New America Media - Immigration

Judge: Discrimination at Arpaio’s Office Came From the ‘Top Down’

2013-05-25T00:30:00Z

PHOENIX -- A federal judge ruled on Friday that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio engaged in racial profiling of Latinos, violating their constitutional rights in his crackdown on illegal immigration. Civil rights advocates expect the ruling to send a chilling message to other law enforcement agencies that are planning to engage in immigration enforcement.

“The order today will have national importance in deterring others across the country,” said Dan Pochoda, one of the prosecuting attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

In his ruling, U.S. Federal District Judge Murray Snow found that sheriff’s deputies engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against Latinos during immigration sweeps and enforcement of state immigration laws.

Snow said in the decision that the Sheriff’s Office had “failed to have a clear policy that required execution of the saturation patrols and other enforcement efforts in a race-neutral manner; made no efforts to determine whether its officers were engaging in racially-biased enforcement during its saturation patrols, and failed to comply with standard police practices concerning record-keeping maintained by other law enforcement authorities engaged in such operations.”

Sheriff Arpaio’s public information officers declined a request for comment on the ruling and directed inquiries to attorney Tim Casey who was in the process of reviewing the ruling by press time.

The ruling will be likely appealed by Arpaio’s attorneys.

The long-awaited decision in a trial that ended last July represents a pivotal moment for Arizona civil rights organizations and immigrant rights groups that spent the last five years denouncing Arpaio’s high-profile crusade against undocumented immigrants.

At the heart of the trial was proving that Arpaio’s agency had the intent to discriminate during its immigration operations or “crime suppression patrols” and that it has engaged in a practice of racial profiling of Latinos that remains to this day.

The ACLU and MALDEF are not seeking monetary relief but wish to end the alleged practice of racial profiling by the Sheriff’s Office. Some of the changes they may ask for include the development of a policy to ban the practice of racial profiling, active monitoring of deputy conduct and record keeping for traffic stops.

The lawsuit was brought several U.S. citizens and Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a Mexican tourist who alleged he was racially profiled after being detained by deputies during a traffic stop. He was a passenger in a vehicle.

Arpaio started what he called his “crime suppression operations” in 2007, shortly after signing an agreement with the federal government – known as 287(g) -- that gave his deputies the legal authority to enforce federal immigration laws.

The immigration raids and sweeps that followed created an uproar from Latinos who felt they were being targeted because of the color of their skin. That sparked a Justice Department civil rights investigation and subsequent litigation, the ACLU-MALDEF lawsuit, and the announcement by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano that the federal government was revoking its 287(g) agreement with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

In response, conservative politicians in Arizona, backed by Arpaio, crafted an unprecedented piece of state legislation -- the Support our Law-Enforcement and Secure Neighborhoods Act, or SB 1070 – that was signed into law in 2010, making it a state crime to be an undocumented immigrant.

Arpaio’s testimony as the head of the agency was essential to the trial because attorneys were trying to prove that the discrimination came from “the top,” and that it was fueled in part by the sheriff’s public statements and his inaction to avoid the alleged violations.

Part of the evidence presented by the ACLU included letters from constituents in Maricopa County that encouraged Arpaio to racially profile. The letters were used to underscore prosecutors’ argument that there was discriminatory motivation at the heart of Arpaio’s immigration enforcement tactics.

One of the letters, received on June 19, 2008, read: “If you have dark skin, then you have dark skin! Unfortunately, that is the look of the Mexican illegals who are here ILLEGALLY […] They bring their unclean, disrespectful, integrity-less, law breaking selves here […] I am begging you to come over to the 29thSt/Greenway Pkwy area and round them all up!...They crawl around here all day and night.”

Arpaio kept a copy of this and many other letters in an immigration file. He sent his constituents thank you notes for their support, and in some cases, like this one, he wrote notes to his staff: “Have someone handle this.”

An immigration sweep was later conducted in that area.

What lies ahead

The ruling brought a sigh of relief to many immigrants in Arizona who for years have been fearful of the sheriff’s office’s practice of conducting sweeps in neighborhoods and places of employment. Yet ACLU attorney Daniel Pochoda warned that there is still another phase of the trial, in which the court will decide how to make sure the judge’s injunction is enforced properly.

In his ruling, Snow said that Arpaio’s agency had failed to comply with a previous order by the court not to use the suspicion of someone being in the country illegally as a reason to pull people over or initiate an investigation.

With today’s ruling, and an effort to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio underway, momentum seems to be building in opposition to the controversial figure.

But whether this could spell relief for those who were arrested in Arpaio’s sweeps remains unknown.

“While today's court ruling is undeniably a victory, real justice will come when the victims of Arpaio see their rights fully vindicated,” said Carlos García, director of the Phoenix-based PUENTE Movement, which advocates on behalf of immigrants. “At a bare minimum, the White House should respond by immediately suspending deportations throughout Maricopa County.”

APA Families May Be Price of Immigration Reform

2013-05-24T09:00:00Z

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said last Tuesday in Washington, D.C., the immigration reform bill, passing 13-5 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, “does much to improve family immigration, but I fear that the bill contains some fundamental changes to our immigration system that move us away from the principle of family reunification.” She conceded the bill is “a step in the right direction” to fixing a “badly broken” system, while pledging she would continue to strengthen its family provisions. Among 10 of Hirono’s 24 proposed amendments passed – reunifying Filipino World War Two veterans with their children and qualifying DREAM Act students for federal education aid.

Speaking in the Bay Area last weekend, Hirono, the Senate’s only immigrant, considered herself the body’s “strongest voice” for family reunification. However, the bill shifts away from family and focuses on a merit system highlighting education and experience, attracting overseas STEM talent to places like Silicon Valley.

“STEM people, they have families too,” Hirono argued. “They need their support of their families to succeed in their new country.”

In 18 months after Senate and House passage and the president’s signature, the law would “wipe out” categories for siblings and children over 31 who are married. Siblings, said the Senate Judiciary Committee member, don’t stand a chance.

The merit system is also “going to have a tremendous effect on women,” she said. Asian women do not have the same educational opportunities and don’t score well when it comes to STEM points, said Hirono.

