Tomorrow the House of Representatives will most likely sell out the American people and re authorize one of the worse pieces of legislation since Jim Crow laws, VAWA. The re authorization  over the next five years will cause tens of thousands of innocent people to be labeled criminals and thousands of families to be destroyed by overzealous prosecutions. It’s a sad day when our elected officials bend over for an ideology riddled with demagoguery, lies, and threats rather than stand tall for truth and justice. Make sure you let your U.S. Senator or Representative know that you  appreciate his/her opposition to the current House and Senate version of VAWA . The article below might be  more aptly labeled “VAWA: Ill intentioned, Very Well executed.” We hope you are not one of VAWA’s upcoming victims…

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VAWA: Well Intentioned, Poorly Executed

Synopsis:  Unsubstantiated claims of abuse allow immigrant spouses to successfully bar third-party evidence from immigration proceedings – including court documents, information from other government agencies and testimony from U.S. spouses.

Result: VAWA provides a blank slate for fraudsters, criminals and terrorists in the immigration process – and with a fast-track status guaranteeing U.S. citizenship. VAWA is also being used against American domestic violence victims by abusive foreign spouses.

Case Study:  Elena Maria Lopez, American Citizen & Domestic Violence Survivor

What does a young woman do when her husband suddenly admits he married her for a green card – then attacks and threatens to kill her if she contacts authorities? Despite her husband’s continuous threats, including at gunpoint, Elena Maria Lopez contacts law enforcement and immigration officials for help. Both parties repeatedly refuse to take action. (She fares no better with her congressional members: A House staffer offers to help her sponsor another person into the country, but refuses to get involved in “whistle blowing.” Her U.S. Senator’s office marginalizes her case as a “marriage dispute.”)

Fleeing her own home and facing an emotional breakdown, Lopez does the only thing she knows how to maintain her safety and her sanity: She investigates. With the help of a retired F.B.I. special agent and her wits as a researcher, she discovers she married a man with a history of ruthless and criminal behavior. And although her husband should have been denied a visa and a green card because of large-scale, illegal drug activities, he was just one of many foreign nationals that bypassed a background check because of his intentions to marry an American.

Despite documenting these criminal activities with the retired special agent, as well as false statements her husband made on immigration forms – a felony, the immigration service refused to accept any of the evidence or to take their sworn statements. As it turns out, Lopez became the “abuser” in the eyes of the immigration bureaucracy when she refused to sign off on her husband’s fraudulent immigration application. (Such behavior is categorized as emotionally abusive according to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a law enacted to protect battered women like Lopez. By claiming to be a battered spouse, an immigrant spouse can successfully bar third-party evidence from immigration proceedings, including court documents, information from other government agencies, and testimony from U.S. citizen spouses. This method has become quite effective at creating blank slates for criminal aliens in the immigration process.)

Not only does VAWA fail to protect real victims of domestic violence and immigration fraud, but has emerged to become the single-largest loophole to bypass U.S. immigration laws. The only thing necessary to obtain this protected VAWA status is a simple allegation of emotional, verbal or physical abuse at the hands of an American spouse. A team of social workers without any investigative experience or fraud training makes these important homeland security decisions. Three-quarters of all VAWA-based immigration petitions were approved since 2000. In an agency where its own bureaucratic insiders claim that fraud rates range from 1 in 5 on the low end to three-quarters on the high end, these approval rates are downright disturbing.

By providing such quick green cards with little or no evidence has set up a clear incentive for people to cry wolf without repercussions. This VAWA process hurts the immigration system, siphons off limited funds to help real domestic violence victims, and forces innocent United States citizens to face false allegations in local courts.

Making false allegations for a green card is not a victimless crime: People have been kicked out of their homes, lost security clearances and jobs, and forced to face down child protective services after being tagged as a “violent” household. And all of these ramifications stemmed from someone wanting to scam their way to a quick green card.

In 2007, Lopez was issued a protected address based on the evidence of her domestic violence case. Despite this, her ex-husband was granted U.S. citizenship.

For more information on VAWA and immigration fraud, contact ImmigrationFraud.com

Tags: boehner, cathy McMorris Rodgers, McMorris Rodgers, vawa