His wife’s arrest had been like a bomb landing in their precariously built lives. Jimenez had come to the United States in early 2001 from Bolivia. He met Uruchi online. She, too, was born in Bolivia but was raised in Madrid. She told him about her abusive stepfather in Spain. He told her to come to America. When they met at Dulles International Airport in October 2002, they had never even seen a photo of each other.
As a Spanish citizen, Uruchi entered the country under the United States’ visa waiver program, which allows visitors from 38 countries to stay for up to 90 days without a visa.
She and Jimenez got married, had kids and settled in Virginia. He worked as a trucker; she cleaned hotel rooms. When her back began to hurt, she took food safety courses and managed the hotel’s kitchen.
In 2013, Uruchi began to get involved in activism. Deportations had reached an all-time high of more than 409,000 the previous year. But Uruchi’s adolescence in Spain, where she saw women say and do what they wanted, had left the 4-foot-11 immigrant unafraid of speaking out. After meeting Casa employees at an event at the Salvadoran Embassy in D.C., she began attending the group’s events. Soon, she was organizing them. In 2014, she was hired full time as a Virginia community organizer.
What is her husbands status?
Why didn’t they apply to extend the visa?
She got way too bold.
That worked out well!
By whom?