At the Pacific Asian American Women Bay Area Coalition luncheon on Sunday, she said non-STEM entrepreneurs like Socola’s Wendy Lieu would be hurt. The San Francisco chocolatier had emigrated from Vietnam and started her business as a teen.

“It is a mistake to focus on the economic elements of immigrants,” said Senator Hirono.

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Caregivers Break the Silence: Japanese Americans at Risk

2013-05-24T07:55:00Z

Photo: Frances Kakugawa, author of Breaking the Silence: A Caregiver’s Voice, at a book reading.

LOS ANGELES— When Frances Kakugawa’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she turned to poetry to express her emotions. Soon Kakugawa was able to see the gift in her mother’s dementia, leading her to develop ways to teach others how to channel their emotions in a constructive way.

An award-winning children’s author and poet, Kakugawa wrote Breaking the Silence: A Caregiver’s Voice, which has been acclaimed as a teaching tool for the field of gerontology. “In the Japanese culture, we try to keep things in the house,” Kakugawa said. Many believe it’s a sign of weakness to have to go to a support group.”

Caregiving
For Yourself

The Family Caregiver Alliance (FCA) advises caregivers to pay attention to their own care. Feelings of anger, anxiety, sadness, isolation, exhaustion—and then guilt for having these feelings—can exact a heavy toll.

FCA’s website notes, though, “Caregiving does not cause depression, nor will everyone who provides care experience the negative feelings that go with depression. But in an effort to provide the best possible care for a family member or friend, caregivers often sacrifice their own physical and emotional needs.”

The organization suggests:

Set realistic goals; break large tasks into several small ones.

Try to be with other people; confide in someone. Support groups can serve as an emotional outlet and an information resource.

Participate in activities, such as mild exercise, going to a movie, ballgame or a community event.

Let your family and friends help you.

Remember: Positive thinking will replace negative thinking.

FCA also has fact sheets for caregivers in several languages (although not in Japanese).

--Ellen Endo

She believes that more Japanese American (JA) caregivers would benefit from joining. Kakugawa conducts three such support groups in Northern California, teaching poetry and memoir-writing.“ Sansei are really very private people,” she lamented, saying she wishes more would take advantage of help that is available to them.

Caregiving and Confucian Values

Influenced by deeply rooted cultural beliefs, family members caring for Japanese American seniors—this country’s largest ethnic population over age 65—are vulnerable to ailments attributed to physical and psychological stress, say experts.

In separate studies conducted at Stanford with San Jose State University and in Hawaii, researchers found that while cultural values can help individuals cope with day-to-day challenges of caring for aging loved one, those same values can keep caregivers from addressing their own needs.

Researchers list eight cultural values, based in Confucianism and passed down from early immigrants (Issei) to subsequent generations, that influence behavior of American-born Japanese to some degree, even among those who considered themselves fully assimilated. Those values are:

• gaman (internal strength and endurance)
• shikataganai (acceptance, it cannot be helped)
• oyakoko (filial piety, respect for elders)
• giri (family obligation)
• haji (shame)
• enryo (reluctance to speak, refusal of assistance)
• kodomo no tame ni (for the sake of the children)
• hazukashii (embarrassment)

Palo Alto clinical psychologist Lisa M. Kinoshita and co-researcher Dolores Gallagher-Thompson, reporting in the journal, Clinical Gerontologist, state that such values served as coping mechanisms for the Issei struggling to survive in their adopted country. Issei turned to gaman/strength and shikataganai/acceptance when faced with adversity.

“Traditionally, Japanese American adult children are expected to care for their parents lovingly and with gratitude (oyakoko/filial piety and giri/family obligation), showing their appreciation for the care their parents provided to them during their childhood,” the clinicians reported. “It is believed that to not do so would bring great shame (haji/shame) to the family.”

Case Study of Nisei Woman

To illustrate their findings, Kinoshita and Gallagher-Thompson cited the case of a Nisei woman, 77, who was caregiver to her husband suffering from dementia.

The woman sought psychotherapy because she wanted her adult children and her daughter-in-law to help her with “socializing” her husband. When her children didn’t offer their help, Ms. S would become upset and frustrated. She relied on gaman/strength and shikataganai/acceptance) to allay her disappointment.

“Ms. S indicated that she experienced pain from chronic arthritis and gastrointestinal difficulty,” the study said. “Her primary care physician recommended surgery for the arthritis in her hands, but Ms. S had been reluctant to have surgery due to her ongoing caregiver responsibilities.”

According to a 1989 study by Evelyn Lee and Francis Lu published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, “JA family members often send nonverbal messages” to one another which communicate that strong emotional displays or direct discussions about stressful experiences will not be tolerated. Therefore, silence related to an uncomfortable topic may occur.”

Kinoshita and Gallagher-Thompson reported that Ms. S expected her non-Japanese daughter-in-law to help with the caregiving responsibilities. When Ms. S’s unspoken expectations were not met, she became increasingly resentful.

The clinicians guided her in practicing assertive communication to address asking her children for help. “She soon discovered that all of her children were happy to assist her but had not realized her need because she did not directly communicate it to them,” the report stated.

Attitudes Changing

An estimated 30,000 JAs serve as informal caregivers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties alone, according to Los Angeles-based Keiro Senior HealthCare, and the numbers are increasing steadily. Steven P. Wallace, of UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research and School of Public Health, predicts the number of Asian American elders will quintuple by 2050.

Nancy Hikoyeda, an ethnogeriatric specialist for the Stanford Geriatric Education Center and former director of the San Jose State University Gerontology Program, said enryo/refusal of assistance can prevent family caregivers from seeking professional help at an early stage, but she adds that attitudes toward institutionalization are changing, and Sansei (third generation) are more open to outside assistance than their parents or grandparents were.

In a 2010 report, entitled “Japanese American Older Adults,” Hikoyeda along with Marianne K.G. Tanabe of the Veterans Administration Pacific Islands Health Care Systems, asserted that kodomo no tame ni brings “an element of expectation from parents and sense of obligation on the part of the children to support and care for their parents.”

