Floor Statement in opposition to the DeSantis-Roby Amendmen to H.R. 240, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act
January 15, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding time.
I will enter in the Record a letter from the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women opposing the DeSantis-Roby amendment.
As the founder and former executive director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, I join the network of every State domestic violence coalition and the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women in opposing this amendment.
The issue really is very simple. Often – too often – in cases of domestic violence, law enforcement show up at a home, they can’t figure out what happened, both parties are arrested, and down the line both plead to misdemeanor domestic violence offenses. This happens all the time all around the country. For the victim, it may be because she just wants to get it out of the way to get back to her children or she has been threatened with further violence by her abuser or with her immigration status held over her head.
Whatever the reason, it turns out that in too many of these circumstances, no one – not law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, or even her attorney, if she is fortunate to have one – tells her that by pleading to the misdemeanor, her immigration status is threatened and she faces deportation.
So this is not about fault. It just means that we still have a lot of work to do when it comes to domestic violence. It is why we reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act in the last Congress.
Here is the harm. This amendment would prevent immigration authorities from looking beneath the surface in circumstances only of domestic violence offenses to make absolutely certain that we are not victimizing the victim twice by subjecting her to deportation.
I urge my colleagues to vote “no” on this dangerous amendment that could result in additional violence and undoing what successive Congresses and Presidents, Republicans and Democrats, have done for 20 years – afford fairness and protection for vulnerable immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence.
And so let’s get the facts straight. This is not about shielding perpetrators. It is about protecting victims.
Our immigration authorities deserve to take a second look when it comes to domestic violence, and I urge my colleagues to do no harm and vote “no” on the DeSantis-Roby amendment.
