culture.
To make matters, Tolentino’s partner Whaley was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Whaley, 46, was in Seattle this month for treatment and is now reportedly with Tolentino in Vancouver where he hopes to spend the month with his partner.
It will likely be the last time the partners see each other, since Tolentino faces deportation to the Phillipines, and Whaley’s deteriorating health rules out the possibility of him visiting Tolentino in his Southeast Asian homeland.
But Steve Ralls, director of communications for Immigration Equality, said that neither the couple nor Immigration Equality is ready to give up yet.
They are asking for the public’s help in lobbying Congressman Taylor to intervene and get Homeland Security to grant the humanitarian parole that will let Whaley spend his final days with the man he loves.
“Were Roi and Aurelio a married heterosexual couple, Roi would be eligible to apply to sponsor Aurelio for residency in the United States. Because they are a gay couple, however, that option is not open to them,” he said.
Ralls said in a press release: “Now, with Roi’s health deteriorating and Aurelio facing a move to the Philippines — where it would be nearly impossible for Roi to travel and be with him — the couple face impending separation. They are one of 36,000 such couples, according to an analysis of the 2000 Census data, facing this kind of situation.
“Despite having followed every immigration rule and voluntarily leaving the U.S. when immigration asked him to do so, Aurelio is now being punished under the law for following the law,” Ralls said.
Whaley said he feels “let down” by the Obama administration, saying the White House has not responded to several letters he has sent seeking assistance.
According to Whaley, his admiration for Obama was so strong that he persuaded an emergency medical crew to hold off taking him to the hospital on Inauguration Day in January 2009, when he collapsed from a “headache” that was later diagnosed as a brain tumor. He also suffers from lung and pancreatic cancer.
“I was on an ambulance gurney on a 911 call and I wouldn’t let them take me out of the house until I saw that man raise his hand and say ‘so help me God.’ That’s how much hope I had in him.  And I’m feeling really let down, kind of betrayed by my own country,” Whaley said.