According to Hikoyeda and Tanabe, while JAs were less likely to place their elders in nursing homes when compared to their non-Asian American counterparts, the notion of oyakoko/filial piety is fading with increasing cultural integration and assimilation.

“Trends in nursing home statistics are expected to change,” they add.

Sansei Issues Emerge

Ms. D, a 65-year old Sansei, appeared cheerful and upbeat whenever she visited her dementia-afflicted mother. But soon after leaving her mother in the assisted living facility, Ms. D would sit in her car and sob. Her blood pressure became elevated, and she began to lose some of her hair.

Although she didn’t realize it, Ms. D was experiencing a form of depression over the loss of the mother she had known all of her life.

Three and a half years ago, Mr. A, a 59-year old Sansei, noticed that his parents’ forgetful “senior moments” were becoming more frequent.

“They didn’t seem to be able keep track of their meds, and I was worried about what they were eating and about whether they should be driving,” he recalled.

Rather than continue to be stressed over what to do, Mr. A decided to take full control. He contacted an assisted-living facility and put Mom and Dad on the waiting list.

After his parents were safely situated, Mr. A’s new concern is what will happen if their dementia progresses at a different rate. If one has a more debilitating form of dementia than the other, what if each parent requires a different level of care.

“If they have to be separated, that would be hard for them,” he worried.

Meanwhile, efforts to encourage his sibling to share the caregiving responsibilities on a regular basis have been unsuccessful.

“When I first noticed that our parents were going to need help, I asked my brother, ‘Why don’t we take turns?’ He did it at first, but that didn’t last very long,” Mr. A said.

“Working together smoothly for the benefit of a parent is often easier said than done. Old family patterns and unresolved issues often surface. We continue to play out the roles we fell into as children (the ‘good child,’ the ‘favorite child’). The caregiver may perceive more distant siblings as uncaring, critical or ‘in denial.’

According to the website Elder Care Team [www.eldercareteam.com] “While the primary caregiver may feel resentment because he/she is doing the lion’s share of the work, other siblings may feel shut out.”

Poetry in Family Conflict

Another emotional challenge adult children often face with a parent who has dementia is in their relationship with their mother or father.

Recently, someone in author Frances Kakugawa’s support group complained, “My mother just wants to push my buttons. She’s so negative.”

Kakugawa encouraged the individual to try writing poetry. Soon, she was able to regard her mother’s negativity differently. She began to see her Mom as full of love. In one of Kakugawa’s poems, “Plastic Orchids,” she describes how he mother, Matsue, 91, reacted when an aide addressed her by her first name and told her she loved her.

Matsue, perceiving the aide as insincere, muttered two harsh curse words to herself. Frances applauded this in her poem—a glimpse of the “real” Matsue, before she slides back into the fog of dementia.

This article is adapted from a story Ellen Endo wrote for Rafu Shimpo through the MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellows program, a collaboration of New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America.

Mexican Narco Pleads Guilty to Killing U.S. Immigration Agent

2013-05-23T23:58:39Z

Julian Zapata Espinoza, a member of Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, pleaded guilty Thursday to the 2011 killing in Mexico of a U.S. immigration agent and the attempted murder of another. Three other defendants pleaded guilty in the same attack. The Feb. 15, 2011 shootings resulted in the death of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata and the wounding of ICE agent Victor Avila. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Mexico's extradition of Zapata Espinoza.

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10 Tips on What to Do if Immigration Reform Passes

2013-05-23T07:05:00Z

What should you, a loved one, friend, or coworker be doing as of now to prepare for potential immigration reform?

1. Do NOT pay anyone to get in line for immigration reform; hold your paper work or open a file on your behalf to get a head start!

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Immigration Reform Bill Heads to Senate Floor

2013-05-22T20:00:00Z

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13 to 5 Tuesday evening to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill out of committee. The bill is expected to head to the Senate floor in early June.

The Judiciary Committee considered more than 300 amendments to the bill, defeating dozens of amendments that would have made the pathway to legalization more difficult.

One of the most controversial amendments would have given gay and lesbian couples equal treatment under immigration law. Sen. Patrick Leahy withheld that amendment "with a heavy heart" on Tuesday, after Democrats and Republicans voiced concern that it could "kill the bill."

Among the amendments that passed are: a deal struck between Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on visas for high-skilled workers to address the concerns of tech companies; an amendment to keep families together; and several amendments to strengthen border enforcement.

One of these is a pilot project that would track immigrants leaving the U.S. A week after Senators rejected an amendment that would have required a biometric system for non-U.S. citizens, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved a narrower amendment sponsored by Sen. Hatch that would require non-citizens to submit fingerprints when they leave the country. The pilot project would be launched at the 10 busiest U.S. airports within two years of the bill's passage. After six years, the system would be expanded to 30 airports. Non-citizens are already required to submit fingerprints when entering the country.

Better Language Interpretation Crucial for New Social Security Commissioner

2013-05-22T07:25:00Z

WASHINGTON, D.C.—As advocates for elders and people with disabilities anticipate President Obama’s choice of a new Social Security Commissioner, a group of us from the Strengthening Social Security Coalition presented our recommendations at a briefing on Capitol Hill last week calling for changes to improve the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) ability to serve large numbers of the program’s most vulnerable beneficiaries. That includes lower-income individuals, especially immigrants and those from ethnic groups.

The Social Security Coalition includes over 320 national and state organizations representing more than 50 million Americans. Our “Transition Report for a New Social Security Commissioner” covers a range of concerns from the agency’s overloaded staff to SSA’s need for enhanced research on retirement and disability.

Almost 2 Million Elders

One factor underlying all of these issues in our increasingly diverse population is the need for greater access to assistance for individuals with limited English proficiency. The organization I direct, the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC), whose staff helped coauthor the new report, has shown, that those struggling to understand English face serious obstacles in learning about and gaining access to government programs, such as Social Security.

The 2010 U.S. Census contains some startling statistics related to the number of older adults who are not proficient in English. More than one in seven (14.2 percent) of our nation’s 43 million adults 65-plus speak a language other than English at home. Among them, almost 2 million elders are considered Limited English Proficient (LEP), a term the federal government has standardized to refer to those who speak English less than “very well.”

