According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Violence Against Women Act (known as VAWA) “should be swiftly reauthorized to ensure the continuation of these vital, lifesaving programs and laws.” The Network adds that VAWA “creates and supports comprehensive, effective, and cost saving responses to the crimes of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.” The law is administered by the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services.

But a GOP immigration enforcement bill now being considered in the House could limit the federal government’s ability to assist undocumented domestic violence victims.

Michelle Ortiz — the supervising attorney of Lucha, a unit within Americans for Immigrant Justice, formerly the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center — told The Florida Independent that the Hinder the Administration Legalization Temptation Act, an immigration enforcement bill filed by Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, would undermine existing immigration law by removing prosecutorial discretion and deferred action, two components that protect undocumented domestic victimes.

“Under the Violence Against Women Act, which has existed for 15 years, there have been specific protections for victims of domestic violence,” Michelle Ortiz said, “particularly for people who self-petition, who are victims of domestic violence at the hands of a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident.”

Smith’s Hinder the Administration Legalization Temptation Act (better known as the HALT Act) would force immigration authorities to deport victims of domestic violence who reach out for help.

Sarah Van Hofwegen, a staff attorney at Americans for Immigrant Justice who visits immigrant detainees, tells the Independent that “HALT would create an even bigger climate of fear for immigrants.”

“People will be less willing to report crimes against them for fear of ending up in custody,” she says. “I think there a lot of immigrant women who are victims of crime and are not getting the service they need and are not reporting the crimes against them.”

“I see high numbers of women who are victims of domestic violence and end up in the immigration system, through a variety of ways, in the Broward Transition Center, the lowest-security facility in South Florida,” Van Hofwegen says. “So it’s people with minor criminal convictions.”

Broward Transition Center is managed by The GEO Group, one of the world’s largest private prison and detention companies.

Van Hofwegen also says she visits women “who have come to the United States, fleeing their abuser in their home country.”

“People can’t be denied legal services,” Van Hofwegen says, “but it is harder to get legal services when they are in detention because the centers are far away, also because there is not as much pro bono services available. Americans for Immigrant Justice is the only organization that is working out of Broward Transition Center, and other detention centers like Glades County detention center have very little pro bono services, so people who can’t afford attorneys and don’t have ways to contact them are getting legal assistance.”

Van Hofwegen adds that the majority of women she represents are Latina and Haitian, but that there are women from other countries, some of whom are married to their abusers.

Legal Momentum, a women’s legal defense and education fund, writes that “immigrant women are more likely to confront poverty, violence and exploitation than any other demographic in America.”

Photo: Immigrants rally in D.C. in 2010; Source: Flickr, Vpickering

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano defended her department’s Secure Communities program, which has been the target of criticism by advocates for immigrants.

Napolitano called Secure Communities “a program that helps ICE identify those who have been arrested by state and local law enforcement for non-immigration state or local crimes, who are also in the country unlawfully. It bestows no additional authorities onto local law enforcement and only identifies those who have been booked into jails. Literally, in jails.”

Opponents of Secure Communities have repeatedly called on the Obama administration to end the fingerprint-sharing program because immigrants who have committed no crime are being detained and deported, leaving behind U.S.-born children and families that, in many cases, will struggle to make ends meet.

Jonathan Fried of We Count!, a South Florida worker and immigrant advocacy organization, said during an event in August that in Miami-Dade County, as of May 2011, close to 60 percent of undocumented immigrants who have been detained under Secure Communities have not committed a crime.

Napolitano said Secure Communities “got off to a bad start.”

“We did not explain clearly how it works and who is required to participate,” she said. “It has already helped accomplish a great deal toward ensuring that we use our enforcement resources where they do the most good.”

Over the summer, three state governors — in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts — announced they were suspending their participation in Secure Communities. Members of Congress have called on California Gov. Jerry Brown to suspend the state’s participation in Secure Communities.

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Spanish-language La Opinion — an online news outlet — that deporting undocumented immigrants who have not committed a serious crime, something she accepted is happening with Secure Communities, is a waste of taxpayer money.

