Cate Doyle Massey

That's a horrific overstatement that applies to only a very small portion of autistic individuals. Many autistic individuals are more the Sheldon Cooper flavor of 'tism.

Tell me you don't understand anything about the Chinese without telling me you don't understand anything about the Chinese. 🙄

Background: I'm American from Irish descent, native English speaker who learned Spanish in my teens, then lived and worked in places where I spoke more Spanish than English so I'm fluent but a bit rusty with vocab/grammar these days.

I also speak a little Chinese, which is more surprising 😂

Checking out from a massive grocery trip, one clerk commented to another, "Parece chiquitita pero es gordita." ("She seems tiny but is a fatty.")

I continued unloading my $400 of groceries, then when checking out, I said, "Es sólo que tengo cuatro hijos." (I've got 4 kids)
Them: 😳😳
Me: 😁🤷‍♀️
🧵2/2

When people are speaking another language, they aren't usually speaking about the other people nearby. It's usually just more comfortable to speak in their native language.

But sometimes they are 🤷‍♀️ And sometimes you understand them 🧵1/2

As a divorced woman who kept my ex's last name (because it's also my kids' name) - the SAVE Act is potentially terrible.

A Handmaid's Tale is starting to seem more like an eerily accurate premonition than a dystopian fiction.

www.lwv.org/take-action/...

What private sector entities do we have stepping up to document the important work previously trusted to the federal government? Please say someone has the original content saved.

YouTube video by Jaie Noelle Paint & Prose - Parable of the Sower

I do a YouTube channel where I talk about literature while I paint. Earlier this year I talked about Butler's Parable series, next week I'll be talking about N.K. Jemisin. If you want to support black writers this #blackhistorymonth you should check it out!

youtu.be/K2OGoaBKu0g?...

Everything they ban the federal government from recognizing, the private security and citizens must celebrate and recognize LOUDLY! You don't want Black History Month? Let's ALL shout it from the rooftops! For Pride, let's all wear rainbow from dawn on June 1st until July 1st (then funeral black).

So before you go casting stones, consider that most of the people in the US without legal visas are not evil predators (likely far fewer than homegrown ones). Most are desperate and willing to do anything for safety and a hope for a better future for their children. Most try to do it legally 🧵17/end

Despite many paying income tax, undocumented immigrants aren't going to file for a tax refund so they pay far MORE as a percentage of income than most Americans in taxes (and get far less, as they cannot get unemployment, Medicare or Social Security). For most, their only crime is immigration 🧵17/

For those who stay in the US without a valid visa, many find work through employers who either don't care or don't check immigration paperwork thoroughly (that I-9 we all have to fill out at a new job? That one.) Many pay taxes through their paycheck, and all pay sales tax on purchases 🧵16/

It isn't cheap to leave, so many of these people don't have the means to buy a flight to try for legal status somewhere else. They wait to be deported or hope to fly under the radar to stay. These are not evil people, just desperate and usually poor. 🧵15/

So a tourist or a refugee applicant whose petition is denied are both visas where individuals could enter the US entirely legally, yet stay past their legal status allows and therefore become undocumented 🧵14/

Refugee status is one way individuals can LEGALLY show up at the border (or immigration checkpoint at the airport) and request to be considered for LEGAL status. If it is denied, then you are required to leave or will be eligible for deportation 🧵13/

How many US citizens have gone on vacation to Mexico or Europe and just bought their tickets and gotten on the plane, assuming they'd be let in at the border? 🤔 That Immigration check point is the visa, upon arrival! The US does that for many countries. So they're here legally as tourists 🧵12/

What sucks is that her parents had received permanent residency in the US when she was 22 years old, so her younger brothers qualified under her parents but she couldn't. So while her family all lived in the US and she had been here for 5+ years and had a job, she had to go back to Venezuela 🧵11/

So even though she had done everything the way she was supposed to, the US immigration system screwed her with no recourse. I had good friends in high places in the US State Dept and they confirmed there was nothing she could do, even though it was unfair. They can reject for any reason. 🧵/10

She thought she could take a quick trip to Dominican Republic to activate her H1B visa, but the US immigration official told her he thought she was "too pretty to actually have that job" and rejected her visa. She was stuck in the DR, trying to request reconsideration, but ultimately failed🧵/9

There's no guarantee for either the employer or employee with an H1B visa.

A close friend from Venezuela went to college on an F-1 visa and then got a job after college through a friend of the family. She did not want to go back to Caracas due to safety concerns to activate her H1B visa. 🧵/8

Many individuals come into the US legally on an F-1 student visa. When they graduate, they need to find a job willing to sponsor an H1B visa to stay. This costs the employer time and money that it wouldn't pay for a US citizen, so many won't. There's also a limited number each year🧵/7

It takes 6-9 months to get, and once it's granted, you have 90 days to move to the US and get married. But then you can't work in the US for 6 months. You'll have to prove the authenticity of your relationship to immigration officials. It's expensive and time consuming, and there's no guarantee 🧵/6

Emigrating legally can take years and complicated steps.

For example, one of the "easiest" ways is a K-1 visa, called a fiance visa. It costs over $1k, requires a financial sponsor (meaning guarantee that they have means and will pay your cost of living until you can find a job). 🧵5/

Thinking of the US immigration system as one which should deport anyone here illegally is sort of like telling everyone to cross the street on a tight rope that spins spontaneously in both directions without warning - putting even one foot on the ground is considered illegal jaywalking 🤷‍♀️ 🧵 4/

It seems many people think that the US immigration system is binary: legal vs illegal. It's so much more complicated than that, with legal ways to arrive in the US without a visa to obtain legal status, and many ways for those who enter the US with a legal visa to become undocumented. 🧵3/

Background: I am a US citizen, born in the US, child of an Irish immigrant who became a US citizen before I was born. I went to college at GWU with many international friends, studied abroad in China and Spain, and worked 4+ yrs as a K-12 int'l student coordinator and registered US DHS/ICE DSO 🧵2/

Let's talk about immigration in the US, because most people seem to really be confused about the whole mess 🧵1/

At what point is a dog too old to learn new tricks? Asking for a friend 🤔