The new report, developed with a range of organizations, such as the National Women’s Law Center, the Diverse Elders Coalition and Latinos for Secure Retirement, states, “It is essential that SSA communicate with individuals in a language in which they are proficient and that up-to-date informational material on benefits be provided in a variety of different languages.”

Among those applying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)—people requesting a small boost in their benefits because they have extremely low-incomes, a third seek this additional income support based on old age. Previous analysis by SSA showed that almost four in 10 of those older adults asked the agency to receive assistance in a language other than English.

Early Language-Access Leader

Previously, SSA was an early leader in language access among federal government agencies. For example, after SSA installed point-of-entry kiosks in its local field offices some years ago, advocates pointed out that they were generally working in English only. SSA instructed local offices to make them available in several of the most commonly spoken languages.

In fact, SSA has a very good policy of providing interpreters. It requires its offices to provide an interpreter at no charge on request and prohibits the use of children as interpreters. And the agency requires the same policy for state agencies performing disability determinations (DDSs).

However, as our report states, “At present, implementation is spotty, with advocates reporting that in many SSA offices LEP individuals are still asked to bring their own interpreters.”

Simply put, it is crucial that SSA communicate with individuals in a language they understand. And it needs to do more to ensure that its offices apply these regulations uniformly.

That means the administration needs to require more resources for training SSA personnel on the interpreter policy—including the additional time necessary to interview an individual with an interpreter.

The report also calls on the new commissioner, when appointed, to implement a systems change to fully implement SSA’s interpreter policy. Currently, SSA asks people for their language preference when they apply for benefits. But if the person doesn’t answer or the reply isn’t clear, the program defaults to English. SSA needs to eliminate the English default option.

In addition, SSA has increasingly come to rely on the use of telephone interpreter services as a primary means of serving LEP individuals. Although these are useful for simpler requests, telephone interpreter services should not be permitted for handling more complex matters and certainly not for administrative hearings or conferences.

The report recommends, “The best and most economical means of serving LEP individuals is through the use of bilingual SSA employees.” We believe that before picking up the telephone to call a general interpreters’ service, agency offices should look for an interpretation-trained SSA employee, someone who knows the program, is more apt to be more sensitive to the person’s needs and understands the confidentiality requirements.

Serving Immigrant Communities

As we concluded in the report, “The new commissioner needs to make a concerted effort, as hiring opportunities arise, to hire more bilingual staff for assignment to field offices,” particularly where there is a high level of language access needs, such as newer immigrant communities.

Currently, SSA provides its notices in English. And it offers only some, but not all, in Spanish. The agency provides none of its notices in any other language. To address this, SSA needs to provide all notices in Spanish and in other major languages spoken by recipients of its programs. It also needs to do a better job of identifying the language spoken by each of the people it serves.

Even though SSA has a number of publications on its program benefits in 16 different languages, these are only available online and are no longer stocked in local Social Security offices. A majority of people over age 65, especially those with low-incomes and those with limited English proficient, still do not have consistent Internet access—in any language—including African-American households.

Clearly, SSA policy needs to be rethought and informational publications should be made available to those who visit local Social Security offices.

The ability for all those who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits to understand their benefits and their rights is essential. With the appointment of a new Social Security commissioner, NSCLC and other advocates believe these and other fixes can and should happen.

Paul Nathanson directs the National Senior Citizens Law Center. He co-chairs the Strengthening Social Security Coalition’s Adequacy of Benefits Committee and NSCLC staff contributed to new report.

'Undocuqueers' at Crossroads Over Immigration, Gay Rights

2013-05-21T23:00:00Z

PHOENIX – Daniel Rodriguez has been a part of the immigrant rights movement for as long as he can remember. He is gay, 27 and a law school student who hopes to become an immigration attorney one day.

Rodriguez has no doubt that LGBT rights should be part of comprehensive immigration reform. But these days he finds himself in an uncomfortable position.

“This is one of those times in which our community has to sacrifice something to have a win,” said Rodriguez.

In the coming days, the Senate could consider an amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that would allow U.S. citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners to get a green card.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, said on Tuesday that he would not introduce the amendment in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and intends to present it on the floor of the Senate instead.

LGBT rights advocates expressed disappointment that the amendment was withheld Tuesday, the last day of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings.

“We are disappointed that Senator Schumer and his ‘Gang of 8’ colleagues accepted a false choice between LGBT families and immigration reform,” said Rachel Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality Action Fund, “when the truth is that including LGBT families from the outset would have strengthened the bill.”

When Leahy announced the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), the controversial amendment was criticized nationally. Some Republicans and Democrats said that adding protections for same-sex couples could kill the immigration reform bill.

But those who identify as both queer and undocumented, or “undocuqueer” as they call themselves, beg to differ.

“I agree that it could hurt immigration reform but I don’t think that it would kill it,” said Rodriguez, who is the chair of Somos America, a broad coalition of pro-immigrant groups in Arizona. “I think it’s important to discuss it.”

Still, Rodriguez says that if he knew that an amendment like this would kill immigration reform and he had the power to stop it, he wouldn’t support it.

“It’s hard to the point that it verges on being hypocritical,” he said. “We have built this idea of the American dream for equality, for us to be included. It’s really difficult being that we’ve done it for so long, that in order to get there it may be that we have to put somebody down.”

Dago Bailon, the Arizona chair of the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP), said the chances that the amendment might pass the committee or the Senate floor are slim.

“At the end of the day, I have to ask if I’m willing to sacrifice my family for this issue, at the end of the day if we can have immigration reform without this. We’ll still be OK,” said Bailon, 26.

Both Bailon and Rodriguez, who have work permits under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, have family members who are undocumented.

The argument against UAFA

President Obama has voiced his support for LGBT rights to be included in any comprehensive immigration bill. But Leahy's amendment has been sharply criticized by members of the Gang of Eight, including Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

“It will virtually guarantee that it won’t pass,” Rubio told Politico in an interview.

