Tomorrow in DC: Ending Violence Against Immigrant Women

For those anywhere near the Washington, DC area tomorrow, here's a reminder about an important event sponsored by a number of Ms. Foundation grantees:

On Thursday, February 10, 2011, an ad-hoc congressional hearing on emerging issues in the fight to end violence against immigrant women will take place on Capitol Hill. This event offers a chance to hear testimony from advocates, organizers, and survivors of violence whose experiences underscore the need for legislation that protects immigrant women from abuse. Their stories will also shine a specific light on the unintended and harmful consequences that ICE Access programs visit on immigrant women and their families.


Moderated by Congressman Raúl Grijalva (the event's honorary chair), the hearing will take place from 2:00 - 3:00 pm in Room 2456 of the Rayburn House Office Building: 45 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20515.

Ms. Foundation grantees, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Legal Momentum, MomsRising and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network have all signed on as co-sponsors of this event. We hope you'll turn up and the hearing and show them your support!



Next week, we'll be posting words and images from the hearing -- so if you can't make it in person, you'll still have an opportunity to experience the event. Stay tuned for more.

TANF Sanctions Threaten America's Neediest

There's an epidemic in America's most vulnerable communities -- and federal policies are directly responsible for its spread. Widespread and erroneous financial sanctions are leaving TANF recipients with less money in their pockets, if not shut out of the system entirely.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is designed to offer America's neediest families crucial financial support during times of crisis. But according to a recent report from Ms. Foundation grantee Legal Momentum, financial sanctions -- commonly and erroneously imposed for minor violations -- have resulted in hundreds of thousands of families being denied full access to the benefits they've been awarded.

The report -- "The Sanction Epidemic in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program" [pdf] -- found that in 2008, 85,000 families a month received reduced benefits (or "partial" sanctions), with an average reduction of $146, about 38% of the $383 average monthly TANF grant. According to Legal Momentum, these sanctions "often come as a result of minor violations" --including something as simple as "failing to file a document."

...The report describes the case of “a 43-year-old black woman, living in an emergency shelter and suffering from both shingles and AIDS, who was sanctioned for failing to attend an appointment at the Department of Labor. According to her, when she called the Department of Labor to say she would be 20 minutes late for her appointment she was told it was too late and was sanctioned.

As a result of these sanctions, desperate families find themselves struggling even harder to survive; as Legal Momentum points out, "sanctioned TANF families often report maternal or child hunger, eviction or homelessness, and lack of medical care."

But there's more: in addition to these partial sanctions, states are also within their rights -- and encouraged by federal policies -- to visit "full" sanctions on beneficiaries who commit minor infractions. Full sanctions deprive TANF families of 100% of their benefits, leaving these families without resources to support themselves. This in turn has lead to a significant reduction in the overall number of families receiving aid of any kind: in 1995, 84% of eligible families participated in the program; in 2005, that number had dropped to just 40%.

You'd think that this discrepancy between need and actual awards would raise a red flag among the powers that be. But with state budgets under extreme stress, it seems that government officials are turning a blind eye to the impact of these inflexible policies on families in their states if it means reducing the "welfare rolls."

As Congress looks at extending TANF subsidies through September of 2011, Legal Momentum is urging policymakers to correct the application of sanctions, to ensure that they become both "fair and rare." Families in crisis deserve to be treated with as much humanity as anyone else; it's Congress's job to make sure that TANF starts to treat its beneficiaries not as numbers, but as actual human beings.

Social Justice in the Garden: A Huge Success!

On Wednesday, July 28, the Ms. Foundation for Women hosted an exciting event for young professionals in New York City. "Social Justice in the Garden" drew approximately 50 friends and supporters to La Plaza Cultural, a community garden that is one of Manhattan’s hidden treasures. Together, we mixed, mingled and learned that:

• Fierce and powerful advocates like Domestic Workers United can convince Albany to do the right thing -- in July 2010, their multi-year campaign succeeded and they celebrated the passage of the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights;
  
  
• "If you can't slap 'em, snap 'em": Hollaback makes it possible to fight street harassment with cell phones, by providing a platform that collects pictures of street harassers in action;
  
  
• Legal Momentum provides security to women at risk of losing their homes because of domestic violence;
  
  
• The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum elevate the voices of women and girls who, all too often, are invisible in political conversations.

The evening concluded with an electric performance by spoken-word duo, Climbing PoeTree.

Thank you to everyone who came out and made the evening engaging and inspiring!

Read here  for information on preserving vital, grassroots-run community gardens like La Plaza Cultural and its peers, which are at risk of losing the legal protections that guard against using the land for development purposes.



If you missed the event, but would like to be added to the growing number of young professionals supporting the Foundation, email Irene Xanthoudakis at IXanthoudakis@Ms.Foundation.org and Join Us on Facebook.

Judge Hears First Motions on SB1070

Today in Phoenix, a federal court judge will hear the first motions in legal challenges to Arizona SB1070, the discriminatory immigration law scheduled to take effect July 29.

According to AZCentral.com, more than 150 protestors from both sides of the issue gathered outside the courthouse this morning as Judge Susan Bolton prepared to take the bench. Bolton could rule on the challenges before her as early as today -- which might decide whether the legislation becomes the law of the land next Thursday or not.

A suit filed by the ACLU, and supported by Ms. Foundation grantee Legal Momentum, is the largest of the challenges Bolton will hear in terms of number of plaintiffs; the federal government will also present its case against SB1070 later this afternoon.

Since news of this legislation broke, it's been clear that immigrant women and children will have a special stake in seeing this law defeated. In conjunction with their other efforts to relegate SB1070 to history's dustbin, Legal Momentum has now contributed a much needed report on women and immigration reform. Written by Senior Staff Attorney Kavitha Sreeharsha, Reforming America’s Immigration Laws: A Women’s Struggle [pdf] offers an in-depth analysis of how lack of equal economic opportunity and exposure to various forms of exploitation puts women immigrants precipitously at risk, and calls for "comprehensive reform that considers how even [seemingly] gender-neutral laws create more hardship for immigrant women."

Keep informed about what happens in Arizona over the next few days; for the people of that state, everything is on the line.

Arizona SB1070 Hits Court: Grantee Legal Momentum Joins Fight

As the restrictions on freedom created by Arizona's SB1070 immigration law become clear, including the potential effects on "women and familes subject to domestic abuse," we see signs of hope in the actions of our grantee partners. Legal Momentum is just one organization out of hundreds that is stepping up and speaking out for the rights of women and children in immigrant and undocumented communities. They have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a lawsuit filed in Arizona federal court by the ACLU and others that argues SB1070 "undermines federal civil rights protections for women and their families" who are subject to violence and sexual abuse.

Over the years the federal government has codified laws that protect immigrants and families from arrest and deportation when they seek to report violence or attempt to access programs or services that are necessary for survival, including shelter, emergency medical services, and victim assistance.

The lawsuit argues that SB1070 is a direct infringement on these federally protected rights. Under SB1070 women and families who seek federally protected support services and programs will be in constant fear of the random search by law enforcement that could lead to incarceration or even deportation. Furthermore, the law no longer ensures protection to victims of violence and abuse, but instead punishes victims, producing an environment where fear of persecution accompanies any attempt to report a crime. According to the Legal Momentum, "In their pursuit of detaining undocumented immigrants, Arizona law enforcement is even allowed to stake out rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, locations even federal law enforcement are strongly cautioned against operating in."

Luckily for these women and all of us, advocates like Legal Momentum are going to court to ensure that women, children, families, immigrants and undocumented people retain the rights they have been granted over years of legal precedent and federal law.

On July 6th the New York Times reported that the Justice Department has initiated legal proceedings against SB1070.

Arizona SB1070 Puts Abused Women, Reporters of Abuse, at Risk

Another entry into the debate about how SB1070 is going to affect the residents of Arizona -- particularly the women among them: According to representatives from the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which represents 35 domestic abuse centers and other organizations in the state, SB1070 is destined to jeopardize the safety of women and families subject to domestic abuse -- by dissuading them from seeking help for themselves and others out of fear that they might be deported as a result.

As Kendra Leiby, the Coalition's systems advocacy coordinator, told Arizona Republic columnist E.J. Montini,

The enactment of SB 1070 is absolutely going to prevent immigrant women from seeking domestic violence services. And not only are women going to be hesitant to leave abusive relationships, but they are afraid to make a call to report someone else's abuse.

So not only is the law likely to deprive women at risk of the ability to act to protect themselves, but it is also likely to prevent friends and neighbors from taking action on their behalf, because the consequence of reporting said abuse could be deportation -- even for the person who simply picked up the phone to save a woman's life.

Though the US does not have the kind of "good samaritan" laws that require people to act on behalf of others, as they do in other nations, this still constitutes a serious breakdown in our social contract -- and completely undermines the decades of work activists and organizers have dedicated to raising awareness about gender-based violence and the responsibility every single one of us has to bring the abuse of women to an end. If saving a life means putting your own family, and its livelihood, at risk, how many people can reasonably be expected to take action? The answer is far fewer than we need if we hope to make violence against women a thing of the past -- in the immigrant community or any other.