According to Napolitano, “Secure Communities hasn’t increased the number of individuals who are removed, but it has helped change the composition – helping ICE to dramatically increase the number of convicted criminals and egregious immigration law violators,” adding that, “despite the misleading commentary about this program, it has proven to be the single best tool at focusing our immigration enforcement resources on criminals and egregious immigration law violators.”

Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, responded to Secretary Napolitano’s speech today with the following statement:

We are happy to hear Secretary Napolitano mention S-Comm and “termination” in the same sentence. Despite the political spin and marketing campaign to defend a failed program, S-Comm has proven to be a disastrous policy for our nation and for our communities. It should be ended before it leads to the further Arizonification of the country.

Napolitano said termination of Secure Communities “would only weaken public safety, and move the immigration enforcement system back towards the ad hoc approach where non-criminal aliens are more likely to be removed than criminals.”

Napolitano said it is her department’s job “to listen and make adjustments consistent with our best law enforcement judgment. That’s why Secure Communities now has new training for state and local law enforcement, and additional steps are being taken to protect witnesses, domestic violence victims, and victims of other violent crime.”

The National Immigration Forum, ”a vocal and vehement critic of the Secure Communities program,” was invited by the Department of Homeland Security in July to participate in a task force “created in response to growing criticism and concern” about Secure Communities.

The Forum resigned from the advisory committee in September, stating that despite recommendations “that – if implemented – would improve the operation of the Secure Communities program and strengthen civil rights and civil liberties protections,” they “fell short of sound policy recommendations that would cure fundamental flaws in the program.”

Bachmann referred to Perry’s statement at last week’s debate that opponents of the Texas Dream Act “didn’t have a heart,” which Perry has since walked back.

“Last week, we conservatives were accused of not having a heart,” Bachmann said. “Nothing could be further from the truth, but it’s just that we have a mind to go with that heart.”

Bachmann’s ad, which was posted Thursday represents yet another attempt by the candidate to regain the support of conservatives, who abandoned her in droves after Perry entered the race. Bachmann has been falling in most polls, although she’s recently seen a slight surge in Iowa.

Bachmann says in the video that immigration policies like in-state tuition for the children of undocumented immigrants have “created chaos on our borders.”

“We can’t settle for a president that thinks building a fence to secure the border is on its face ‘idiocy,’” Bachmann said, vowing to build a border fence and again referring to comments by Perry. “Just because we have policy differences doesn’t make us any less compassionate.”

Photo: Paul Schmelzer

Latino children ages 17 and younger represent the highest number of children living poverty in the U.S., according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released Wednesday.

The Pew Hispanic report (.pdf) adds that “the poverty rate among black children is the nation’s highest.” “In 2010, 39.1% of black children lived in poverty, while 35% of Latino children and 12.4% of white children lived in poverty.”

The report states that “the spread of poverty across the United States that began at the onset of the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and accelerated last year hit one fast-growing demographic group especially hard: Latino children.”

The U.S. Census Bureau released a report in mid-September that found “46.2 million people in poverty in 2010, up from 43.6 million in 2009 ─ the fourth consecutive annual increase and the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.”

The Pew Hispanic report adds that in 2010, at least 6.1 million Latino children, more than any other group, are living in poverty. “In 2010, 37.3% of poor children were Latino, 30.5% were white and 26.6% were black.”

It also indicates that “of the 6.1 million Latino children living in poverty, more than two-thirds (4.1 million) are the children of immigrant parents. The other 2 million are the children of parents born in the U.S. Among the 4.1 million impoverished Latino children of immigrants, the vast majority (86.2%) were born in the U.S.”

The report highlights that the rates of poverty vary widely among Latino children:

• Families headed by a single mother have the highest poverty rates: 57.3 percent
• Families where at least one parent has a college degree have the lowest: 8.7 percent
• Latino children with an unemployed parent: 43.5 percent

According to Half in Ten — a campaign to cut poverty in half over 10 years — almost 600,000 Minnesotans live in poverty, including more than 59,000 Latinos.

The Minnesota Independent covered a variety of issues this week, from in-depth looks at U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s inner circle to a state Senate special election primary in Minneapolis.

Pres. Barack Obama’s job plan went to Congress, where it’s expected to face opposition from Minnesota Republicans despite White House claims that the plan would create up to 100,000 jobs in the state.