Two other Republican members of the group – John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- also made clear their opposition to the amendment, saying it would “kill the bill.”

Democrats like Chuck Schumer found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Schumer had voiced his support for gay rights in the past, but was unwilling to support the amendment, saying he believed that voting for it would cause the Republicans to walk away from the bill.

Opponents of UAFA argue that under the current immigration proposal, all undocumented people regardless of sexual orientation would be able to apply for a provisional status.

But immigration attorney and LGBT advocate Regina Jefferies explained there is a big difference between getting a temporary work permit and having a chance at a green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen. This last option is not open to same-sex couples, even if they are legally married in one of the 12 states that allows same-sex marriage.

“People are not aware of the special impact that being in a same-sex married couple has when one of the members is from another country,” she said. “We have too many U.S. citizens living in exile because they can’t sponsor their spouse.”

Bailon and other advocates believe that an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) could make a difference in allowing same-sex partners a chance at immigration equality like any other couple.

DOMA prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex couples for various benefits including the right to sponsor a spouse for a green card.

If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns it this year, immigration attorneys argue that it will open the door for same-sex couples who were married in states where same-sex marriage is legal to have a chance to apply for a green card through marriage.

Yet, that could be an administrative nightmare, according to Jefferies.

“It will be an unbalanced treatment of LGBT couples,” she said. “You’ll have situations in which people from one state or another won’t be able to petition for a same-sex spouse but they’ll be able to do it in another place.”

Paying lip service to LGBT rights

Youth advocates for immigration and LGBT rights like Mohammad Abdollahi, a member of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance and founder of DreamActivist.org, say there’s a split within the movement when it comes to Leahy’s amendment.

While some national organizations support the amendment publicly, he said, behind closed doors there’s pushback against it.

“Their support is not real,” he said.

Furthermore, the argument that repealing DOMA would address the needs of gay couples nationally doesn’t work, according to Abdollahi.

Under UAFA, petitioners would have to prove that they are in a committed relationship as “permanent partners.”

“Marriage law is state by state; we still have to fight every single state,” he said. “If it passes in immigration reform, it’s a federal change, regardless of laws on marriage.”

Invisible Workforce: Immigrant Domestic Workers Push for Better Conditions

2013-05-21T08:00:00Z

Traducción al español

Image: Domestic workers, many of them female immigrants, are rallying at capitols across America to urge legislators to pass laws that improve their labor conditions. (Photo: National Domestic Workers Alliance)

Ed. Note: It is sometimes called the world’s largest invisible workforce and it’s expanding in the United States as our population ages. In this piece, the second in a series on domestic workers, we hear about nationwide efforts to improve the working conditions for these workers. Many are female immigrants who face special challenges as they try and improve their work life.

Myrla Baldonado left the Philippines for Chicago six years ago. Most of her time here, she cared for elderly people in their homes, attending to their round-the-clock needs. She made their beds, fixed meals, and monitored them for symptoms of stroke or illness. Baldonado worked like this for years—putting in 96-hour weeks—at $4 an hour.

“Like most immigrants, I tried not to pay attention to it,” says Baldonado.

She said that wage was standard, what other caregivers got, too. And she needed a job.

“But then when I started being shouted at and I felt being discriminated for not being an original English speaker, I felt so bad,” says Baldonado.

Baldonado recalls how the son of one client bullied her on the job. She asked her staffing agency for help. They told her to be more assertive, so she quit.

Now, Baldonado is an organizer pushing for legislation in Illinois to give other domestic workers more firepower in similar situations, especially newcomers to the US who might not realize their basic rights. Baldonado says it’s hard because people don’t think of domestic workers as … workers.

“It’s considered invisible, it’s not real work,” she says. “And it’s women’s work. So there’s so much cultural difficulty into asserting this kind of work.”

Many of the people involved in this movement use the word “invisible” when they describe domestic workers. One reason? Many of them are undocumented immigrants. A survey by the University of Illinois at Chicago found more than a third of domestic workers are here illegally. And of domestic workers: they are the most exploited and abused. Often, they earn less than their peers, are more likely to be injured on the job and less likely to quit or complain.

Ai-jen Poo says they do the work that Americans won’t do. “We often call it the work that makes all other work possible,” says Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, an advocacy group based in New York.

The group helped New York and Hawaii adopt Domestic Workers Bills of Rights. The proposed legislation would give domestic workers the right to overtime pay, paid time off, and freedom from sexual harassment.

The bills are also designed to protect domestic workers, with or without papers. Poo says that is crucial because federal laws make it difficult for domestic workers to unionize. So those without legal status have the least leverage to negotiate their working conditions.

“Often times, people will get fired for asking for a sick day,” says Poo.

In New York, domestic workers can now file complaints about mistreatment with the state’s labor department. Other states are considering similar measures. But there are new concerns now that Congress is debating new immigration laws.

So far, the proposals favor immigrants who can prove they have worked continuously in the US. They would also have employers tap into a verification system to check a worker’s status. That worries Maureen Purtill, an immigrant organizer with the Graton Day Labor Center in California. She says the proposal ignores cases where the employer’s just a family looking for a nanny. They might not be plugged into a verification system like a big business is.

“So women and families are especially vulnerable to being excluded from the immigration reform process,” says Purtill.

The National Domestic Workers Alliance is lobbying to clarify language in an immigration bill now making its way through the Senate. They want to make sure it gives low-wage women like domestic workers the chance to achieve legal status.

Meanwhile, Myrla Baldonado, from the Philippines, says organizing her fellow domestic workers is tough. Many have battered self-esteem and fear being reported to immigration officials and deported, but she is noticing that more are getting involved-for the same reason she did.

“I don’t want to live that way,” Baldonado says. “I don’t want to just live for the money and not get any respect, or… not get any dignity or respect for the work I’m doing.”

Baldonado is confident that domestic workers won’t be invisible much longer. And there’s good reason to believe that. Baby boomers are aging, and more immigrants are fulfilling the need for home caregivers—now projected to be among the fastest-growing occupations of the decade.

