Valuing workers more, 'screaming about immigration reform' are ways to address senior living labor challenges McKnight's Senior Living
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Valuing workers more, 'screaming about immigration reform' are ways to address senior living labor challenges - McKnight's Senior Living
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Veronica Escobar Is a Voice for Border CommunitiesMJ Calixtro
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Since taking office five years ago, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar has gotten used to hearing migrants on the Texas-Mexico border being referred to in racist and xenophobic terms around Capitol Hill. To counter these mischaracterizations, Escobar has invited members of Congress to visit her hometown of El Paso, Texas. Shes brought 20 percent of the House (about 87 representatives) to her district for tours of federal immigration facilities, shelters, local government entities, and a public hospital that cares for migrants. I wanted to ensure that people understood the border, and understood how broken our immigration system is, she says.
In 2018, Escobara third-generation El Pasoan, whose family originally came from Chihuahua, Mexicobecame one of the first two Latinas from Texas elected to Congress. Her path to national office followed more than a decade serving on the governing body for El Paso County, first as a county commissioner and then as county judge. Her campaign centered on the positive: hope, promise, unity, and humane border reform. After winning a second term in 2022, Escobar teamed up with Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar to coauthor the groundbreaking Dignity Act of 2023, a bipartisan immigration reform bill that steers clear of harsh deterrence policies and instead emphasizes paths to citizenship, border security, and refocusing the spotlight on the migrants themselves. Weve got to get the undocumented out of the shadows, Escobar says. We have to demonstrate leadership in this difficult moment, and we have to do that while hanging onto our values. With the 2024 presidential election less than a year away, Escobar is working to turn out Latino voters, who are now the second-fastest-growing group of voting-age Americans.
The weight of the moment, and the responsibility of her representation on a national level, is not lost on her. It is so important to have womens voices at the leadership table, and even more important to have Latina voices, the congresswoman says. We are so underrepresented in positions of power and authority and leadership. I feel that responsibility to help other Latinas achieve their dreams and goals to serve in public office. I also feel a responsibility to ensure young women in my district know that this is absolutely an option for them, and it should be something that they pursue if its a goal of theirs. Im a big believer in, If you can see it, you can be it.
I feel a responsibility to ensure that more Latinas are able to run for and serve in Congress, and also in seats up and down the ballotwhether its school board, city council, or state representative. At the same time, I also feel a significant responsibility to spend time with young women in my district and ensure they know that this is absolutely an option for them, and it should be something that they pursue if its a goal of theirs. Im a big believer in, If you can see it, you can be it.
Its empowering and terrifying. Its empowering, because I feel like I have the ability to show young women that they can achieve their dreams, that they can one day walk the halls of Congress, that they can one day sit at the leadership table and serve their community in the United States Capitol. But it is intimidating and slightly terrifying, because I dont want to make a mistake. I dont want to disappoint people. I dont want to let anyone down, and I dont want young women to think its so hard that its out of bounds. So I try to be realistic when I speak, especially with young women, about the demands of the jobbut also about the satisfaction that comes with it, the joy that goes hand in hand with the hard work.
I hope at the end of all of [my time in Congress], that I can look back and be proud of the positive impact Ive made on the community. I also hope at the end of my career, I can look back and see a direct impact on immigration, womens rights, the climate crisis, and animal rights.
Compromise is critical to progress. When I first got into politics, I was so rigid in terms of what I saw as the solution, what I saw as the end goal. I was kind of a purist in that respect. Anything less than what I saw as the right thing was unacceptable. As Ive grown older, and as Ive spent more time in politics and seen how to create true progress, it all comes within the art of the compromise. Unfortunately, that doesnt happen often enough in this business, and it needs to happen more.
Im a workaholic. Something that I regret significantly is that I didnt say no to some things. I didnt do that early in my career when my kids were little, and I wish I had. As we try to be all things to everyone, especially women, many of the sacrifices we make are with our own family. I wish I had said no more often back then and treasured and savored some of those moments a whole lot more.
A lot of women in Congress, from the get-go, told me, You need to make time for yourself. The challenge for a lot of women is that we are a lot of things to a lot of people: As a mom, I try my best to be there for my kids and to help and support them. Same thing as a wife. Same thing with my mom, who is 84 years old. And then I have my constituents, my staff, my team, and my campaign folks. You are always running, running, running, working, working, working. Its easy to burn out. And you cant be an effective legislator or leader if youre exhausted.
I used to go hiking in El Paso, and I need to get back to it. Long walks for me are therapeutic, and breathing fresh air is really important to me. But also, Im a cat lover, so cat time is important to me. Theres nothing like snuggling with a kitty.
A version of this article appears in the April 2024 issue of ELLE.
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Rep. Veronica Escobar Approaches Immigration Reform With Hope, Promise, and Unity - AOL
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Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) is touting her support for an immigration reform proposal from the New Democrat Coalition, the second-largest D.C. Democratic Party caucus which she serves as chair. As a longtime advocate for sensible immigration reform, there are some good points in the proposal I agree with.
My question is: Why is this proposal just now coming to the fore after millions upon millions of illegal aliens have already arrived in America over the past three years?
On the day Joe Biden became president, he signed executive orders incentivizing illegal immigration. He paused deportations, suspended Remain in Mexico for asylum seekers, and stopped border wall construction. Since those policy changes, more than eight million people have illegally entered our country, with more slipping past U.S. Border Patrol undetected.
