Domestic Violence New Bill

While conducting a video recording session for our class project at the Casa de Esperanza a couple of weeks ago, I was made aware of some interesting, yet shocking facts. Our contact, Amber, Senior Trainer of the organization, brought to our attention a Bill that was creating some controversy in the legislation arena. According to Amber, this an extremely critical issue for her group’s cause, which is to stop domestic violence. Aparently, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill (with a 68 to 31 votes) last month that would expand the 1994 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The exapansion or reathorization of this statutel, according to an article that I found, would include protections for more vulnerable groups ( i.e. lesbian, gays, trangender, and undocumented women imigrants like latinas) as well as allow alleged non-American suspects of domestic violence to be prosecuted before tribal courts. These are just some examples.

Unfortunately, last week, the House, led by a Republican majority, voted on their own version of the VAWA bill, which virtually strips American Indians, immigrants, and LGBTs of any new rights that the Senate bill had introduced. As Human Rights Watch stated in this article, the House’s version of the bill is “regressive” and brings about “sweeping changes to existing legal protections for immigrant victims of sexual and domestic violence.”

As Amber pointed out to us, the House’s bill will make if difficult, if not impossible, for immigrant women that have fallen victims of “mail bride scams” for example, to be able to get help when trapped in a domestic violent environment. The public needs to be made aware of bills like this that put sectors of our population at risk so that action can be taken by those that feel this type of behavior (by the House) is not acceptable.