Programs Detention & Asylum Speaker Biographies and Remarks
Member Bios
Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard represents the 34th District of California. She was elected to Congress in 1992 and serves as a key member of the House Appropriations Commitee. She is a staunch advocate for a wide range of social issues, including access to health care, affordable housing and education. She is also a champion for the rights of immigrants and humane immigration reform. Earlier this year, Representative Roybal-Allard, along with Representatives Berman and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, reintroduced The American Dream Act to provide a path to permanent residency for young people who have been raised in the US, worked hard in school and wish to pursue higher education of serve in the armed forces. In February, she introduced The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, a bill that would ensure that immigration detainees, especially unaccompanied children, are treated humanely and provided access to counsel and medical treatment. The bill would also provide greater access to alternatives to detention for families.
Representative Lynn Woolsey represents the 6th District of California. She knows firsthand how important it is to ensure a strong social safety net for families. Representative Woolsey sits on the Committee on Science and Technology and the Committee on Education and Labor. Through these committees and in her other work, Representative Woolsey has worked to promoted policies that protect the rights of women and ensure access to education. She is also a committed proponent of fair and humane immigration policy. Having seen the impact of raids in her district, Representative Woolsey has taken a leadership role in speaking out about the panic that raids create in communities and the impact they have on children. Representative Wolsey is a co-sponsor of the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act and the Dream Act. As a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, she is recognized as a leader on issues impacting children and families.
Representative Mike Honda represents the 15th District of California. He is a key member of the House Appropriations Committee, serving as vice-Chairman of the Legislative Branch subcommittee and is on the Commerce, Justice Science and Related Agencies subcommittee as well as the Labor, Health, and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies subcommittee. As Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, he coordinates with his colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucuses to champion the causes of under-represented communities by promoting social justice, racial tolerance, and civil rights. A staunch supporter of humane immigration policies, he introduced the Reuniting Families Act to promote family unity and is currently a co-sponsor of the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 1215).
Representative Raúl M. Grijalva represents the 7th District of Arizona. A dedicated proponent of education, he served as a member of the Tucson Unified School District board before being elected to Congress and is now a member of the Committee on Education and Labor. While serving on the committee, he has worked to improve funding to Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and to enhance outreach and services to Limited English Proficient children and their families. He is also chairman of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands subcommittee. As co-chair of the Congressional Progressive caucus, Representative Grijalva has been actively involved in the fight for immigration reform and has stood up to those who want to exploit fear, insecurities and hatred in order to distract from our society's need to resolve our national and international policy objectives. In line with this commitment, Representative Grijalva is a co-sponsor of the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 1215). Last September, he hosted a briefing about the civil and human rights abuses violated by Border Patrol along the border because he feels "it is very distressing to hear that many of these migrants have dealt with abuse from what is supposed to be a humane mission of our government."
Representative Mazie Hirono represents the 2nd District of Hawaii. A member of the Committee on Education and Labor, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, she champions education, renewable energy, and family immigration issues. Earlier this year, Representative Hirono introduced the Filipino Veterans Family Reunification Act, which exempts the sons and daughters of Filipino World War II veterans from immigration quotas. She also co-sponsored the Reuniting Families Act, introduced by Representative Honda, to end the lengthy separations of loved ones, promote family stability and foster the economic growth that immigrant families have provided throughout our history. Representative Hirono recognizes the importance of keeping families together and removing unnecessary barriers the delay families from being reunited.
Panelist Bios
Marlene Jaggernauth is a Mental Health Court case manager in St Lucie County, FL. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology in 2004, and started a Masters Degree when she was deported. Having seen abuses while in immigration detention more than a year, she also advocates for detained immigrants and their U.S. families. In 2003, seven years after a shoplifting charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffed her in front of her children. The Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) took her case to the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. While the decision was pending, ICE deported Ms. Jaggernauth. She spent three years in Trinidad, where she founded a non-profit group that helped other deportees. Ultimately, the federal appellate court ruled in her favor. FIAC brought her back to her family in Florida after four years of forced separation. Read her statement 
Kathleen Baldoni has been a registered nurse for 26 years. For the past one and a half years, she has worked as a travel nurse, which has taken her to Attica, New York and Raymondville, Texas. Her specialty is community mental health nursing, although she has worked in home health, hospice and corrections. She received a B.A. in English from John Carroll University followed by a diploma from Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Toledo, Ohio. Read her statement
Nina Rabin is Director of the Bacon Immigration Law and Policy Program at the James E. Rogers College of Law and Director of Border Research at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, both at the University of Arizona. Her work focuses on the impact of immigration and border policies on women’s rights. She directs projects that provide legal services and policy research to low-wage immigrant women workers and women in immigration detention facilities. Prior to her work in Arizona, Ms. Rabin clerked for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced in a civil rights law firm in California. She graduated from Yale Law School in 2003. Read her statement Accompanying powerpoint
Meghan Rhoad is the United States researcher for the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Rhoad was the principal researcher and author of the Human Rights Watch report, Detained and Dismissed: Women’s Struggles to Obtain Health Care in United States Immigration Detention, published in March 2009. Rhoad joined the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch in November 2007. She was formerly a Women's Law & Public Policy Fellow at the National Women's Law Center in Washington, DC, where she researched federal judicial nominations and analyzed policy developments affecting the economic security of low-income women and their families. Her previous work includes international advocacy projects using the human rights framework to address issues such as reproductive health and gender discrimination in inheritance law. Rhoad is a graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center. Read her statement
Emily Butera (facilitator), program officer for the Detention and Asylum Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission, advocates for the protection of women, children and families seeking asylum in the United States. She has more than nine years of experience serving immigrants and refugees, including direct service, legal representation and program management. Prior to joining the Women’s Refugee Commission, Emily worked for Catholic Legal Immigration Network, where she conducted research and program development around citizenship and immigrant integration initiatives. She has also served as policy advocate at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and as the organization’s senior consultant for organizational capacity building. She was the LIRS author of the 2007 Women's Refugee Commission landmark report on family detention, Locking Up Family Values, and co-authored Women’s Refugee Commission’s 2009 report on unaccompanied alien children, Halfway Home. Emily has a wide range of experience in working on human rights and justice issues. She has developed and managed youth, legal and welfare-to-work programs for resettled refugees at Asian Human Services in Chicago, and volunteered with the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project and as an English as a Second Language tutor. Emily holds an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. in Human Rights and Nationalism from Kenyon College.
