immigration

Life in the shadows

Anonymous — Tue, 10 May 2016 20:22:20 +0000

Life in the shadows Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/10/2016 - 14:22 Kaley LaQuea

Stories of domestic violence and sexual assault on undocumented immigrant women tell of a deep-seated problem in the United States.

*Author’s note: Italicized portions are based on case studies from victim advocate counselors. Names have been changed to protect the persons involved.

Photo: Francesco Scaramella via Flickr Creative Commons

Marisa Raygoza let out a heavy sigh.

“This is a very sad topic.” She shook her head.

Raygoza, the end-of-life coordinator at El Comite in Longmont, Colorado, sat for a minute with her face propped in her palm.

“So many of our women…I’m sorry.”

She paused as her voice broke, reached across the desk for a tissue, dabbed at her eyes under her glasses.

“They’re hidden. They’re in the shadows. They’re in fear. They’re nobodies.”

In 2014, the Pew Research Center estimated that there were roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S., 51 percent of whom are women. Most hail from Mexico and Latin America. One in six Latina women survive rape, attempted rape and sexual assault, while rates of domestic violence are even higher.

Studies provide a murky picture, but most estimates put the number at anywhere from one-quarter to nearly half of Latina women who have experienced domestic violence. Accurate statistics are scarce because Latinas often don’t report domestic violence. Undocumented women (and men) often avoid self-identification for fear of deportation.

“Because I am a woman, I do fear more for the women,” Raygoza said. “You think about how they’ve been treated. What has their life been like? We’re talking 15-20 years, most of these people have been here that long now, and in the shadows.”

‘This one is a difficult one’

Rosa Murillo is a victim advocate for the �鶹ӰԺ County District Attorney. She’s heard many stories of domestic violence, but still some stand out more than others.

“This one is a difficult one,” Murillo prefaced.

Juan and Maria were from Mexico. They immigrated to the U.S. and both of their kids were born here. They lived in Lafayette. They had a couple of domestic violence incidents, where Maria would report but then later deny that anything had happened. She would recant for the same reasons every time — they were both undocumented. She had contacted Murillo previously concerning domestic abuse, but continuously recanted out of fear.

Maria didn’t have any family here. She wasn’t close to her mother, so she was in the U.S. by herself with her husband. Juan had a couple uncles and a brother in the U.S., so all the relatives she had were his family.

At one point Maria decided to leave Juan. She was on her own, but doing well with her children. Juan continued to harass her and look for her. She got a car. She got a job at Wendy’s and lived in a small trailer with the kids. She knew she didn’t want to go back to him.

A few months later, Maria began dating a man who was very helpful and supportive.

One evening they went to a dance, where Maria had something to drink. Her boyfriend drove them home.

Juan and his brother came looking for them. They drove to the boyfriend’s home. They stayed in their car and waited for Maria and her boyfriend to come home.

When the couple arrived, Juan immediately went to the driver’s side, thinking that she was driving. Because she hardly ever drank, she was always the designated driver. Juan went to driver’s side of the car and opened the door, and when the boyfriend looked outside, Juan hit him on the head with a bat, breaking the boyfriend’s skull.

Juan’s brother grabbed Maria, pulled her out of the car and pushed her around. Juan came around to the passenger side. He balled his right hand into a fist and punched Maria in the forehead.

Maria came into Murillo’s office the next day.

“I’ve had it,” she told Murillo.

Maria had bruising all around her eyes. Both of her eyes were completely bloodshot, one was swollen shut.

Murillo spent eight hours with Maria that day taking statements and translating for her. Juan his brother were immediately arrested. Maria went to the court hearings, which is unusual for someone who has been assaulted that badly. Usually people who come to the hearings are still supportive of the individual, but Maria knew she didn’t want anything to do with him. Still, she felt a sense of remorse. She cared so much for him. She would bring the kids to the courtroom. Even though Juan almost killed her, Maria was still emotionally involved.

