"22" Taylor Swift parody video for VAWA

Ms. Foundation for Women
The Senate, with a huge majority - 78 to 22 - passed a version of the Violence Against Women Act that includes protections for members of the LGBTQ community, immigrant women and Native American women. Now it goes to the House of Representatives, where the minority leaders have introduced their own bill that strips some of these protections. 

Think about the gall of those 22 senators who said no to women's safety. We've thought about them a lot. In fact, we made this catchy parody of Taylor Swift's "22" in their (dis)honor. Watch it & share with 22 of your friends.

Sign our petition to get the House to pass a VAWA that protects all women: https://www.change.org/petitions/viol...

Lyrics:

It felt like a perfect day
To pass the VAWA
Protect women in danger, uh uh, uh uh 
Who the hell would vote against that, nothing would be stranger
Oh wait I found a few guys, uh uh, uh uh

Thuuuune, Sessions, Barrasso, Boozman, Coburn, Cornyn, Enzi.
Cruz, Graham, Hatch, Grassley, Inhofe, Paul and Johanns. 
Lee, Scott, Johnson, Mconnell, Risch, Roberts, Rubio.
And Blunt.

Uh oh, I'm telling you, that there were 22
Senators who voted against, protecting me and you
They didn't wanna include, immigrants, natives and gays
Ur jerks in 22 ways, my minds exploding there were: 22, 22

A note to the House of Reps, this should be easy.
Here just look at me. Just say: Yea
22 if it were up me, you'd lose your senate seat
Wouldn't date you even if, you were a Kennedy

Thuuuune, Sessions, Barrasso, Boozman, Coburn, Cornyn, Enzi.
Cruz, Graham, Hatch, Grassley, Inhofe, Paul and Johanns. 
Lee, Scott, Johnson, Mconnell, Risch, Roberts, Rubio.
And Blunt.

Uh oh, I don't know about you, but I bet 22
Senators will feel the burn from, from saying no to
A bill that passes each year, you made it crystal clear
You are a woman's worst fear, I shed a single tear for: 22, 22, 22, 22.

It feels like crazy town
What were you thinking
It feels like crazy town
Were you just drinking? 
It feels like crazy town
You all are bad news, for women's issues, we just don't want you.


Starring Jamie Kolnick 
Written and Directed by Molly Gaebe
Executive Producers: Kayla Santalla, Jamie Kolnick, Molly Gaebe
Assistant Director: Jamie Kolnick
Taylor's Friends: Molly Gaebe, Kayla Santalla, Eve Michelle, Brooke Howard
Marco Rubio: Markus Potter
Music Producer/ Sound Engineer: Rob Rusli
Videographer/Editor: Midtown Recording Studio
Assistant Videographer: Shie Moreno

The A.L.L. Trio at The Donegal Saloon 6-1-12 : Atom's Breakdown

Mike Alexander - banjo, mandolin & vocals; Pete Lister - upright bass, vocals & beard; & Evan Lane - guitar, vocals & faces

http://www.alltrio.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-ALL-Trio/405157152856498
http://www.reverbnation.com/mikealexander
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOUki_OJRGQ
http://www.reverbnation.com/stoneyriverboys
http://www.myspace.com/reversecurve
http://www.myspace.com/kodiakenvelope
http://www.robinsongs.com/albums/round.html
http://johnvelghe.bandcamp.com/
http://riotontheplaza.com/tag/mike-alexander/

http://www.sonicbids.com/2/EPK/?epk_id=111227
http://www.youtube.com/user/awrytunes
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/awrytunes2
http://www.myspace.com/awrytunes

Alexander, Lane & Lister make up the ALLTrio & they're all you'll ever need to make a room come alive with humor, joy & mirth! These consummate musicians have each of them been being pressured by their friends for years to start a band - so they started one together. Hailing from Northwest New Jersey, they're willing to travel the distance to bring their indelible ovations to your ears.

Email them at alltrioband@gmail.com for booking requests.