Bipartisan Amendment to Keep Families Together Passes Senate Committee

2013-05-20T20:55:00Z

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today unanimously approved an amendment to strengthen protections for children in the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform bill. The amendment, sponsored by Senators Al Franken, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would keep families together whenever possible and help mitigate harm to children, including preventing children from entering foster care when immigration enforcement results in the detention or removal of their parents.

The Humane Enforcement and Legal Protections for Separated Children Act (“HELP” Separated Children Act) would allow parents affected by immigration enforcement to make calls to arrange for the care of their children; ensure that children can call or visit their parents while they are detained; allow parents to participate in state child welfare agency and family court proceedings affecting their children; ensure that parents being removed from or voluntarily departing the United States can coordinate their repatriation with their children; require immigration officials to consider the best interests of children in detention, release, and transfer decisions affecting their parents; and provide training for immigration and detention facility personnel on best practices for protecting children.

Immigration Officers’ Unions Oppose Immigration Reform Bill

2013-05-20T20:00:00Z

WASHINGTON -- As immigration reform advances in the Senate, new obstacles have appreared in its path. On Monday two immigration officers' unions announced their opposition to the Senate's immigration reform bill.

The National Citizenship Immigration Services joined the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) union, led by Chris Crane, to oppose the bill being debated in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The plan, they said, would compromise national security.

Among the controversial issues that will be debated this week are changes to E-Verify, the federal database that checks the immigration status of potential employees, H1-B visas, farmworkers, and rules for the legalization process.

Read more

Invisible Workforce: An Undocumented Immigrant Caregiver Shares Her Story

2013-05-17T08:10:00Z

Traducción al español

Nannies, housecleaners, caregivers—they are sometimes called the world’s most invisible workforce. In the US alone, it’s estimated that more than 2 million people do this type of work. Most are women and many are immigrants. And pressure is growing to address their working conditions. As part of our Global Nation coverage, The World’s Monica Campbell has our first piece in a series about domestic workers. It looks at a home aide from Fiji, her elderly employer, and a short documentary called “The Caretaker” highlighting these intimate partnerships.

A few years ago, Florence Tratar fell down. In her 80s, it was enough of a spill to change her life drastically and leave her bound to a wheelchair. And with no family nearby, she needed someone to move in and care for her immediately.

But nobody she hired clicked, until she found Joesy Gerrish, a caregiver from Fiji.

“I liked her right away,” says Tratar. So once Gerrish’s references checked out, she was hired and moved in to help Tratar full time. It’s easy to see why Tratar picked Gerrish. In her early 40s, she is energetic, has a quick laugh, and says she treats her employers like family.

Now, Gerrish gets up early every morning, makes Tratar’s meals, drives her to appointments.

“I do everything!” Gerrish says.

“Everything!” Tratar agrees. “I mean, whatever I have to do, Joesy does.”

I met Tratar and Gerrish in Sebastopol, California, north of San Francisco. The two women had ventured out to see a short documentary about Gerrish. The film, by San Francisco-based director Theo Rigby, shows how immigrant caregivers increasingly fill a demand in the United States to attend to the disabled and elderly.

The documentary shows Gerrish cooking and shopping for a previous employer, an ailing Japanese woman. She feeds her, turns her over so she won’t get bed sores. It’s non-stop work.

After the film, Tratar realized how little she knew about Gerrish’s life: How she misses Fiji—and how she’s in the US without legal authorization.

“This is a shock to me because I just didn’t know,” Tratar says.

She’s against hiring people without papers, she says. But she also can’t say why she never asked Gerrish for documentation. Maybe because she didn’t want to know, she says, because Gerrish was a good fit.

Meanwhile, Gerrish says she doesn’t worry about stepping out of the shadows so publicly. She tells Tratar how she’s hoping immigration reform might grant her legal status.

“It’s getting there,” Gerrish tells Tratar. “It’s a long journey but we’ll get there.”

Gerrish also tells Tratar how, in her off time, she is working to improve labor conditions for other caregivers, nannies and housekeepers. In California, it’s estimated that some 200,000 people do this type of work, many without papers.

She talks about women from Mexico she knows, along with other immigrants from elsewhere, who live in the US illegally and worry about getting deported on their way to work. Also, Gerrish says, she hears about women worried about getting paid, since they are off the books. If there is a dispute with an employer, wages can be held back and undocumented workers can be aware that they still have the right to claim wages.

“Oh, there’s a lot of that, getting paid under the table. A lot!” Tratar exclaims.

“Yes,” Gerrish says, “but that’s the only kind of work that we can do. We would like to do other stuff. But we’re stuck with that.”

Gerrish says she has felt mistreated by other employers.

“Oh, you’re like a slave,” she says. “Do this. Do that. Do that. I say, ‘Wait a minute, I only have two hands.’ But they want you right there, right there, right there. Otherwise, I’ll kick you out. But you have to do it. Otherwise what else can you do? You need to survive.”

Gerrish is working with labor advocate Maureen Purtill, who organizes immigrant women at the Graton Day Labor Center nearby, in Sonoma. Purtill remembers Gerrish’s reaction when she told her that, among other demands like overtime and vacation, they’d push for workers to get uninterrupted sleep.

“She burst into laughter, in this uncomfortable laughter, like, ‘Oh, I would love that. That would be amazing. I’ve never had the right to sleep five hours in a row, or eight hours in a row,” says Purtill. “Caregiving requires sometimes, you know, care every two hours if you’re caring for elderly people.”

It’s the case with Gerrish, who wakes up with Florence Tratar at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. every day.

“Oh my goodness gracious, you need domestic help,” says Tratar. “I don’t know what I would do without Joesy. I couldn’t survive.”

Tratar hopes that Gerrish will legalize her status in the US soon. She understands now that deportation is a constant worry for her caretaker.

“Everyday you live in fear, just looking behind your shoulder every day,” Gerrish says.

The question now is whether new legislation would let both women rest a little easier.]]> 47149832

How the Sierra Club Learned to Love Immigration

2013-05-16T08:40:00Z

The Sierra Club, one of the largest and oldest environmental organizations in the nation, announced last month its support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. It was a unanimous decision among the group’s board of directors and marks a definitive break with the group’s troubled history on immigration—a history that has also plagued the environmental movement broadly.