VIMEO - Rosa Murillo, victim advocate for the �鶹ӰԺ County district attorney

‘The vast majority don’t call police’

Exploitation of undocumented immigrants is a pervasive issue. They often are the victims of crime, theft and fraud, in addition to sexual crime.

“One of the scary things about American history is we’ve always had an underclass,” said Stan Garnett, �鶹ӰԺ County’s district attorney. “When you have an underclass, it’s dangerous for lots of reasons, and one of the reasons it concerns law enforcement is because the bad guys think they can take advantage of the underclass and nobody will do anything.”

Crimes against undocumented immigrants are vastly underreported, and shame surrounding domestic violence and sexual assault compounds this silence.

“The vast majority of people don’t call police,” said Agueda Morgan, director of programs at the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Local police departments have no jurisdiction regarding federal immigration policy, and cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials has not always been positive. Federal immigration agents are unlikely to travel to detain and deport someone, especially for misdemeanors and lesser crimes. Despite this, any sort of involvement with law enforcement and police is still avoided at nearly all costs. “They think ‘I’m putting myself into the mouth of the wolf, so why would I do that?’” Morgan said.

The fear and distrust of law enforcement runs deep in the immigrant community.

“There’s a lot of what-ifs and faith or lack thereof in the system, because they’ve heard it, they’ve seen it,” said Carmen Mireles, operations director of El Comite. In cases of domestic violence, especially instances where victims may defend themselves against their abuser and cause bodily harm such as a scratch or bruise, the victim may actually be the one arrested by a responding officer. These victim advocates are then sometimes arrested and even deported.

Immigrant women who experience domestic violence are also at risk for being sexually harassed by their employers or coworkers. A 2009 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that 77 percent of Latina women surveyed felt that sexual harassment was a major issue in the workplace.

‘She would come in and literally shake’

In 2012, Garnett prosecuted a case against an employer who repeatedly raped and assaulted an undocumented employee, threatening to call immigration regarding her status. The woman, who was from El Salvador, eventually sought help from Garnett’s office through local services.

“She’s such an amazing person, but her level of fear was so intense. She would come in and literally shake,” victim advocate Murillo recalled.

That fear began on the job, where she worked for a Longmont-based janitorial service and the man who owned it.

While Cecilia cleaned the bathrooms in restaurants in downtown �鶹ӰԺ, the owner would come behind her and force himself into her. This happened many times.

One time, Cecilia tried to tell the owner she was on her period, but it didn’t matter to him, he still went ahead and raped her.

She first told her boyfriend that her employer was being inappropriate, touching her and making her do sexual things. He didn’t believe her.

So one day Cecilia took her cellphone and recorded him asking her for sexual favors. She showed the boyfriend. A few weeks later, she was at a Latin store in her neighborhood. She lost it at the store. She broke down, sobbing and crying.

An employee from the store asked Cecilia what was wrong, and she told him “My employer has been assaulting me.”

He helped get her in contact with Mental Health Partners (a �鶹ӰԺ nonprofit providing crisis services) and that’s how she finally reported it. Prior to that day, she was so afraid of what might happen to her that she had no intention of reporting.

The owner of the cleaning service who assaulted Cecilia was convicted of second degree assault and sentenced to 2 years of work release. He was also sentenced to ten years of sex offender intensive probation.

Cecilia had separated from an abusive husband when she left El Salvador. When she left she had no choice but to leave her three kids.

During the proceedings, one of her daughters was sexually assaulted by a gang in El Salvador. She heard about that and she wanted to leave. ‘I have to leave, I can’t stay,’ she said.

The counselors were able to talk to her and convince her to stay, and see if she could apply for a visa for her kids. She got a U-visa with the help of immigration legal services. It included her kids because they were at risk in El Salvador.

In Hispanic communities, cultural aspects add a layer of difficulty in the reporting process. Shame and silence surrounding sexual assault and domestic violence prevent reporting. “Culturally it’s not something that we talk about. It’s not acceptable. You don’t talk about it, you don’t talk about what goes on at home,” Mireles said.