___________________________________________________________


You can keep track of all of the great bands playing at The Donegal Saloon here:

http://www.donegalsaloon.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Donegal-Saloon/152110514829906

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Violence Against Women Act may be up for congressional action - The Washington Post

Violence Against Women Act may be up for congressional action - The Washington Post

Congress must act on violence against women

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By Editorial Board, Published: February 22

ONE OF THE casualties of congressional gridlock last year was reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The landmark law that caused a sea change in how the country deals with domestic violence fell victim to the partisanship and inertia of Washington. But there are hopeful signs that Congress may be getting serious about resolving the differences that have held up the law’s authorization and that threaten important protections for victims in abusive relationships.
The Senate and House last year each passed bills to reauthorize the act, but differences over new provisions for gay, immigrant and Native American victims of intimate partner violence — opposed by the Republican-led House — derailed reauthorization. The Senate this month gave strong bipartisan approval to a bill that rightly doesn’t retreat from providing services to abuse victims, no matter their sexual orientation or immigration status. But in a concession aimed at winning passage in the House, a proposed increase in the number of visas for victims who are undocumented was dropped. The Senate also agreed to toughen efforts to fight human trafficking and expand testing and cataloguing of rape kits, measures that also have been stalled. The bill got more support this year, 78 to 22, than last year, 68 to 31.

There is still disagreement, though, about a provision in the bill that aims to tackle the high incidence of domestic and sexual abuse of Native American women by giving new powers to tribal police and courts. Native American women are at higher risk of abuse and sexual violence, but prosecution of these crimes often falls through the cracks. That’s because federal and state law enforcement authorities lack resources and are often separated by great distance from tribal lands, and tribal courts are not allowed to get involved in crimes involving non-Indians or that are committed off tribal lands. The Senate bill includes comprehensive protections (rights to counsel, a speedy trial, due process, etc.) to all those prosecuted in tribal courts, but concerns persist. Two conservative House Republicans, Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Tom Cole (Okla.), have advanced a modification that would allow a case to be moved to federal court if defendants’ rights are violated.
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), co-sponsor of the Senate bill along with Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), previously called the proposal “a reasonable, middle-ground position.” Other encouraging signs include a letter sent by 17 House Republicans to Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), urging action on an act that includes “all victims and perpetrators of domestic violence,” and comments from Mr. Boehner signaling he may be open to taking up the Senate bill.
Reauthorization is long overdue, and so we hope Mr. Boehner is right when he says the House “will act in a timely fashion in some way.”

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Daniel Tichenor on "The Politics & History of Immigration in America" at...

Daniel Tichenor (The University of Oregon & Rutgers University) on "The Politics and History of Unauthorized Immigration in America: A Reappraisal."

http://polisci.uoregon.edu/facbios.php?name=Daniel_Tichenor
http://waynemorsecenter.uoregon.edu/about/wayne-morse-center-staff-2/senior-faculty-fellow-dan-tichenor/

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7288.html

Daniel J. Tichenor is Philip H. Knight Professor of Social Science and Senior Faculty Fellow at the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.  He has published extensively on immigration politics and policy, the American presidency, civil liberties, interest groups, social movements, political parties, and U.S. political development.   He has been a Faculty Scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, Research Fellow in Governmental Studies at the Brookings Institution, Abba P. Schwartz Fellow in Immigration and Refugee Policy at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Research Scholar at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, a visiting scholar at Leipzig University, and a faculty associate at Princeton's Center for Migration and Development and the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California, San Diego.  His book, Dividing Lines: The Politics of Immigration Control in America (Princeton University Press), won the American Political Science Association's Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book in American national policy.  He also has received the Jack Walker Prize, the Mary Parker Follett Award and the Polity Award for journal articles on interest groups, social movements, party politics, and American political development, the Parties and Political Organization Section's Emerging Scholar Award, and awards for his teaching and mentorship.  He recently edited A History of the U.S. Political System, a three volume set examining the development of American political thought, institutions, behavior, and public policy.  He also has written essays for popular journals like The Nation and The Utne Reader, regularly gives public lectures, and has testified and provided expert briefings to Congress on immigration policy and immigrant integration.  He is currently completing a book on the origins and development of unauthorized immigration as an American political dilemma another on war, presidential emergency power and civil liberties.  Some recent and forthcoming publications include:

The Politics of International Migration, with Marc Rosenblum, Oxford Handbook Series, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).