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, a PAC aligned with Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann put out another ad, this one painting Texas Gov. Rick Perry as soft on immigration. The radio uses the slogan “illegals take jobs.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty left the Republican presidential race with an impressive debt, this week’s endorsement of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will likely help ease the burden. (Comedian Stephen Colbert said Pawlenty’s endorsement was like Miracle Whip endorsing mayonnaise). As Romney’s spokesman said: ”If Tim Pawlenty wants our help, that’s something we’d help him with, just as we help all our friends.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry snagged a handful of Pawlenty supporters despite Pawlenty’s endorsement of Romney.

As his formal presidential rivals continue to trudge through the primary process, Pawlenty is planning a vacation; he’ll attend the annual National Review cruise as a guest speaker.

In the Republican tea party debate, Perry came under attack by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann for his support of an HPV vaccine mandate. Bachmann later went even further, linking theHPV vaccine to “mental retardation,” which all experts say is false. Despite a storm of criticism, Bachmann has stood firm, saying she never misrepresented herself as a doctor or scientist. Bachmann’s argument against Perry and the drug company, Merck, is now being used in California to urge a veto of that state’s HPV vaccination mandate.

Bachmann spent the days after the debate wooing controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has kept prisoners in tent cities with extreme heat and provided inadequate food.

The Minnesota Independent’s Andy Birkey dug into the beliefs of Bachmann’s main supporters, finding fringe ideas like abolishing public education and even a terrorism charge for stockpiling guns in Uganda.

In Minnesota, the employment rate is stagnant, with 7.2 percent unemployment.

Minnesota for Marriage, a coalition of conservative Christian groups that are working to convince voters to back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, has signed on the former communications director of the Minnesota Family Council in the run-up to the 2012 vote.

Lynne Torgerson launched her campaign against U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison on 9/11. She said Ellison is a “radical Islamist” who wanted to install Sharia law into the Constitution. Ellison said that this whole movement to ban Sharia law that no one is trying to install in the United States “is a very thin-disguised effort at religious persecution of people who are Muslim.”

Bradlee Dean, head of the You Can Run But You Cannot Hide ministry, was also back in the news with an open letter to Pres. Barack Obama.

A piece in the New York Times about conflict in the Anoka-Hennepin School District brought the issue of harassment of LGBT youth to the nation’s attention. The Minnesota Independent published a primer on the issue, giving a background to the reporting we’ve done on it for the last two years. Citing the school district, U.S. Sen. Al Franken called for an end to discrimination against LGBT students.

U.S. Rep. Tim Walz joined the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which now includes 122 House members. Ellison and U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum also signed a letter with 72 other members of Congress urging the IRS to clarify tax rules for legally married same-sex couples—the rules are confusing and contradictory, they said. Members of Congress also announced the HIV/AIDS caucus, although no members of the Minnesota delegation are signed on.

In the special election primary for Senate District 61, state Rep. Jeff Hayden came out on top with DFLers, but Sadik Warfa made a strong showing, demonstrating the growing political clout of the state’s Somali-American population.

In Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District, former congressman Rick Nolan picked up a slew of big-name Iron Range endorsements in his bid for the DFL nomination to take on U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack.

If you have any news tips, please contact us at tips@minnesotaindependent.com.

Following a storm of criticism of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s connection of an HPV vaccine to “mental retardation,” Bachmann is seeking to hitch her presidential bid to the controversial Arizona sheriff who houses inmates in a “Tent City” and instituted chain gangs.

“What we need to do is first secure the border,” Bachmann said before the meeting with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Wednesday, according to KTAR. “We need to deal with that issue first. Deal with all the inducements that are out there and then move on from there.”

Arpaio has drawn condemnation from civil liberties groups and accolades from conservatives for his treatment of illegal immigrants and jailed offenders. His tactics have included the creation of a “Tent City” to house alleged offenders that he’s referred to it as a “concentration camp.” He’s also gained notoriety for serving inmates spoiled and inadequate food, as well as forcing them to wear pink underwear.

Bachmann called Arpaio “a great guy,” and said that “anyone would want his endorsement.” In fact, Arpaio has also been wooed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, according to CBS.