One of the most significant values in Latino culture is the emphasis and importance of family structure. An individual’s decision to report domestic violence may create backlash from family members, and the fault may be on the victim for disrupting the family, not the abuser.

“The culture, their religion, they’re told that this is the way the life is, that they are to put up with this stuff,” Mireya Rios, a victim advocate for the �鶹ӰԺ County district attorney’s office said. “Their role is to be by that person, that’s how they’ve seen their parents grow up and that’s how they should grow up.”

‘Who else is being abused?’

Family structure can also create problems if abuse is occurring inside the home.

“Once you start peeling away layers: Who else is being abused? Or who else knows and isn’t saying anything, isn’t supporting the victim?” said Kat Bradley-Bennett, programs director at El Comite.

This family was very close, a very tight knit family. The uncle of the family was someone who everybody looked up to. They respected him. He was a religious man, very involved with his church. He was the person they could trust to go to with any problems. He immigrated into the U.S. with his family, and he was the only one who was documented. He was their main support, the person who was going to help them get a job and try to move on.

He and his family were very welcoming to other members of their family, some of them undocumented. He took advantage of the situation.

The rest of his family came to the U.S. and went to live with him. He took advantage of the female relatives who came into the home. Three older women in their 30s eventually came forward and said he molested them. One of the nieces was 11 years old at the time.

During Christmas one year, he molested his 11-year-old niece. She didn’t tell any adults. She told the other little kids that her uncle had been touching her. Two years later, she disclosed to one of her teachers at school that she had been molested. One of the older girls, whom he also molested, had not told anyone. He was prosecuted on multiple counts and the case went to trial.

The young girl who had been molested told her cousin, because she knew she would believe her, but she didn’t think anyone else would believe what she had been through.

His youngest niece testified against him during the trial. Her mother had also been a victim and testified as well. A lot of family members were in court when she testified, and none of them knew what had been happening for years, even though multiple women in the family had been forced to endure his behavior.

No one wanted to talk about it. Everyone heard rumors, but because he was such an amazing person and always willing to help his family, they didn’t believe the rumors. He’s now serving 16 years in prison.

The girls and women felt like their uncle controlled their lives, that he was more powerful than they were.

“Usually immigrant victims see people that are documented as someone with more authority. They have so much more than you do, they have all this power, they can call immigration on you,” Murillo said.

Many women may choose to survive abuse because knowledge about options for reporting and resources are minimal, and the report may negatively impact members of their family and their children. Even after reporting, however, a lot of survivors of domestic abuse recant.

“No one’s ever ready to leave until they’re ready to leave,” Mireles said. Survivors are often unaware of local resources available to them, such as counseling services, job and housing placement, and language services designed to help them.

Reporting domestic and sexual violence is extremely difficult for any individual, but lack of bilingual and bicultural resources make reporting even harder. According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, this can cause secondary victimization for a child or family member translating for a victim. Spanish may also be a second language for some immigrants coming from certain parts of Mexico and Latin America where the indigenous language is their mother tongue.

Defining and understanding abuse, consent and aspects of a healthy partnership are also complex aspects of domestic violence. “In the Latino community, a woman has to sexually gratify her husband whether she wants to or not. She doesn’t have a right to say no,” Morgan said.

Women also may not know about laws designed to protect them, such as those provided by the Violence Against Women Act. U-visas are available for individuals who are the victim of a qualifying crime, such as domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, stalking and trafficking. Other qualifying criminal activities are included for eligibility, but the U-visa is designed to encourage individuals to report instances of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Only 10,000 U-visas are provided at a national level annually. According to immigration attorney Karina Arreola, the application year begins in October, and in the past few years the cap has been met by December. The application must be signed and approved, usually by a chief of police or another designated official, yet political backlash can impede this approval. Departments are under no obligation to sign.

If these officials are part of a non-immigrant friendly community or up for re-election, this can affect policies that make it difficult for visa approval. In addition to this, the entire process can take up to seven years for approval. At present, approximately 64,000 applications for U-visas are backlogged awaiting review.

In Colorado, the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services run programs focused on sexual assault and domestic violence, collecting data and publishing it annually.