"Historical Set Points and Presidential Emergency Powers," Perspectives on Politics (forthcoming March, 2013).

"Raising Arizona v. United States: Historical Patterns of American Immigration Federalism," with Alexandra Filindra, Lewis and Clark Law Review (forthcoming Winter 2013).

"The Modern Presidency and Social Movements," with Laura Blessing and Sidney Milkis, Presidential Studies Quarterly (forthcoming Winter 2013).

"Reform's Mating Dance: Presidents, Social Movements, and Racial Realignments," with Sidney Milkis, Journal of Policy History (Spring 2012) volume 23, no.4

_________________________________________________________________


The tome which is being critiqued throughout the presentation is that of Mae Ngai & is entitled "Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America"

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7633.html

__________________________________________________________________


This was the opening lecture of the Center for Migration & Development Spring Colloquium Series at Princeton University, co-sponsored by the Center for Migration and Development with the Department of History Modern America Workshop, The Center for The Study of Democratic Politics, and The Program in Latino Studies.

http://www.princeton.edu/cmd
http://www.princeton.edu/cch/events/workshops/maw/
http://www.princeton.edu/latinostudies/
http://www.princeton.edu/csdp/

The facebook event is archived here:

http://www.facebook.com/events/536966219671013/

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Same Old Song | The Nation

Same Old Song | The Nation

Ash Wednesday 2013 Pilgrimage To Repent Immigrant Detention : Bishop Kat...

The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, previously Bishop of Nevada, is the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. She is chief pastor to the Episcopal Church's 2.4 million members in 16 countries and 110 dioceses, ecumenical officer, and primate, joining leaders of the other 38 Anglican Provinces in consultation for global good and reconciliation. Jefferts Schori was elected at the 75th General Convention on June 18, 2006, and invested at Washington National Cathedral on November 4, 2006.

ACLU Obtains Emails That Prove ICE Officials Set Deportation Quotas - COLORLINES

ACLU Obtains Emails That Prove ICE Officials Set Deportation Quotas - COLORLINES

ACLU Obtains Emails That Prove ICE Officials Set Deportation Quotas

by Jorge Rivas, Friday, February 15 2013, 4:22 PM EST

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A set of e-mails obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina show U.S. immigration officials developed strategies to increase the number of deportations so they could surpass the previous year’s record deportation numbers.
Federal immigration authorities have claimed to target people who pose a threat to public safety but these email show officials targeted immigrants convicted of minor crimes.
 “These recently reported documents suggest that ICE’s ‘targeted’ approach may have less to do with public safety or a focus on serious crimes, and more to do with the agency’s laser focus on meeting deportation levels,” said Seth Freed Wessler, Colorlines.com’s investigative reporter.
Wessler says the documents provide evidence to support what advocates have long argued: immigration enforcement as it’s currently practiced looks more like a dragnet than a harpoon.
USA Today analyzed the emails and point to some of the strategies used to increase the number of deportations:

Among those new tactics - detailed in interviews and internal e-mails - were trolling state driver’s license records for information about foreign-born applicants, dispatching U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to traffic safety checkpoints conducted by police departments, and processing more illegal immigrants who had been booked into jails for low-level offenses. Records show ICE officials in Washington approved some of those steps.
 …
 In April, officials told field office heads to map plans to increase removals, then instructed at least one field office that supervises enforcement throughout Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to go ahead with efforts to mine DMV records and step up their efforts to deport people who had been booked into county jails, among other measures.

ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen told USA Today in a statement that “ICE does not have quotas.” She said the agency sets “annual performance goals” that “reflect the agency’s commitment to using the limited resources provided by Congress.”
Immigration advocates say this news doesn’t come as a surprise.
“The revelations about the Obama Administration’s deportation quotas are shocking, but not a suprise” said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org. “Anyone who knows the hard working people that the Administration is calling ‘criminals,’ who are being jailed by the thousands and deported by the millions, knows that government officials have such internal quotas. Other officials do an injustice to us all when they repeat false claims that there is some sort of legal mandate to deport 400,000 people a year. There’s not. And now everybody can see the ‘bonuses,’ deceit and dirty politics behind the immigrant tragedy.”
Chris Newman, Legal Director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network says the findings are offensive.
“Setting immigration policy by a deportation quota runs counter to every talking point the Obama administration has used in the past five years. It has endangered public safety. It offends both constitutional values and has led to grave civil rights violations,” Newman said.
“It’s the exact reason why the first step in immigration reform must be a suspension of deportations,” Newman went on to say.

TAGS: Deportation Dragnet ICE

Ash Wednesday 2013 Ellis Island-EDC Pilgrimage To Repent Immigrant Deten...

Children Of Immigrants Are More Educated Than Their Peers

Children Of Immigrants Are More Educated Than Their Peers

ABC/ Univision  |  Posted: 02/15/2013 10:55 am EST

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The kids are doing all right.
At least that's the case for the adult children of immigrants who were born and raised in the United States, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center. The comprehensive report shows that in many ways, second-generation Americans are not only more successful than foreign-born residents of the United States, but they're doing better than the overall population of the country.
They are less likely than both the foreign-born and general populations to live in poverty and they are more educated. They have virtually the same rate of homeownership and the same median household income as the general population, and they beat first generation immigrants on all of those markers.
Read the whole story at ABC/ Univision

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Artist Works To Keep Immigrants In The Picture | NCPR News from NPR

Artist Works To Keep Immigrants In The Picture | NCPR News from NPR

Artist Works To Keep Immigrants In The Picture

by Brian De Los Santos

Feb 14, 2013 — Ramiro Gomez Jr. is an artist -- and nanny -- who places cardboard paintings of domestic workers in affluent Los Angeles neighborhoods. Some people see him as an activist, but Gomez shies away from that label; he just hopes his project will help to humanize immigrant workers.