Arpaio is scheduled to appear in Iowa this weekend, the Iowa Independent reports.

Arpaio faces own election fight this November. He is being challenged by Sheriff Harvey DeSotel—a former Linn County deputy. He also faces Greg Graver, chief deputy in the Jones County office, and Scotty Shover.

In the last four months, more than 30,000 Somali children under the age of 5 have died during the worst drought in the area in 60 years, according to U.S. government statistics.

National political leaders, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), hosted a community forum Wednesday in Minneapolis—which has a large Somali community—to chart the relief efforts spearheaded by the U.S. government and whip up support for humanitarian aid spending.

“Famine isn’t defined as drought or defined as food access, it’s a definition of children dying,” USAID Administrator Raj Shah told the crowd, made up mostly of people from the University of Minnesota and Somali-American communities. “That number is likely go up significantly if we’re unable to dramatically expand our access to care for vulnerable populations in Somalia.”

USAID Administrator Raj Shah speaks to the crowd.

Shah announced another $23 million in grants and aid to provide some famine relief in Somalia and the surrounding region. The U.S. has already spent more than $580 million this year to combat the famine in East Africa, which Rah said accounts for half the funds being donated internationally to the effort.

The drought has also impacted Kenya and Ethiopia. In the entire region, up to 12 million people could be at risk, Shah said.

Much of the effort spearheaded by USAID focuses not just on food convoys, which have been hijacked in Somalia in the past, but on longer-term projects to develop drought-resistant crops and sustainable agriculture, Shah said. Relief efforts have also focused on medical care that can prevent children deaths, like cholera treatment centers.

But despite the urgency of the situation, lawmakers on the panel admitted they could run into roadblocks in attempting to fund more relief in a Congress fixated on budgetary issues. U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) said the most common constituent call to his office demanded an end to foreign aid.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)

Pelosi said security and humanitarian issues were related.

“Some in Congress believe that if people are starving in areas controlled by al-Shabab, that they should not be provided with food assistance,” Pelosi said, referring to the Islamic militant movement that still controls vast stretches of the country. ”Alleviation of poverty, eradication of disease, providing opportunity lessen the fury of despair, which is a recruiting ground for trouble, for violence.”

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said the United States’ history in the region, including the 1993 killings of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu, gave some Americans pause about interacting with the region. But the international neglect of Somalia has led to a number of problems, from piracy to the famine to the al-Shabab movement, he said.

“The crisis in the horn [of Africa] and Somalia is all of our business,” Ellison said, calling for constituent pressure for humanitarian aid. “This world of ours can take care of its people but we have to have the political will to make it that way.”

But a lack of financial aid represents just one difficulty in staving off famine in East Africa. Complications in the region have led groups to approach the issue differently than past relief projects, with groups like the American Refugee Committee (ARC) working with the Somali-American community to help get aid to people who need it.

“I want to tell you with absolute certainty that the money you give, the support you put in, is and can be translated into lifesaving programs and it’s happening right now as we sit here,” said Daniel Wordsworth of ARC.

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.)

The Somali-American community has been very active in organizing and supporting relief efforts, Wordsworth said.

“We want the Somali-American community, the American-Somali community to know how much we value your contributions to our country, your country, all of our country,” Pelosi told the audience. “I hope you know how deeply concerned we are on this issue that challenges the conscience of all humanity, and we must get the job done.”

Zainab Hassan said the forum was the sort of discussion the community needs to have to help spread peace and stability throughout the region.

“As world citizens we have to be involved in these issues and look at it in a positive and comprehensive way in terms of how do our policies impact other people in the region,” Hassan said. “How can we hold accountable our politicians to do the right thing and to adopt policies that would benefit not only Minnesotans but also internationally?”

Hassan said it didn’t seem that most Minnesotans were aware of what was going on in Somalia, but that programs like ARC’s Neighbors Initiative were changing that.

“A lot of effort is going on in Minnesota to bring together Minnesotan communities regardless of race, culture, countries of origin,” she said.

Ayan Abdinur said most people of Somali origin knew about the famine, but that other issues have sometimes distracted the broader community from learning about famine relief efforts.