As July 29th (the day that the new law in scheduled to go into effect) draws nearer, more and more organizations and individuals from around the country are taking a public stand to denounce a bill that they see as not only discriminatory, but also life-threatening. To date, over 80 organizations -- including Ms. Foundation grantee Legal Momentum --have filed legal challenges to the bill, in support of a lawsuit initiated by the ACLU. And on July 29th, people from all over the nation will gather together in Arizona, and around the country, for a Day of Non-Compliance to protest this unjust law.

Stay tuned for more information about how to participate in upcoming events; in the meantime, check out the four actions Ms. Foundation grantee the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights suggests you take to stand up for the rights of Arizona's immigrant communities.

Women & Welfare: Revisiting Reform in the Wake of Economic Crisis

While there’s been plenty of talk throughout this global economic crisis about the fate of the newly jobless, newly poor, middle class, stories about how the tanking of the economy has affected those who were already poor in the “best of times” have been few and far between. In this week’s issue of The Nation, however, Katha Pollitt asks some long overdue questions about the current plight of Americans who entered this recession in poverty -- particularly the women among them.

Framing her piece around "welfare mothers," and the impact that the passage of 1996's Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (or PRWORA) has had on their lives, Pollitt notes that despite the tendency of pundits and analysts to label these welfare reforms a “success,” in fact, even in the economically prosperous 1990s, the families most affected by said reforms remained solidly poor. PRWORA may have pushed poor women off the welfare rolls and forced them to find jobs (which conservatives cast as a return to the great American ethic of “hard work”) -- but those jobs tended to pay them much less than it actually took to survive, usually earning them salaries well below the annual poverty line. (Hard to see the “success” in all that.)

So how are these women and families managing nearly 15 years after the passage of the PRWORA and in the worst economic climate in recent memory? The hidden truth may be that they aren’t managing at all; they’re simply subsisting. Homeless shelters have seen the impact: according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, from July to November 2008 the number of families entering New York City homeless shelters increased 40 percent over the same period in 2007. And as Pollitt points out, while the use of food stamps nationwide has also risen 40% over the last 2 years, there’s been little jump in welfare rates over the same period -- meaning, most likely, that the process for accessing the latter type of aid has become so complicated as to “weed out” those who most need it. It’s therefore safe to assume, according to one of Pollitt’s sources, that most of these women and families are now living in a state of “constant suffering and inequality,” vulnerable not just to poverty itself, but to all of its attendant, ugly bedfellows, including increased rates of domestic violence.

There are, of course, solutions to be had to problems of this nature, and, among other things, they involve crafting and pushing for the adoption of policies that put the needs and experiences of women and families at their center -- just as Ms. Foundation grantees the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative and the Georgia Citizen’s Coalition on Hunger do every day.

With TANF (Temporary Aid for Needy Families – a provision of PRWORA that replaced AFDC) up for recertification this year, Congress now has an opportunity to, in the words of grantee Legal Momentum, finally “make [welfare programs] responsive to the mothers and children [they are] intended to serve.” To do that, though, they’ll need to start listening to the women living on the front lines of extended poverty and including their perspectives in the decision-making process -- an approach that’s clearly long overdue.

Susan Wefald

Executive Vice President & COO

March on Washington for Immigration Reform

This Sunday 21 March 2010 the Center for Community Change (CCC), many of our grantee partners, dozens of progressive organizations, and tens of thousands of individuals are marching on Washington, DC in support of immigration reform. Activists around the country have signed on, calling for a vision of "reform [that] includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working shoulder to shoulder to achieve better wages, working conditions, and labor protections, and of an America that's back to work, with a fair balance between main street and Wall Street." [March for America website].

These voices have already made an impact on Capitol Hill. Last week, in anticipation of this huge action, President Obama met with leading grassroots activists and advocacy leaders to establish a path forward for a comprehensive reform agenda. It's a step in the right direction, but we need more than a plan to plan. We need real reform.

We urge you to step forward and join Ms. Foundation grantees including Legal Momentum, Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Latina Initiative and National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health in Washington, DC. Tell lawmakers that America's founding principles demand true democracy, where social and economic justice is guaranteed for all.

Sign-up to march. Show your support online. Learn more.

Outrageous Act: Be a Court Watcher

Court watchers make an enormous difference in domestic violence and sexual
assault cases. Become a court watcher in your community.

For more information on becoming an outrageous activist as a court watcher,
see Legal Momentum or Court Watching.

Outrageous Act: Help Your Employer Address Domestic Violence

Maya Raghu, a senior staff attorney at Ms. Foundation grantee Legal Momentum asks you to check if your workplace has educated workers about domestic violence. If not, find a local domestic violence organization to offer the needed instruction.