The arc of Sierra Club’s evolution starts with a dubious if not hostile perspective on immigration that the Club carried in the 1960s. The theory was that immigration drives unsustainable population growth, which then drains resources and harms the environment. That perspective shifted to a hard line against immigration in the 1980s, then to a neutral position in the ’90s, before finally coming around in the 21st century to advocating on behalf of immigrants.

The announcement was mostly a codification of work Sierra Club had already been doing lately, such as fighting against building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to block migration to the United States. But by officially adopting a stance that endorses a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, Sierra—like the Republican Party—is recognizing that shifting demographics matter. Read more here.

NY Irish Center Fights Older Immigrants’ Isolation

2013-05-16T07:55:00Z

Photo: Seniors and volunteers at the New York Irish Center in Long Island City. (Peter McDermott/Irish Echo)

Part 2. Read Part 1 here.

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y—In most conversations he has with casual acquaintances or strangers, Paul Finnegan asks the same question: “Do you know someone who might benefit from going to the New York Irish Center?”

It’s part of his personal outreach for the organization he heads up in Long Island City in Queens.

The center comes alive seven days a week with people from all age groups. But Finnegan has been so effective at recruiting those over 65 the center now involves 200-250 seniors in various activities. The center is so important to the lives of Irish elders that it was created in 2005 with partial funding from the Irish government, which continues providing financial support.

The Biggest Threat

“Isolation is the biggest threat facing seniors. They’re very, very vulnerable to going off the grid,” Finnegan said.

He explained, “Maybe your relationship wasn’t so good with your children, or they’ve moved away and you continue to live in the old neighborhood.” In some cases, he added, being widowed can cut a person off from a wider circle of friends and acquaintances.

The New York Irish Center itself is not off the grid: On a westbound No. 7 train it is just three minutes from Grand Central Station in the heart of Manhattan. “That’s our biggest selling point,” said Finnegan, a native of Galway City in Ireland.

Mary Wicelinski was among those who traveled over the Pulaski Bridge from Greenpoint, Brooklyn’s famously Polish community, for the weekly seniors’ lunch on a recent Wednesday.

“It’s a situation where you look forward to it,” she said. “It’s not easy for me to get out. I have a walker,” added Wicelinski, who was born a Fitzgerald to Irish immigrant parents.

“My son called me up. He said, ‘Where are you going?” I said, ‘Bridie is bringing me to the Irish Center.’ He loves to hear that I’m coming here.”

Sitting near her at that mid-morning hour -- 11 a.m. -- were Bridie Mitchell, Peggy Cooney and Carmel McCarthy, respectively from Counties Leitrim, Meath and Cavan. They’d come from Greenpoint, too.

All three have been visiting the center since it opened in 2005. Like many of the other seniors they help with the serving and the washing-up.

“Eight years? It doesn’t seem possible,” Cooney said.

“Our shoes are worn down now,” McCarthy said.

“It’s not just Irish,” said County Offaly native Julia Anastasio, who is married to an Italian American. “We have Italians, Spanish and a couple of black gentlemen are regulars on Wednesdays.”

The New York Irish Center was the brainchild of the Rev. Colm Campbell, who was sent by Irish church officials to act as a chaplain to young emigrants in the mid-1990s.

The three-story structure was acquired by a group of sympathetic Irish businessmen with Campbell’s project in mind. At the time, the neighborhood was beginning to take off after being talked up for years in the media. Eight years on, the high-rise apartment buildings that line the waterfront are just one visible sign of a rapid gentrification.

“He’s a remarkable man,” Finnegan said of Campbell, who now lives in an assisted living facility in England, close to his sister. “He had a vision.”

The priest amended that vision somewhat as he learned more of contributions to Irish American culture of his own older generation and began to understand more about their needs.

Irish Government Support

At the same time, the Irish government was becoming increasingly concerned about Ireland’s aging émigré population. “From the perspective of Dublin there’s a genuine appreciation of what immigrants have done, such as sending remittances home,” which helped their families and communities, Finnegan said.

The center’s board members typically want to give back to the World War II generation of immigrants, Finnegan said. One told him that he knew families in his community in rural Ireland who were greatly dependent on “the parcel” that arrived from England or America.

The Irish government, however, realized that quite a few of them were living abroad in less than comfortable conditions. In the mid-20th century, a large number of Irish males particularly sought work in England. Many became used to a transitory lifestyle, which put them at a much higher risk of isolation later in life.

The Irish community in the United States also found that it wasn’t immune to some of the same problems.

Irish officials in New York supported Campbell’s efforts. Now, half of the funding for the center’s operational costs comes from the Irish government, the City of New York and the American Ireland Fund.

Because of Ireland’s austerity budget, Finnegan said, Dublin is targeting its funding more to frontline services and less on capital building projects.

The center’s board raises the other half of its funding with events, such as “Night of Comedy and Music” scheduled for June 6, with former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Colin Quinn and other entertainers.

The center seeks to help maintain friendships through original social networks, such those that had built up around jobs -- men who worked together as baggage handlers at JFK airport, for example, and women who worked in school cafeterias – or in church parishes or those associated with individual county associations and their umbrella group, the United Irish Counties.

“Others know each other from the dancehall days,” added Finnegan, a married father of two children.

“You hear about people on the grapevine,” he said. “Someone might ask, ‘Where’s Joe?’ Someone else will say: ‘He’s not well but he’ll be in next week.’”

“When people don’t show, you miss them. And, yes, some pass away,” said Julia Anastasio. “Fr. Campbell always made sure there was a memorial Mass.”

From Lunches to Computer Classes

At that moment, Anastasio was readying herself to go to Mass at St. Mary’s Church across the street ahead of the lunch.

She spends much of her time caring for her husband and so nowadays goes to the center for the seniors’ lunch only.

But the center aims other kinds of activities at seniors, as well, notably the Saturday morning computer class. The staff also tends to involve other age groups as teachers, volunteers and participants.

