Legal Momentum Briefing Room

Four-year-old U.S. Citizen Deported, Separated from Parents

Four-year-old Emily Ruiz was on her way home to New York from a trip to Guatemala with her grandfather when the pair was detained by immigration authorities during a stopover at Dulles International Airport. Emily, a United States citizen, and her grandfather, a Guatemalan traveling with a valid work visa, were detained because of an immigration infraction that supposedly occurred two decades before. Ruiz and his granddaughter were told they would not be allowed to stay in the country and were deported to Guatemala.

Meanwhile, Emily’s father, Leonel Ruiz, was waiting for his daughter’s plane at Kennedy Airport, which arrived without her on it. He soon learned that, despite Emily’s U.S. citizenship, his daughter was deported because of her grandfather’s immigration infraction.
 
Emily’s deportation launched a legal battle for her return and a national debate over the separation of children from their immigrant parents. Officials at Customs and Border Protection say they offered Mr. Ruiz the opportunity to pick up his daughter at the airport (which he denies), and that he “elected to have her return to Guatemala with her grandfather.” Yet an encounter with immigration officials would have posed a serious risk to Mr. Ruiz, who could have been detained or deported. Mr. Ruiz, who speaks little English, said that he spoke with an agent over the phone in English and was presented with two choices: Emily could enter the custody of the State of Virginia or she and her grandfather could return to Guatemala.

While Emily was eventually returned to her parents in the United States, her case highlights a critical component of the immigration reform debate. Laws that threaten deportation and the separation of parents from their children make it difficult for undocumented immigrants to report crimes, participate in prosecution, or seek life-saving support services. Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program advocates for immigration policies that acknowledge the constitutional right of immigrant parents to care for, have custody of, and control over their children. The separation of U.S. citizen children and immigrant parents can have a devastating impact on families.

There are 5.5 million children who have at least one undocumented parent in the United States. Legal Momentum believes that reforms in immigration laws and policies will be most effective in improving conditions of immigrant women and their families when they are grounded in an understanding of the challenges and circumstances confronted by many immigrant women in America.

• Learn more about Legal Momentum's work on gender bias and immigration reform.
• Learn more about Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program.
• Learn more about Legal Momentum.

 

Legal Momentum Commemorates Equal Pay Day

The gender pay gap still plagues women nationwide. On average, women workers still earn 77 cents on every dollar their male counterparts make, an income gap that translates to a loss of over $10,000 per year. The gender wage gap is even more striking for women of color: African-American women make 61 cents and Latinas make 52 cents for every dollar white men earn.

April 12th, the 102nd day of the year, is Equal Pay Day, designated as such because women would have to work 102 more days into 2011 to earn what their male counterparts made in 2010 alone.

Today Congress will re-introduce the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that died in committee last November. The Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen the Equal Pay Act, signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963. While the Equal Pay Act was a major victory for women, it is in dire need of updates to ensure that women have full equality. The Paycheck Fairness Act would give women the same remedies for gender wage discrimination that are now available to victims of discrimination based on race or national origin. It would also bar employers from retaliating against employees for discussing their salaries with each other—a problem that continues to plague many women.

Equal Pay Day reminds us that there is progress to be made when it comes to women’s economic equality – and just in time. While the White House and the Congress have agreed on a the FY 2011 budget, it will soon consider the budget for FY 2012. Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) introduced the GOP 2012 budget plan last week, a blueprint that would further imperil women’s bid for full equality, with severe cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Pell Grants for education and other programs that benefit Americans in poverty – most of whom are women. Indeed, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Ryan’s 2012 budget gets about two-thirds of its $4 trillion in cuts from programs that benefit low-income Americans.

On Equal Pay Day, Congress should reconsider and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. But future equality also depends on budget that is both balanced and fair to all – a fact that must be remembered as Congress begins to debate the FY 2012 budget.

Learn more about Legal Momentum's work on employment discrimination.

SB 1070 Copycat Bills Threaten Health and Safety of Immigrant Women and Children

Sixteen states have introduced legislation similar to Arizona's SB 1070, the controversial immigration law blocked by a federal judge last July. Legal Momentum submitted an amicus curiae brief in that case, which detailed the severe harm SB 1070 would have caused immigrant women and their children.

SB 1070 makes it a misdemeanor for non-citizens to be in Arizona without documentation. The law also makes it a crime to shelter, hire or transport undocumented immigrants and forces police to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being undocumented. Legal Momentum successfully argued that, if implemented, these provisions would threaten immigrant women’s health and safety, increase the risk that immigrant women would be separated from their children and punish immigrant women victims of violence.

Over the past two decades, Congress and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have made major strides in addressing the barriers to safety immigrant women face, particularly immigrant victims of domestic violence, trafficking, and sexual assault. Thanks to Legal Momentum, the 2000 and 2005 reauthorizations of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) included specific provisions to help immigrant women victims of violence, including the U visa and the T visa. Legal Momentum, in partnership with the Vera Institute for Justice, also trains local law enforcement agencies on using these visas.

SB 1070 copycat bills threaten this work. Immigrant women will be reluctant to seek help or report crimes for fear of being detained or deported. Currently, fewer than 20% of immigrant women victims of violence who are undocumented or who have temporary legal status seek help from law enforcement, compared to more than half of women victims of violence in the general population. Fewer undocumented women are likely to report crimes or seek aid if states enact SB 1070 copycat laws.

Legal Momentum believes that reforms in immigration laws and policies will be most effective in improving conditions of immigrant women and their families when they are grounded in an understanding of the challenges and circumstances confronted by many immigrant women in America.

• Learn more about Legal Momentum's work on gender bias and immigration reform.
• Learn more about Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program.
• Learn more about Legal Momentum.