Service providers such as the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA) are required to provide data to these agencies in order to fulfill grant requirements, but aggregate totals for the state are not being tracked and published. The Department of Justice in other states, like California, maintain databases and collect incident-based data to gain a better understanding of the scope and prevalence of this type of violence.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that between 45,000 – 50,000 individuals, primarily women and children, are trafficked into the U.S. as sex slaves annually. A separate T-visa exists for survivors of trafficking and although there are 5,000 available per year, as of January 2009 only 2,000 have been issued.

“The subject is enormous. Think of it like an onion, it’s immigration law and policy but the victimization is just one layer,” Morgan explained. “The heart of it is power and control, having that power to control someone else and oppress and manipulate.”

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Presidential primary candidates on US‑Mexico immigration reform

Anonymous — Mon, 09 May 2016 23:00:15 +0000

Presidential primary candidates on US‑Mexico immigration reform Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/09/2016 - 17:00

U.S. Presidential Candidates on Immigration (May, 2016)
✓ indicates support ✗ indicates opposition ~ indicates ambiguity	Hillary Clinton	Bernie Sanders	Donald J. Trump
“The Wall”	✗	✗	✓
Increasing Deportations	✗	✗	✓
Amnesty	✓	✓	✗
Citizenship	✓	✓	~
Health Care	✓	✓	~
Expanding Legal Immigration	✓	✓	✗

From left to right, photos courtesy of Kamil Kryzaczynski, EPA; Alex Wong, Getty Images; and Gage Skidmore. Table by Max Levy.

With the end of primary season in sight, voters in undecided states should be thinking about where each of the candidates stands on issues like immigration.

It may not be the same stance they had several months ago.

Since the Iowa caucuses in February, the field has narrowed considerably, especially in the Republican Party, where a nominee was selected just this week. Meanwhile, those leading the polls have had time to develop their policy platforms in response to public scrutiny.

From the wall-rhetoric of Trump to the pro-DREAM Act promises of Clinton and Sanders, finding a "solution" to America's immigration problems has become the hot-button issue in the 2016 race for the White House.

Here's where the remaining candidates stand on immigration:

Hillary Clinton

Clinton has been widely favored to emerge as the Democratic nominee since she first announced her campaign in April of last year. As of now, she holds a lead of 290 pledged delegates and 484 superdelegates.

Many pundits attribute her success to the Clinton name and it's salience among minority voters, but she's also seen as more politically savvy than her opponent, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. Conservative Democrats are more likely to support her as well, which may explain her sweep of Southern states in March.

Despite the Obama administration's checkered history of immigration enforcement, Hillary Clinton has been an outspoken supporter of both DACA and DAPA, which would allow the government to grant de facto legal status to certain classes of undocumented immigrants, as well as the DREAM Act, which would offer a path to legal residency and has yet to pass the Senate.

As the Clinton campaign has developed, her views on immigration have curved left to approach those of Sanders and Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, who suspended his presidential bid in February.

A notable example of this came last month, when she reversed her stance on deporting child migrants. Previously, Clinton had indicated that she would use deportation as a way to dissuade Central and South American children from attempting the dangerous journey north.

In response to questions from moderator Jorge Ramos at the May 9 Democratic debate, Clinton claimed that she would not deport undocumented children. She added that she would only deport those immigrants with criminal backgrounds.

Clinton is unapologetic about voting "Yea" on the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which called for 700 miles of fencing to be constructed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The barrier was never completed, much to the chagrin of Senate Republicans.

Clinton, however, claims that the border has been sufficiently secured, and that it is time to shift national focus towards comprehensive immigration reform.

Extending services such as health care to undocumented immigrants, especially children, is another one of Clinton's stated presidential objectives.

During a CNN interview in late March, Clinton said that undocumented immigrants should be able to access plans under the Affordable Care Act, though she stopped short of proposing eligibility for taxpayer-funded subsidies.

At the first Democratic debate in October, she stated that she wanted to make sure all children had access to health care, including those without documentation.