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Ramiro Gomez Jr. is working fast enough to draw the least amount of attention, but slowly enough to make every detail stand out. He describes the rush he gets as "therapeutic."
Gomez has created inserts on a human-size piece of cardboard, and with a pair of pliers he begins to lace wire to it. He then grabs tools to prop the cardboard piece up for display. He chooses his spot at a towering shrubbery fence at a busy intersection in Bel Air, Calif., a neighborhood known for its luxury and Hollywood star dwellers. What stands before him, and the public, is an acrylic-painted cardboard cutout of an immigrant worker with a "Star Maps Here" sign.
The artist says he is "documenting the undocumented" by placing his art in affluent communities, places where these workers are often invisible. These cardboard people have gone up on famous streets and in residential areas and public parks.
This week — the same week when immigration reform was mentioned in the president's State of the Union address and the GOP response given by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio — the 26-year-old artist took his statement to the nation's capital.
"It still hasn't hit me that I'm in Washington," Gomez says, "and it probably won't until I get home and reflect."
From White Picket Fences To The White House
The Los Angeles-based artist was invited to lead an art workshop at the United Workers Congress, which took place in Washington, D.C., this week. Some 250 immigrant workers and labor-rights organizers came together to rally for an inclusive path to citizenship for domestic workers and day laborers.
Xiomara Corpe�o, director of organizing at the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, says one of the main issues in immigration is that workers often face discrimination from employers and even family members and friends.
When unauthorized immigrants face problems at work, it's likely they'll stay silent. A National Domestic Workers Alliance survey finds 85 percent don't complain so their immigration status won't be used against them.
"Sometimes people leave their self-esteem at the border," Corpe�o says. It's a problem caused by the negative rhetoric around the immigration issue, she adds.
And the perception of these workers is what Gomez's work targets.
"Think about this: When someone comes to work for you, that person has humanity," he says.
On Tuesday, the artist tried to show that humanity in front of the White House by placing a cutout of a family of four on the outside of the fence looking in. He had to remove it.
The next day, he took a cardboard creation of strawberry pickers to the Capitol's East Lawn. They sat there, briefly, until a police officer asked for a permit. Gomez reluctantly took them down.
But despite his persistence, Gomez says he is not an activist. He bases his art on his life, his family and his work as a nanny. His own experiences as a domestic worker.
"I'm doing everything based on my life," he says. "I cannot present what is not there."
A Living Room Ad And An Idea
But before the Capitol and the White House, there were magazine ads.
Gomez grew up San Bernardino, Calif., and moved to Hollywood in 2009 after dropping out of the California Institute of the Arts and his grandmother died. Trying to move past the low moment and with limited options, he picked up a baby-sitting gig.
That's when it all started.
After a frustrating day at work, he took out his emotions on a living room magazine ad, altering it by making its walls bleed with paint. He says it eased his tension. It was the first of several such pieces.
Soon he turned from customizing ads and shifted to painting housekeepers without facial details — a way to showcase impersonal relationships between employers and the employees who were performing chores in their large, extravagant homes.
To add a human element, Gomez always gives his pieces a name. They're usually titled after a composite of characters he's come across — whether it's a family member or a household worker he's befriended while baby-sitting — and pseudonyms he makes up, such as Guillermina and Genaro.
Reaction And Removal
Eva Aucapina liked Gomez's project when she viewed it at the workers event this week. She's an Ecuadorean domestic worker who has been taking care of children and cleaning homes in Los Angeles for about 15 years.
"The art is great," she says in Spanish. "It means people are noticing that we're doing an honorable job."
"Ramiro ... is targeting a situation that is concerning him and giving it a new look at that stereotype and a new voice," says Gronk, an L.A.-based Chicano artist and former member of the art collective Asco.
But some say Gomez is reinforcing the stereotypes he's trying to erase with paint.
Last summer, he was confronted by an immigrant worker. It was the first time Gomez had experienced opposition from the kinds of people he was painting.
The man, who was selling celebrity home maps on a shaded corner, told Gomez he was being discriminatory by portraying him with dark skin and was scaring business away. The worker warned if he didn't take the painting down, he would do it himself.
Gomez tried to explain the purpose of the project, but the man didn't see — or care about — his point of view. The response shook the artist and he removed the cardboard piece, which depicted a maps vendor.
"I'm not taking it as a sense of a personal attack," he said at the time. "When I encounter these moments, the first thing that comes to mind is: learn."

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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Ash Wednesday 2013 Pilgrimage From Ellis Island To EDC To Repent Immigra...

Davvid Toledo of Passaic County Coalition for Immigrant Rights being interviewed at Ellis Island

Clergy, Faith Leaders, Activists, Community Members & Former Immigrant Detainees Gathering on Ash Wednesday to Repent the Sin of Imprisoning Immigrants for Profit / Day long series of events to begin in front of the bridge to Ellis Island and in sight of Statue of Liberty

http://www.facebook.com/events/559439964085146/

http://www.facebook.com/notes/casa-esperanza/ash-wednesday-rally-march-vigil-in-new-jersey-against-immigrant-detention/10151423239208537

On Wednesday, February 13th, 2013, people from across New Jersey and New York representing over a dozen faith-based, community and immigrant rights groups gathered for the fourth year in a row in Liberty State Park in Jersey City in front of the bridge to Ellis Island and in sight of the Statue of Liberty to repent the sin of immigration detention. This is the beginning of a day long series of events called "No More Silence! Awake to Justice!"

Participants travelled to Hackensack, Newark and Kearney to highlight sites of suffering for immigrants and their families. The day culminated with the 17th annual vigil at the Elizabeth Detention Center, the for-profit facility operated by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) where ICE first started incarcerating immigrants in NJ almost two decades ago.

