Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said this week gay and lesbian partners will be considered as family members when immigration agents are trying to decide whether or not to try to deport someone from the U.S. The directive means illegal immigrants in gay or lesbian partnerships with American citizens could be spared deportation under the same leniency that is already often accorded to married couples. But it also raises questions about a federal law that is tied up in the courts which defines marriage at the federal level as the legal union between a man and a woman.