The North American Free Trade Agreement, affected in 1994, is often blamed for the decline of Mexican agriculture and the rise of undocumented immigration from Mexico to the United States. While Clinton voiced support for NAFTA during her husband's presidency, she has since criticized the agreement and its Central American analogue, CAFTA.

The positions of Clinton and Sanders on immigration in general and the consequences of undocumented immigration in particular are very similar. But, while Sanders has been relatively consistent with his policy platform during his tenure as a politician, Clinton has become more liberal over time.

What impact this would have on a Clinton presidency is open to interpretation.

Potent Quotables

"We could add hundreds of billions of dollars to our GDP by passing comprehensive immigration reform."
Speech at National Immigration Integration Conference — Dec. 14, 2015

Bernie Sanders

Sanders has been polling neck and neck with Clinton for most of the 2016 primary season, at times even edging out his rival, though his viability as a candidate took a wallop on Apr. 19 with a wide loss in his birth state of New York.

The senator began his campaign on Apr. 30 of last year and has since seen unprecedented success among working-class whites and youth voters. However, his lack of support among blacks and the elderly have dogged his numbers throughout the race, much to Sanders' bafflement.

According to a recent Gallup poll, the Hispanic vote could swing either way.

Sanders has stated that he does not think a border fence is necessary for border security, voting against the Secure Fence Act of 2006. Instead, he advocates for the allocation of funds towards border surveillance and amnesty programs. He also co-sponsored the DREAM Act when it was reintroduced in the Senate in 2011.

When asked during the Mar. 9 debate, Sanders said that he would not deport undocumented immigrants unless they had criminal records.

Along with his opponent, Sanders would support "sanctuary city" laws, which prevent municipal workers and police from asking after immigration status in places like Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Sanders stated that, in the likely event of immigration reform stalling in Congress, he would use executive actions to advance his objectives, much like Obama did with DACA and DAPA, which Sanders vows to expand.

Clarifying a path to citizenship could be one of the issues Sanders chooses to enforce using his executive powers as president. He has pushed for citizenship since the start of his campaign, laying the groundwork for his reputation as the most liberal of the Democratic candidates.

After releasing his health care proposal in January, Sanders' senior policy adviser Warren Gunnels confirmed that undocumented immigrants would be given access to plans in the ACA marketplace.

One issue where the policies of Clinton and Sanders diverge is work visas. Sanders has voted down immigration reform proposals in the past for their failure to include protections for guest-workers. Notably, in 2007, Sanders voted to block the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, which would have codified a path to citizenship while expanding certain visa programs.

Clinton criticized Sanders' rejection of the bill at a Feb. 11 debate, prior to Super Tuesday.

"Yeah, I did vote against it," he answered. "I voted against it because the Southern Poverty Law Center said that the guest-worker programs that were embedded in this agreement were akin to slavery."

The programs in question included the H-2 and proposed Y visas. Sanders has faced criticism for siding with labor unions to restrict immigration in the past, arguing that guest worker programs depress wages for Americans.

In a 2007 interview with CNN's Lou Dobbs, he insisted that an influx of guest workers would "drive wages down even lower than they are now."

Sanders proposes increasing the wages for H-1B visa holders in his immigration platform.

One program put forth by Sanders is the so-called "whistleblower visa," which would be granted to guest-workers who report employer abuse.

In a primary race where the Democratic candidates have such similar stances on immigration, work visas could be a deciding issue for concerned voters.

Potent Quotables

"Senator Sanders rejects the argument that the border must be further militarized before the implementation of a roadmap to citizenship."
"A Fair and Humane Immigration Policy" — Accessed May 6, 2016
"What right-wing people in this country would love is an open-border policy. Bring in all kinds of people, work for $2 or $3 an hour, that would be great for them."
Interview w/ Vox's Ezra Klein — Jul. 16, 2015

Donald J. Trump

The extensive coverage given to Trump's campaign by major media outlets may explain why immigration has become such an issue in the 2016 presidential race, especially among Republican voters.