The event was co-sponsored by: IRATE & First Friends; Pax Christi NJ; Action 21; American Friends Service Committee -- Immigrant Rights Program, Newark; Casa Esperanza, Felician Sisters of North America; Wind of the Spirit; Office of Peace, Justice and Ecological Integrity for the Sisters of Charity of NJ; St. Joseph's Social Service Center; Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, CEUS; NJ DREAM Act Coalition,; Anakbayan-USA; St. Peter's University Social Justice Program; Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast; Sisters of St. Joseph of Chestnut Hill; Monmouth County Coalition of Immigrant Rights

____________________________________________________________


Action 21:

http://www.njaction21.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Action-21/154352017954889

American Friends Service Committee, Immigrant Rights Program of Newark:

https://afsc.org/office/newark-nj
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AFSC-Immigrant-Rights-Program/184778154878751

Anakbayan NJ:

http://www.facebook.com/anakbayan.nj
http://anakbayannynj.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/anakbayannynj

http://bayanihanfestival.com/BayanihanFestival

Casa Esperanza:

http://www.facebook.com/casaesperanzanj
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And subscribe to our blogspots:

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http://immigrantdetainees.blogspot.com/
http://s-comm-nj.blogspot.com/
http://njaid.blogspot.com/

CEUS:

http://www.ceusnj.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Centro-Comunitario-CEUS/127560981584

Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless:

http://www.theelizabethcoalition.org/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Coalition-to-House-the-Homeless/241497229099

Felician Sisters of Lodi:

http://www.feliciansisters.org/journeyhope.cfm?lang=E
https://plus.google.com/107813221673489142019/about?gl=us&hl=en
http://www.stjoenj.net/

IRATE & First Friends:

www.irate-firstfriends.org
http://www.facebook.com/IRATEFF
https://twitter.com/IRATEFrstFrnds

http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/irate

Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry:

http://www.njsynod.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=225&itemid=98
http://www.lsmnj.org/programs-services/community-outreach-services/immigration-refugee-program/

Monmouth County Coalition for Immigrant Rights:

http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/visitationlistusprograms

New Jersey Advocates For Immigrant Detainees (NJAID):

http://njaid.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/njaid
http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Jersey-Advocates-For-Immigrant-Detainees/102314033207233

https://vimeo.com/album/1662771

New Jersey Dream Act Coalition:

http://njdac.org/
http://www.facebook.com/njdac
https://twitter.com/NJdreamAct

New Jersey Forum for Human Rights:

http://www.hg.org/law-firms/Human-Rights/USA-New-Jersey.html
http://law.newark.rutgers.edu/students/student-organizations

Pax Christi NJ:

http://paxsummit.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/70959325050/

Wind of the Spirit:

http://www.windofthespirit.net/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wind-of-the-Spirit/130553323629649

Rep. Gutierrez meets on Capitol Hill with families torn apart by 1996 immigration law | The Center for Public Integrity

Rep. Gutierrez meets on Capitol Hill with families torn apart by 1996 immigration law | The Center for Public Integrity

Rep. Gutierrez meets on Capitol Hill with families torn apart by 1996 immigration law

Separated spouses featured in Center report hope to be included in proposed reforms

By Susan Ferrissemail

6:00 am, February 15, 2013 Updated: 8:33 am, February 15, 2013

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill.

