Tag Archives: immigration

Chinese Woman Seeks Asylum In The U.S. Over Forced Birth Control

Jessica WakemanFebruary 7, 2011 //

It’s worth a reminder sometimes that the term “reproductive rights” doesn’t just mean the right not not reproduce, like with abortion. Reproductive rights can also mean the right to produce, like in the case of Mei Fun Wong, a Chinese woman seeking asylum in the U.S. because she fears she’ll be persecuted for removing her IUD. Wong, 44, lives in New York City and has been fighting to stay in the U.S. for years. Back in 1991, the Chinese government forced her to get an IUD implanted as part of its one child per family population control policy. Wong said the IUD caused her physical pain, but doctors refused to remove it. She had it secretly removed by a physician she found for herself. When another doctor discovered during a routine exam that the IUD had been removed, the government held her for three days until she agreed to have it re-implanted. She tried to flee to Hong Kong, claiming she wanted to get away from being forced to wear the IUD, and was jailed for four months and fined. Finally, Wong arrived in the U.S. in 2000 — following her husband, who fled to the U.S. after his involvement in Tiananmen Square — had her IUD removed in New York, and now she wants asylum so she can escape the Chinese government’s “menacing” behavior. Keep reading »

Salma Hayek Says She Was An Illegal Immigrant

Kate Torgovnick/Kate-Book.comDecember 9, 2010 //

Salma Hayek looks kind of like an alien on the cover of V Spain. Which is fitting, because inside the magazine, she reveals that she was once living in the United States as an illegal alien. (Yeah, I don’t love that phrase, either. Sorry I had to use it to make that intro work.) “I was an illegal immigrant in the United States,” says Salma. “It was for a small period of time, but I still did it.” She doesn’t specify when exactly. It could be when she was a high school student at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Louisiana. (She headed back to Mexico for college.) Or during her early days in Hollywood. Keep reading »

Today’s Lady News: Meg Whitman Accused Of Employing An Undocumented Maid

Jessica WakemanSeptember 29, 2010 //
  • Meg Whitman’s undocumented maid claimed in a press conference today that she was fired after she asked the California gubernatorial candidate and her husband for help gaining legal status. Nicky Diaz Santillan worked for the Whitman/Harsh family for nine years and claimed they never asked for her legal status before employing her. When Santillan was let go, she claims Meg Whitman told her, “From now on, you don’t know me and I don’t know you.” Her campaign, which touts that Meg Whitman is “tough as nails” on illegal immigration, says the former housekeeper is lying. [Guanabee, Guanabee, MegWhitman.com]
  • Someone asked President Obama about his support for late-term abortions at a recent town hall-style Q&A. The president replied that abortions should be “safe, legal and rare” and that families “should be the ones making the decision” to have children, not the government. He did not directly address the late-term abortion question, however, other than to say laws prohibit them and “people still argue and disagree about it.” [CNN]

Keep reading »

Why Is Sarah Palin Talking About Barack Obama’s Balls?

Jessica WakemanAugust 2, 2010 //

Fresh off his gabfest with the girls last week on “The View,” Sarah Palin is taking a stab at the president’s masculinity. Appearing on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday, she said Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has “the cojones” — Spanish for “balls” — that President Barack Obama “does not have” to deal with illegal immigration. Arizona, as you surely remember, recently passed strict immigration laws which “would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally,” according to The New York Times. Keep reading »

Meet Gladys Castro, The Illegal Immigrant With A 4.09 GPA

Jessica WakemanMay 19, 2010 //

Regardless of your opinion on immigration, we can all agree it’s a disappointment when finances prevent an intelligent person from obtaining an education. And 17-year-old Gladys Castro of Fontana, California, is intelligent: the senior has a 4.09 average at Kaiser High School, where she took Advanced Placement classes, led the Advanced Biology Club and was a member of the National Honor Society.

But Gladys is an illegal immigrant whose family left Jalisco, Mexico, when she was 8 years old, after two of her relatives were kidnapped and murdered. She will graduate from high school soon and has been accepted to U.C. Berkeley, where she hopes to study political science. Due to her illegal status, however, Gladys cannot apply for government student loans. Keep reading »

Shakira Shakes Up Controversy Over Arizona’s New Immigration Laws

Ami AngelowiczApril 30, 2010 //

If I wasn’t already slightly embarrassed to admit that I grew up in Arizona, I am now. With the announcement of the new immigration laws, I want to boycott the state altogether, but unfortunately that’s not an option since my family lives here. In fact, I am here right now with my brother for a family visit. On the flight over from NYC, there was a guy sitting a few rows behind me wearing a baseball cap that said, “Don’t shoot! I’m legal!” Yes, it was meant to be ironically disdainful, but this issue is personal for my brother. His girlfriend is a Canadian citizen, which would make it potentially dangerous for her to come visit. That’s how over-the-top the new laws are. Speaking of visiting … Arizona has a famous visitor this week who is also deeply angered by the new laws. Keep reading »

Foreign Battered Women May Be Granted Asylum In The U.S.

Carrie WasterlainJuly 16, 2009 //

Foreign victims of domestic violence may finally be able to escape their abuse; the Obama administration has instated a new policy that may grant some of these victims asylum in the United States. The policy would reverse a Bush administration stance that did not allow foreign abuse victims entry into the U.S. Keep reading »

Legalize American Apparel!

Zandile BlayJuly 3, 2009 //

We knew that American Apparel had very liberal views on immigration reform, but not this liberal. The company is under fire from U.S immigration officials for allegedly hiring about 1,600 employees who are not eligible to work in the United States. An additional 200 employees are said to have “discrepancies in their work records.” Officials are threatening to deport the workers if they are unable to prove legal residence in the U.S. American Apparel’s founder and CEO, Dov Charney, who was born in Canada, said in a statement, “It is the company’s hope — and my personal hope as an immigrant myself — that these employees are able to confirm their work authorization so that they may continue to work at American Apparel.” [Stylist.com]
Keep reading »

U.S. Ban On People With HIV Could Be Repealed

Catherine StrawnJuly 17, 2008 //

Did you know that people with HIV who want to visit the U.S. or move to the U.S. from another country basically can’t? For about 20 years, there has been a ban making it really hard for people with the virus to enter the country, even for health conferences. They’ve been able to apply for special hard-to-get wavers for short visits, but they’ve had little chance of obtaining permanent residency. Now, Senators John Kerry and Gordon Smith are trying to repeal the ban, as well as pass legislation that would provide $50 million over the next five years to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and poor areas around the world. Basically, people with HIV would be treated the same as those with communicable diseases, and experts would determine eligibility for admission into the United States. [AP] Keep reading »