These illegal aliens came with financial incentives from the Democratic administration in D.C. and an understanding that they would be granted sanctuary in states like New York and Massachusetts, offering free housing, food, cash benefits, and travel. As a direct result of these deliberate choices by the president and his party, our open borders have induced a humanitarian and national security crisis.
Rep. Kuster assures concerned Granite Staters that America is a country of immigrants and laws. But at every turn, she has supported the Biden administration and her party in choosing not to enforce the current laws on our books under the Immigration and Naturalization Act.
Now, she offers new government solutions to the border crisis problems they created and tries to normalize the situation by helping the illegal aliens they invited in with financial incentives to get legal status quickly.
If Rep. Kuster really wants to address New Hampshires workforce issues, as she claims, there are 5 million people in the world who have filed applications for legal entry to the U.S. with sponsors and have been waiting in line for years to be processed. Why did the Democrats not offer any solutions to let them in first?
My own brother waited in line for 13 years, did all the paperwork, and paid for background checks and health screenings. After coming to America, he and his family were not allowed to receive any welfare because the sponsors (my husband and I) were responsible for them.
He and his wife got jobs within the first six months of arriving here, though they spoke little English. They lived with us for two years until they were able to move out to their own place. After eight years, they are still not citizens, but they are now studying for the civics test to pass it and become U.S. citizens.
Allowing illegal aliens to cut to the front of the line is a slap in the face to the people who follow our laws.
At every turn, Rep. Kuster has made it clear that she supports this state of affairs. She endorses Bidens open border policies, ignores the current laws on the books, permits the abuse of our political asylum system, and willfully oversees the draining of resources from our communities. And to top it off, she voted no on the Laken Riley Act to deport illegal aliens who commit crimes.
The Biden administration has made efforts to remove the term illegal aliens from official communications and documents. Erasing the difference between legal and illegal immigrants is very insulting to all the people who came here the right way, including the political asylum seekers.
If Rep. Kuster really respects the rule of law in our country, she and her New Democrat Coalition should pressure President Biden to enforce our current immigration laws on the books, secure the southern and northern borders now, and streamline the process for the legals who are waiting for their entry and eager to work here to live their American Dream. Otherwise, what she said and proposed is entirely lacking in sincerity and credibility a push to legalize millions of illegal aliens so Democrats can gain voters on the backs of American taxpayers.
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WILLIAMS: Secure Our Borders First Before Immigration Reform - NH Journal
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Encanto actress and published author Diane Guerrero visited Cal State Fullerton on Thursday to speak on diverse media representation and her immigration experience in the semesters second Beyond the Conversation event hosted by Associated Students and the Division of Student Affairs.
The 37-year-old actress spoke to students about her desire to see new and diverse stories told in film and television. Guerrero has been pursuing acting for more than 10 years and has spent time advocating for immigrant reform.
I'm ready to stop having to apologize for where we come from, Guerrero said. I think that we all have interesting lives, and different stories deserve to be heard and told.
During the conversation, she discussed working on her breakout role as Maritza Ramos on the TV show, Orange is the New Black. According to Guerrero, being able to portray a character that she had a personal connection to as a Colombian woman and the child of immigrant parents was a huge honor for her.
I was so honored that they had taken the work that I was doing and collectively what was going on in the country seriously and decided to honor me with telling that story, Guerrero said. I didnt take it lightly; it was a huge responsibility, and I did it with a lot of heart, and I did it with personal experience.
As the only person in her family with legal citizenship, Guerrero reflected on her experience with immigration in the United States after watching her parents and older brother get deported back to Colombia at the age of 14.
To give a deep retelling of her story, she also discussed her own two publications: The Country We Love, and My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope. These books are her autobiographies that tell the story of her and her family and their loyalty to the U.S. before being separated.
In 2015 Guerrero was appointed to be a presidential ambassador for citizenship and naturalization by President Obama but quickly learned that she and her familys loyalty to the immigration system was misplaced.
I do not believe in this system, and I should have never believed in it because any system that would take away your parents in the middle of the day while youre at school is no system I should believe in, ever, Guerrero said.
She now advocates for immigration reform with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.
Guerrero also spoke about entertainment industry politics regarding diversity and representation in projects, noting a discrepancy between Hollywoods intentions and its casting practices.
According to her, despite Hollywood wanting to be a more uplifting source for media representation, she still believes that they only cast people of color in roles that they deem comfortable for the screen.
Ive just always been afraid of being pigeonholed or put in a box, Guerrero said. They say they want you to be multifaceted, but really what they want is to put you somewhere where they feel comfortable.
Guerreros latest project saw her play the character of Crazy Jane in HBO Maxs Doom Patrol. She played the most powerful superhero in the show as a woman with dissociative identity disorder with 64 alternative personalities who each had their own power.
Guerrero said she appreciated playing the character because of how much the role allowed her to show what she could do as an actress of color who could portray complex emotions.
She believes these complex roles should be the standard for actors and actresses of color in the entertainment industry. According to her, stories that feature people of color should not be marketed solely based on their representation but rather because theyre stories that deserve to be told.
It shouldnt be like that, Guerrero said. Our stories should be consumed for everyone because everyone has the right to learn and go into different dimensions and experience everyone elses lives or at least hear about them.
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Hollywood actress Diane Guerrero advocates for immigration reform - The Daily Titan
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