76 percent of Republicans say that a candidate's stance on immigration is very or extremely important to them, compared to 62 percent of Democrats, according to a February Gallup poll.

Trump's characterization of undocumented immigrants as drug runners, rapists and undesirables foisted upon the American people by the Mexican government began when he first announced his bid for president in June 2015.

His in-your-face campaign style and image as a Washington outsider have garnered him support among blue-collar voters, and helped propel him to the nomination in early May.

Trump has voiced support for completing and reinforcing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border since the publication of his 2011 book, "Time to Get Tough," in which he advocates for a triple-layered border fence, surveilled by Predator drones and 25,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

In his campaign announcement speech, Trump reiterated this point and added that he would force Mexico pay for the wall.

Trump was initially hesitant to discuss how he would force Mexico to pay for the wall, but has since said that he would stop undocumented immigrants from sending their wages south. Remittances, as these payments are called, make up about 1.9 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product, according to a 2014 estimate by World Bank.

The payments are a vital source of income for many Mexican families living in poor agrarian communities.

Trump has said that he is committed to increasing deportations and ending birthright citizenship. However, he has been unclear on whether he would target all U.S. residents lacking proper documentation, or exclusively those who entered the country without permission.

In a February debate, Trump said that he would deport the "11 million people that came in illegally."

The likely source of this figure, a 2012 estimate by the Department of Homeland Security, accounts for all unauthorized U.S. residents, including U.S.-born children whose parents failed to register them as citizens and guest-workers who have overstayed the terms of their visas.

Trump has said that he would deport all "criminal aliens," as well as individuals apprehended at unauthorized border crossings.

He has also said that he would allow certain deportees to return to the U.S. after a lengthy processing period.

In his earlier book, "The America We Deserve," Trump has this to say on the legal immigration process: "Legal immigrants do not and should not enter easily. It’s a long, costly, draining, and often frustrating experience by design. I say to legal immigrants: welcome, and good luck."

Although Trump has not spoken specifically about the prospect of supplying health care to undocumented immigrants, his stance on deportations and adamant opposition to the ACA make any extension of public health programs to immigrants under his presidency unlikely.

Trump has argued for restrictions on visa programs like H-1B. On his campaign's website, he argues that base wages for H-1B visa holders need to be increased to protect Americans working in STEM fields.

He also says that he will implement an electronic visa monitoring system and impose criminal penalties on those who overstay their visas.

This and his planned requirement for companies to hire unemployed Americans before looking outside of the country for work contrast with his own utilization of H1-B labor, which he admitted to at a debate in March.

"It's something that I frankly use and I shouldn't be allowed to use it," he said. "We shouldn't have it. Very, very bad for workers."

"Second of all, I think it's very important to say, 'Well, I'm a businessman and I have to do what I have to do,'" he added.

Potent Quotables

"I declare: I'm not gonna pay for that f‐‐‐‐‐‐ wall."
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Interview w/ Jorge Ramos — Feb. 25, 2016
"The wall just got 10 feet taller."
10th Republican Presidential Debate, Trump in re Fox — Feb. 25, 2016

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Decoding the struggle

Anonymous — Wed, 04 May 2016 20:22:20 +0000

Decoding the struggle Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/04/2016 - 14:22 Lauren Price

Refugees from Myanmar have one of the lowest rates of assimilation among Colorado immigrants

Author’s note: Myanmar is now the official name of the Southeast Asian nation previously known as Burma until the year 1989. Both names are used in the story below.

She spent five lonely months at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia, so when Htee Ku was finally released, she was excited to head home and be with her family in Denver.

Well, sort of.

Home wasn’t exactly the most nurturing place to live for Ku.

Bald and weak from chemo, Ku lived with her father — an alcoholic — and her mother, who, after suffering two strokes in recent years, can barely speak.

Ku, now 22, was 14 when her family obtained refugee status and was placed in Colorado. She was born in a refugee camp, fled to Thailand after the Burmese army killed her grandparents, was randomly placed in the U.S., was diagnosed with cancer, and beat it. After all of this, Ku thought maybe her toughest days were in the past. However, upon her return from the hospital, she realized her battle was not yet over.