“When you hear Somalia, it’s about the pirates, it’s still al-Shabab, there’s so much negative media that we really forget the issue that’s happening right now,” Abdinur said. “Yes, there is a security issue, but there is a bigger issue than al-Shabab and the pirates and anything that’s going on, but I wish that people would step away from that and open their heart to the people who are dying.”

Abdinur said she was proud to see how many people showed up for the forum.

“It was a really great way to show that Somali-Americans, other Americans, that everybody cares about the issues going on in Somalia and that we come together as a community and try to make an effort to help the people in Somalia,” Abdinur said. ”I was really happy, touched, by how the community could come together for one issue outside our country.”

Miriam Jordan of The Wall Street Journal reports on a pseudonymous couple who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico to settle in Minneapolis. They held jobs paying well over the minimum wage, plus benefits, before the Obama Administration began cracking down on employers. Both of them now work lower-paid jobs and work for less than the minimum wage.

More about the audits:

The audits, started by the Obama administration in 2009, put the onus on business to police workers, requiring companies to turn over employee records to federal agents. If the papers aren’t in order, the workers are quietly let go without penalty while the companies are punished.

The audits, conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, were initially hailed by some immigrant advocates as more humane because they eliminate deportation raids, the norm during the Bush administration.

But it has become increasingly clear that the policy is pushing undocumented workers deeper underground, delivering them to the hands of unscrupulous employers, depressing wages and depriving federal, state and local coffers of taxes, according to unions, companies and immigrant advocates.

It’s not clear whether their employer, ABM, looked the other way or the couple simply provided false documents. Employers are required to accept documents for an I-9 form or else be open to charges of employment discrimination. Either way, they were treated well — the husband made up to just over $14 an hour, and both entitled to paid vacation and sick days.

Minnesota required the use of E-Verify for state employees and contractors doing more than $50,000 in business with the state from 2008 until 2011, when Gov. Mark Dayton reversed the executive order of Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

With the recession and increased immigration enforcement, it’s unlikely that the couple will find other jobs that pay well above minimum wage and include benefits.

Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Harry Reid, D-Nev., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., John Kerry, D-Mass., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., reintroduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill on Wednesday.

Menendez’s office said in press release that the bill is “aimed at addressing the broken immigration system with tough, smart, and fair measures.”

The Immigration Policy Center explains that Menendez’s proposal includes the creation of Lawful Prospective Immigration (LPI) status. Applicants for LPI status would be required to submit biometric data, go through security checks and pay a fine. After six to eight years of LPI status, undocumented immigrants could transition to Legal Permanent Resident status only after they pay taxes and additional fines, learn English and U.S. civics, and undergo additional background checks. And even then, LPIs would have to wait behind those already in line for LPR status.

The Policy Center also says the bill includes improvements to regulate the future flow of legal immigrants by creating a standing commission that would study labor market and economic conditions to determine the number of employment-based visas needed. The bill also supports programs that better facilitate immigrant integration, such as enhanced policies to help immigrants learn English and grants for states that successfully integrate newcomers.

The release issued by Menendez adds that the

Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2011 includes both a mandatory employment verification system and a program to require undocumented immigrants in the U.S. as of June 1, 2011 to register with the government, learn English, and pay fines and taxes on their way to becoming Americans

The bill promotes effective and accountable enforcement within the U.S. through measures such as: additional resources for the Border Patrol; expanded penalties for passport and document fraud; new requirements for the Department of Homeland Security to track entries and exits at the border; common-sense rules governing detention to ensure U.S. citizens are not unlawfully detained; and new criminal penalties for fraud and misuse of Social Security numbers.

Jose Antonio Vargas, who wrote for the Washington Post and shared a Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, came out as an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times Magazine story that went live this morning.

He came to the United States from the Philippines when he was 12, and was raised in Mountain View, Calif., with his grandparents. Vargas did not know he was an undocumented immigrant until he was 16 and rode his bike to the D.M.V. to try to get his learner’s permit and his green card was rejected.

He decided to write the story after hearing the stories of undocumented students lobbying for the passage of the DREAM Act. The story is worth reading in full.

Here’s Vargas telling his story at Define American: