Credit the New York Times for covering every possible left-wing, Manhattan-centric anti-Trump angle as Inauguration Day approaches. Reporter Emily Rueb found a surge in marriages, especially among gay couples and immigrants (preferably both), before Donald Trump takes office on January 20: “Saying ‘I Do’ Becomes A New Priority – Some Couples Feel an Urgency To Wed Before Inauguration Day.”
It was around 8 a.m. on a Monday when Matthew Sabato looked across the paint-splattered studio in Harlem where he lives with his partner, Pedro Silva, an artist.
“Put down the paintbrush,” he recalls saying, as they drank their coffee. “Let’s go to City Hall.”
For months, the couple, who met two years ago on the dating app Tinder, had been discussing their future. But after the presidential election in November, formalizing their commitment became a priority.
“He’s foreign,” Mr. Sabato said.
Mr. Silva, who is from Brazil, is in the United States on a tourist visa, which expires in early February.
“We’re afraid because Trump is going to be our president,” Mr. Sabato said.
In the weeks before and after the election of Donald J. Trump, whose promise to deport millions of immigrants was a central theme of his campaign, the number of couples getting marriage licenses has surged in New York and other cities across the country.
While there is no data explaining why couples are suddenly marrying at a faster pace, many immigrants and their partners say they are feeling an urgency to put a ring on before Inauguration Day.
Couples like Mr. Silva and Mr. Sabato are foregoing gushy, diamond-studded proposals in favor of frank discussions at the breakfast table. For some, a marriage certificate has become a protective shield.
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While same-sex couples are also hurrying up their wedding plans, professionals whose businesses are tied to marriages say that many couples are prompted by fears over changes in immigration policy.
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Cheryl R. David, a lawyer who has focused on immigration law in New York City for about 20 years, said, “I think people are frightened of the rhetoric and they fear they’ll be picked up and deported.”
Rueb unquestioningly forwarded the rhetoric of fearfulness among liberal Manhattanites.
Marriage, she added, is one way to at least “take control of your life” when there is uncertainty, especially in the face of “overt racism and hatred.”
Rebecca Sosa, an immigration lawyer in New York City, said “it’s logical and practical” for couples to consider how getting married “will help them stay together and provide immigration benefits and protection to the immigrant spouse.”
“Given that immigrants have been the No. 1 group targeted as victims of hate crimes and discriminatory incidents,” she added, acquiring legal immigration status “is a natural response to try and defend yourself and your loved ones.”
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Heartache and anxiety were compounded by news reports about Mr. Trump’s plans to build a wall along the Mexican border and his denunciations of Mexicans as murderers and rapists.
“To see all of this hatred, even in some parts of New York, it made me very nervous,” [Diamond Booker] said.