For information on the history of violence and unrest in Burma that led to the many bouts of refugees fleeing the state, click here.

Ku is not the only refugee from Myanmar in Colorado struggling with English. Refugees from Myanmar have one of the lowest assimilation rates in the state, despite their immigration to Colorado beginning as early as 1997, according to a report done by the Colorado Department of Human Services. Starting in 2007, more than 300 refugees have come to Colorado from Myanmar every year. Last year, that number more than doubled with 610 refugees coming to the state from Myanmar.

So it was when Ku went to take her follow-up medication her first night home from the hospital that this looming challenge dawned on her. She had no idea when to take which pills; the instructions were in English.

Luckily for Ku, Frank Anello, the founder of Project Worthmore, stepped in to help. Project Worthmore is a non-profit that works specifically to help Burmese refugees integrate into the local community.

Anello went to check on Ku shortly after her release from the hospital. He quickly realized that she was never going to be able to recover or grow in the environment she was living. He invited her to live with him and his wife, Carolyn, for two years. Ku jumped at the opportunity because she saw a chance for a better future.

During her time with the Anello family, Ku began to understand why learning English was so complicated. For example, there are many different ways to say the same word. One evening Anello asked Ku to pass him the lid to a pot while they were cooking in the kitchen and she was completely bewildered. She only knew this covering device as a top.

“Sometimes when I was talking to them I didn’t know how to explain this,” Ku said. “So I would just wave my hands around and use many different noise…and they would understand me.”

Jamie Torres, the director of Immigrant and Refugee affairs for the city of Denver, says refugees from Myanmar struggle with assimilating in the United States because they already lack literacy in their native language, so getting caught up in English is an even larger hurdle.

Torres also noted that refugees coming from other countries, like Afghanistan for example, may have a great background in architecture or a certain skill set that will help them find work. But refugees from Myanmar who have been isolated either in the country or in refugee camps for so long often come without a specific strength.

“In the Burmese population it has a lot to do with geographical and cultural history,” Torres said. “They’ve largely been outside of a mainstream system so it’s harder to adapt with that as well.”

Another reason the language learning difficulty varies among refugees in the U.S. is because there are varying differences in rules at refugee camps all over the world. For example, in refugee camps in Nepal, you can leave the camp for school and work, but in places like Thailand, you can’t.

Speech-language pathologist Jennifer Wood began working directly with Burmese refugees in the Denver community at their homes and realized early on what a huge issue learning the English was. She also noted that the difficulties varied among genders and ages.

“A lot of the fathers were able to go and learn English but the mothers did not have the opportunity to leave the home because they had so many children there,” Wood said. “You would see this big gap in who could access English classes and who was actually able to integrate more because of that.”

Wood explained that the men learn the language and then use it to go interact in the community and get a job so that they can provide for their families. The problem with this is that if the women were able to access education, they could pass it on to their children during their time at home with them.

Frank Anello believes that an underlying issue in the education of refugees is the public school system. Despite the fact that Ku graduated from high school, when taking a test to qualify to begin working as a dental assistant, she failed by scoring with only a third-grade reading level.

“In the Burma community, there’s a huge problem with kids graduating from high school and getting a diploma, but not being anywhere near ready for college,” Anello said. “You can imagine that it’s discouraging as a student to be graduated, but to know that you aren’t ready.”

When Ku first entered South High School in Denver, she was walked to class on the first day and then left to figure things out on her own.

“When the teacher took me to the class, I just stared at the teacher the whole day ’cause I didn’t know what to do,” Ku said.

Luckily, Ku was able to identify a Karenni friend at school, despite Ku’s being a Karen. Karen and Karenni are two different ethnic branches found in the different states of Myanmar. Despite their similar sounding names, the groups are actually nothing alike and speak different languages. The girls were able to bond over their distance from home and made it work, learning new words from each other on their walk home from school.