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Separated by law: Families torn apart by 1996 immigration measure

By Susan Ferriss and Amy Isackson

October 19, 2012

Americans whose spouses have been exiled for years as a result of strict immigration penalties took their plight to Congress Thursday, begging legislators to help them as lawmakers discuss overhauling immigration laws.
Some of the affected families met with a key figure in the immigration fight, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who told them that he believes there is a new bipartisan spirit in Congress, and a readiness to eliminate at least some of the mandatory penalties Congress approved in 1996. Members who approved the punitive laws in 1996 said they wanted to try to deter illegal immigration by punishing offenders more harshly. The penalties have split up families for years at a time.
The punishments, mandatory terms of exile known as “bars,” must be imposed on an undocumented spouse when he or she tries to go through the process of becoming a legal resident. Americans have a right to sponsor foreign spouses for legal residency, but their citizenship does not trump the penalties Congress currently requires be handed down.
Thousands of Americans’ spouses — many of them parents of children who are U.S. citizens — have received these bars since they started kicking in, after delays, around 2002. A basic bar ousts spouses for 10 years. But some spouses have been barred for 20 years, even for life with no possibility of return.
On Thursday, affected Americans with small children told Gutierrez of relocating to Mexico to reunite with spouses. They complained of multiple hardships, including health problems and threats of kidnapping and extortion.
“What devastation,” Gutierrez said, calling the bars “cruel” and “fundamentally wrong” because they force a U.S. citizen to raise children alone, without a spouse, or face exile to keep a family together. Gutierrez sits on the House Judiciary Committee and its House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security, key forums where negotiations over immigration proposals will likely occur.
Los Angeles resident Chris Xitco, whose story was featured in a recent Center for Public Integrity report on the bars, traveled to the Capitol to participate in the Thursday press event. It was organized by American Families United, a group urging Congress to make changes that would reunite families and put more flexibility into immigration penalties.
Xitco met with aides to his two senators, California Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as with an aide to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who could be critical to mustering GOP support for immigration reform.
Rubio’s press secretary did not respond to requests for comment.
“I don’t know how optimistic I can get,” said Xitco, 49, who fears for the safety of his wife Delia and their two small children, who live south of Tijuana, and whom he visits on weekends.
His wife, whom he married in Los Angeles in 2002, was barred at least until 2018, a punishment meted out because she had crossed the border a second time after getting caught once. She received a lifetime bar that can only be appealed after 10 years.
Margot Bruemmer, 40, of New Jersey, recounted moving to a rural area in Mexico’s Veracruz state after her husband was barred in 2005.
The couple has two children, ages two and four. Bruemmer said her lawyer failed to warn the couple that her husband would end up barred for at least 10 years when she tried to legalize him after marrying. Because he had crossed the border more than once, he too was given a lifetime bar that can only be appealed after a decade.
Bruemmer and her husband received news that he would be barred as others have — back in his home country, at a U.S. consulate, where undocumented immigrants are required to report for a legal-residency interview as a last step before getting green cards.
 “I cried, and I begged,” Bruemmer said, remembering when the U.S. consular officer in Juarez, Mexico, gave the couple the shocking news that her husband was barred.
Bruemmer said her children have to sleep under a mosquito net and live with the threat of catching a fever. But she loves her husband and wants to keep the family together.
“I want my daughters to grow up the way I grew up,” Bruemmer said. She said her husband is eking out a living running a store. Because she is an American, she said, her family has become a target, and has been threatened with kidnapping and extortion.   
“I am begging for our lawmakers, in this upcoming immigration reform debate, to not forget those of us already living outside the country, already barred,” Bruemmer said. “Please, do not forget us.”
In the 1996 legislation, Congress did include a system of hardship waivers that can shorten bars for some affected families. But that’s an option only if the undocumented spouse entered and resided illegally in the United States once, without multiple crossings.
In addition, up to now, spouses have only been able to apply for hardship waivers after they have been barred and are outside the United States. There are no guarantees that waivers, which are notoriously difficult to argue, will be approved.  Thousands have been rejected, and many families have waited for months, or years, for word on applications.
Americans’ complaints about lengthy separations have resulted in some changes.
Starting in March, under order by President Obama, undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens will be allowed to apply for hardship waivers before going to their final residency interview back in their home countries. Rep. Lamar Smith, at the time the GOP chair of the House Judiciary Committee, denounced Obama’s change on the waiver procedure.
“Who is the president batting for — illegal immigrants or the American people?” Smith said in a statement. He was the author of the 1996 immigration reform.
But Obama’s waiver change won’t help Xitco, Bruemmer or Edgar Falcon, a citizen from El Paso, Texas, who also traveled to Capitol Hill this week.
Falcon’s wife, Maricruz, 24, has been barred for life, and now lives in Durango, Mexico. She arrived in the United States when she 16, brought in illegally by family members. Because her sister used a false ID to enter, a U.S. consular official decided Maricruz must have used one as well, Falcon said.
“I thought there was a waiver for teens,” Falcon said. After Maricruz was barred, Falcon contacted his congressional representatives, but received no reply. “They turned their back on me,” the 27-year-old said.
Gutierrez said he has been contacted by many Americans with barred spouses, and many others who are too afraid to try to legalize their spouses.
“The American public does not understand this situation,” Gutierrez said. But he sees potential allies for reform among some Republicans, he said, including Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the former vice presidential contender, and Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. Gutierrez said he met with Rubio for an hour recently, and has also discussed the situation with Ryan.
Kathy McGroarty, 36, a resident of Chicago, read an emotional statement Thursday while at the Capitol, recounting how she and husband tried to live in Mexico after he was barred nearly a decade ago. They ended up returning to the United States — he illegally.
“For almost 10 years, my husband, Ines, and I have lived every day with the fear that our lives could be destroyed by a deportation order,” McGroarty said. “We have two boys, Estevan and Diego, who have no idea that their father’s immigration status could ultimately bring unbelievable heartache to our home. As far as they know, we are just another regular American family.”