“We mix the generations as much as possible, and we do it pretty successfully,” Finnegan said. It’s good, too, he suggested, for twentysomethings who miss the company of grandparents back home.

Generally, many of the oldest regulars are less inclined to venture out for such evening events as movie or trivia-quiz nights. “Seniors are routine orientated,” Finnegan said, adding, “They’re not looking for much excitement or intrusion in their lives.

“We’re welcoming to all, even those who have substance abuse problems,” Finnegan said. “After getting over the feelings of defensiveness about life, they feel accepted.

“We find a place for them. It never got so bad that we were out of our depth,” he said. “We would like next to hire a social worker, but it wouldn’t be someone upstairs that you made an appointment to see. It would be someone that everyone would know.”

The center’s only other full-time employee is Jane McCarter, the culture and heritage officer. It’s important for Finnegan that the volunteer-staff ratio be weighted considerably towards the former, something that helps it to be truly a community center.

“You don’t want the staff to be a self-perpetuating situation,” he said.

It’s important, too, that the seniors help keep the center ticking.
“This is my little space on a Wednesday. My therapy,” Anastasio said, adding with a laugh, “And I’m still cleaning.”

Peter McDermott this article for the Irish Echo through a MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship, a project of New America Media and the Gerontological Society of America. It is the second part of a series.

Protestors Target Excessive Phone Rates for Immigrant Detainees

2013-05-15T08:30:00Z

RICHMOND, Calif. – At the West County Detention Facility, inmates can pay upwards of $20 for a five-minute phone call to friends, relatives or lawyers. While the high rates are a cash cow for the prison, for detainees they have become a major hurdle to staying in touch with the outside.

For immigrant detainees and their families, the high phone rates can lead to total isolation.

“$50 gets about 15 minutes of actual talk time,” said Roberto de la Rosa, whose mother is currently being held at WCDF. De la Rosa noted that with repeated dropped calls and reconnection fees, the cost of a single conversation rivals a single families’ monthly phone bill.

De la Rosa was among a group of some 40 activists, former inmates and family members who gathered last Friday outside the prison, located about 30 miles east of San Francisco. Representing a cross-section of local civic, religious and legal organizations, protestors carried signs that read, “Detained mothers have the right to call home.”

The rally was part of a national Mother’s Day action led by the national Campaign for Prison Phone Justice. A fact sheet released by the group notes most Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees are either in deportation proceedings or have petitions for asylum pending, and that affordable phone access is critical to their effective legal representation.

De la Rosa’s mother has been held in detention for close to two years, and was brought to WCDF in 2012 after nearly a year of being shuffled between centers. Her son says the constant moving and high phone rates have made staying in touch difficult.

“I’ve really only been in touch with her for the last four months,” he explained. Having recently lost his job and with persistent health problems, he says the added expense of maintaining communication with his mom, on top of rent and groceries “has really taken a toll on the family.”

WCDF houses some 1100 inmates, including those held by the county as well as candidates for realignment -- a state-led initiative to transfer low-level offenders from state to county supervision. In the fiscal year ending in 2012, the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the Richmond facility, was paid more than $3 million by the federal government to hold ICE detainees.

Christina Mansfield is co-founder of Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), which recently launched a national campaign to bring attention to the high cost of prison phone calls. She was at Friday’s rally, where she described immigrant detainees as “a captive market … The high cost of phone calls creates additional and unnecessary suffering for families, and privileges profit over the right of families to remain in contact.”

Unlike state and federal penitentiaries, which are required by law to contract to the lowest bidder, counties are not subject to the same regulation. “Most county jails go with the companies that get them the most profit,” explained Mansfield.

The issue first gained prominence in 2000, after a class action lawsuit was filed by Washington, DC resident Martha Wright against the prison phone companies for charges related to calls made from her grandson, who spent 18 years behind bars. She later sued the Federal Communications Commission, and this past April her case was taken up by the Congressional Black Caucus.

The phone system at WCDF is run by Alabama-based Global Tel* Link. The company paid $75,000 for the contract with Contra Costa County, which receives 57 percent of all profits made from the phone calls. The contract is due to expire in June 2013.

Last year, the company saw profits from calls made within WCDF nearing $700,000, according to documents obtained via a public request act filed with the Sheriffs office by CIVIC.

Global Tel* Link declined to comment for this story.

A call from inside WCDF includes a $3.25 connection fee regardless of the duration, with per-minute rates running as high as 25 cents for interstate calls and an additional 30 cents when phoning out-of-state. Inmates in county jails like WCDF pay higher rates than those in either state or federal penitentiaries.

De la Rosa said that with calls routinely dropped, he often has to pay the connection fee more than once in a single conversation.

Reverend Deborah Lee is director of the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights, one of the organizers of Friday’s rally. Gripping a stack of flyers with slogans that read “Justice” or “Happy Mothers Day – Affordable Phone Calls,” Lee described the rates as “exploitative,” saying they inhibited inmates ability to maintain family ties and stay up to date on their legal cases.

Prison reform advocates have long argued that maintaining connections to family and friends on the outside is critical to reducing recidivism and ensuring a smoother transition once inmates are released.

“Families are being overcharged for the most basic things,” she said, “like telling relatives you love them, or speaking with their attorneys about their cases.” Inmates’ relatives often pay anywhere from $25-$50 for two or three brief calls. “It’s cruel and inhuman,” said Lee, “the stories we hear are heartbreaking.”

One of those stories is that of Abesulom Taye, who was released from WCDF last week after a seven-month stint on a technicality stemming from charges dating back to 1998 for marijuana possession. Taye was among those at the Friday rally.

“It happened so fast,” he recalled of his arrest, saying it was unexpected as he had been granted asylum by a judge in 2010. A father, Taye said while he was detained he often had to “decide whether I wanted to talk to my son or have food that day.” The high costs meant that calls went from every other day to once a week. Eventually he racked up phone bills totaling $2000.

Lee’s group has joined with CIVIC in seeking a fair and open process for Contra Costa County to negotiate a new contract that would comply with ICE standards in going with the lowest cost provider.

“We shouldn’t be trying to balance our budgets on the backs of people trying to talk to their kids,” she said.