A major cultural difference that startled Ku at first was the fact that “white girls” always smiled when they talked to you. In Myanmar, it is a sign of disrespect to make direct eye contact with someone while holding conversation.

“They have eye contact when they talk to you and they smile,” she said. “We don’t really do that in my culture, we just shake hands.”

Despite these friendly smiles, a few years into high school, Ku began to get lonely. While she could associate with the other girls, she still didn’t know enough words for them to have productive conversations about their days.

Ku misses her home, but she especially misses the culture of her people. She tries to keep in touch with it when she can, for example, by wearing the traditional dress when attending a Karen church service or by practicing her language.

“I came here to learn new skills, but I don’t want to forget my culture,” Ku said. “To me my language and culture is everything.”

One of the biggest things Ku misses about home is the sense of community among neighbors. Unimportant is the fact that these neighbors were so physically close because they were in a refugee camp together. According to Wood, this dedication to community is reflected in the actions of many refugees, especially in the speech clinic. While they may not all be textbook educated, they have learned a vast amount from their experiences. One example she noted was being able to recognize that their child has autism.

Htee Ku, now 22, smiling after a quick bike ride over to the main office of Project Worthmore located in Aurora, Colo.

“Because these families are so communal, a lot of times the parents come in and know that something is not right with their child, even if it’s their first born because they see them relative to all of the other kids they’re running around with in the refugee camps,” Wood said. “The knowledge base these families bring in with them from living in communities has been mind-blowing to me.”

When Ku was informed she had leukemia, she immediately assumed she was going to die and that this would be the end of her life.

“When I lived in the (refugee) camp and you heard people had cancer, you heard everyone dies, they do not survive,” she said.

But for Ku, her story wasn’t ending there. Despite not yet being a U.S. citizen, she is on track to becoming a dental assistant and hopes that one day she can become a nurse so that she can help others the way they helped her when she was in the hospital. While she does eventually want to return to visit her home in Myanmar, it is the opportunity she is presented with here in the United States that keeps her on track and moving forward.

When Ku realized that cancer wasn’t going to be the end of the road for her, she referenced her personal life motto, one that she first applied when she landed in Colorado eight years ago.

“Just go with it,” she said, beaming.

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Clearing the air

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:22:20 +0000

Clearing the air Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/29/2016 - 14:22 CU News Corps

How Chronic Illnesses Impact Hispanic Immigrants

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Hispanic immigrants face many obstacles when they come to the U.S., including employment and assimilating to American culture. But most immigrants must also fight to maintain their health in their new environment.

In the following graphics, CU News Corps looked at the challenges that immigrants and health care providers face with regards to asthma, a condition that Hispanics are particularly susceptible to.

The "Healthy Immigrant Effect"

In order, the most common countries of origin for Hispanic immigrants are Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Hispanic immigrants come to the U.S. with relatively low rates of chronic diseases like asthma, but these rates tend to increase after multiple generations.

Access to Health Care

Part-time employees and employees of sufficiently small businesses are not legally guaranteed health insurance. The Affordable Care Act also does not allow undocumented immigrants to access public health insurance plans. As a result, many Hispanic immigrants suffering from asthma rely on emergency room treatment by clinicians untrained in dealing with these high-risk groups. Language and cultural barriers often prevent immigrants from receiving the education necessary to manage their asthma.

Substandards of Living

The jobs that most Hispanics can get after reaching the U.S. tend to be in areas where pollution is higher, exacerbating the symptoms of their asthma. Though employment among Hispanics is comparable to other groups, they make up 88 percent of the agricultural workforce, where exposure to pesticides, toxic gases and mold is common. Occupational lung disease is the number one killer for Hispanic farm workers. Additionally, two-thirds of Hispanics live in areas that do not meet government air quality standards. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one in four Hispanic children living in these conditions will be diagnosed with asthma, and will be three times as likely as their white peers to die from it.

Credit: Justice “Nick” Burnaugh (Narration, Audio Production/Editing); Amanda Cary (Audio Production/Editing, Writing); Max Levy (Audio Production, Writing, Web Development); and Erin Sullivan (Writing, Web Development).

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