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Tempers flare over convenience store chain’s ‘Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit’ stickers

Tempers flare over convenience store chain’s ‘Illegal Immigrant Hunting Permit’ stickers

The chain, based in Colorado, said it had gotten rid of the stickers from its various stores because of the outrage. Several customers took to Facebook to lodge their complaints.

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The bumper sticker in question reads: "Illegal Immigrant Hunting License.”

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A Colorado-based convenience store chain is under fire for selling a bumper sticker that resembles a hunting permit and reads, “Illegal Immigrant Hunting License.”
The offensive stickers were sold at the convenience store of the Cenex gas station in Eaton, Colo., about 60 miles north of Denver. The store is owned by Agfinity Inc., which claimed to have removed the shocking stickers over the weekend after receiving a barrage of complaints, according to KUSA-TV.
The small rectangular sticker has a green background with a yellow outline of the continental United States that has an imprint of “USA” on it.
RELATED: IMMIGRANTS LIVING THE DREAM
Along the top reads the line, “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT,” and along the bottom reads the line “HUNTING PERMIT.”

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The offensive sticker prompted a barrage of complaints.

There is also a note at the bottom that reads, “No bag limit — Tagging not required.” And along the sides are fake numbers the make the sign resemble an actual hunting permit.
Hundreds of patrons took to Facebook and other social media outlets to criticize the company for selling the stickers.
RELATED: GIFT CARDS FOR AGENTS WHO ARREST IMMIGRANTS
“I want to officially register a complaint about insensitive and blatant racism by the sales of signs at this location that read: “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HUNTING SEASON.” This is offensive and should immediately be removed,” wrote a Facebook user identified as Luna Zamaya.
The stickers, which are distributed by a company called Central States Novelty LLC., appeared to be sold at other Agfinity-owned convenience stores as well, KUSA reported.

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Agfinity Inc., the company that owns the store that sold the stickers, apologized on its Facebook page.

As local outrage over the disrespectful decal grew to a fever pitch, Agfinity issued an apology on its Facebook page Thursday night.
RELATED: FAMILY CHARGES DISNEYLAND WITH RACISM
“We at Agfinity deeply regret the concern this issue related to bumper stickers that had been for sale in our store has raised in our community. We have removed the bumper sticker display from our stores. As an organization, we do not condone offensive messages of this nature,” the statement read.
The outcry over the racist sticker comes as politicians in Washington begin discussing comprehensive immigration reform.
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