2 Mothers Fighting Deportation: Fear Ex Will Murder Them—& Their Kids
We Can Help One of Them!
Two mothers are fighting deportation back to their home countries after fleeing their violent exes with their children. Both fear more violence, even murder, if they do not succeed in their battle to stop from being deported.
One mother is a Family Court Attorney who fled from Australia to the U.S., and the other is an Animal Scientist who fled from the U.S. to New Zealand.
If deported, they can be prosecuted for “abduction” as so many fleeing mothers are. Even if they are not incarcerated, the violent fathers will get custody and the mothers will likely be labeled a flight risk and put on supervised visitation.
One mother’s case we can just watch and hope it goes well. The other one we can actually do something to help stop her from being deported! [See below.]
Here are these brave mothers’ stories…
LEANNE’S STORY
Leanne* is a Family Court attorney. She lived and practiced in Sydney until fleeing the country last year.
Leanne’s husband physically, emotionally, and financially abused her. Just days after she gave birth to their youngest child, he choked her. Two weeks later, he choked her again.
Leanne procured a Restraining Order against him. She was able to remain in the family home while awaiting emergency housing. She sought domestic violence counselling.
After another violent incident, her husband was arrested and charged. He was, as usual, immediately released on bail. All in all, he was convicted on five different domestic violence charges, including assault, stalking and harassment.
He violated the Restraining Order by stalking and harassing her. Her husband was restricted to supervised visitation as a result of the convictions and violations of orders.
Leanne feared for her life because her husband still had access to her home. The police had not taken his keys away and she could not change the locks since the lease was in his name.
Leanne was one of the rare, lucky mothers. Full custody and supervised visits with the ex is the best possible outcome for a mother in Family Court other than no contact. However, it is rare for a judge to order no contact with a father, even if he is a murderer, a child molester, is in prison, or has murdered the mother. In contrast, a no contact order for a loving mother is not uncommon, used as a means to punish and silence her.
But Leanne was sure that the Restraining Order would not protect her and her daughters. So a little over a year ago, while still having full custody and her ex still being under the RO, she went to the U.S. where she has family and friends. She figured since her ex was a five-fold convicted perpetrator that would be permissible.
She figured wrong.
Her ex came to the U.S. a little over a month ago and filed a petition for custody in California State court under the Hague Convention. Interim orders have apparently allowed him supervised visitation with the girls while the case is pending.
The violent ex. The stalker ex. The harasser ex. The five times convicted perp who had a Restraining Order against him when Leanne fled for safety is allowed to petition for her forced return to Australia, where she will likely face a sentence of three years in prison for “abduction” of her own children.
Even if Leanne is not prosecuted, she will have to deal with incessant Family Court litigation again. Fortunately, she is a Family Court attorney so she will probably not go bankrupt like most mothers. But she will now be on the defensive, being labeled a flight risk. She is the one who will likely be on supervised visits.
This makes no sense at all to normal folk. But it makes perfect sense as seen through the reality lens—that patriarchy is alive and well in Family Court and all systems that deal with men’s power in the family and entitlement to control and abuse “their” women and children.
Leanne calls the whole system “dirty”.
The international system is dirty. I am not the first mum to try to fight this. We need to stand up and say enough is enough … It’s devastating for kids to go through these systems.
Will Leanne be sent back to Australia or will she be allowed to live in safety and peace in California?
We will update as we find out more…[Please contact womenscoalitionintl@gmail.com if you know more about this case.]
Now for the second mother who’s battling deportation, whom we can help: Christine.
CHRISTINE’S STORY
Christine was married in 2010. Her husband had major anger issues and was physically and emotionally abusive. He would have uncontrolled bursts of rage, lashing out at her verbally and attacking her physically. He excused his abuse by saying he was a war veteran with PTSD, so she empathically made allowances for his behavior. She later found out this was lie.
Within a couple years, her husband accused her of not being submissive enough and left her. Their church supported him and made her feel like a failure for not being a good wife. So she promised to do better [read: accept his abuse], and they reunited.
But by the next year, she had had enough and kicked him out.
Her husband had not wanted kids so she decided to use a sperm donor. Fayth was born in 2014, a healthy baby girl.
This time it was her husband who begged to come back. He blamed his abuse on his PTSD, his ex-wife, and his father and promised to do better. Unfortunately, as so many DV victims do, she allowed him to return.
In 2017, everything changed. Her husband’s psychologist contacted her as his professional ethics “duty to warn” required. He told her that her husband planned to murder her. Further, he informed her that he was not a veteran and did not have PTSD but another mental illness.
Christine was in shock and fearful he would murder her and her daughter.
She filed for divorce. Because of her ex’s violence and diagnosed mental illness, she was given sole custody. He was restricted to supervised visits.
But Christine still did not feel safe. Her ex had owned lots of guns and she was justifiably concerned a piece of paper would not protect them. Statistics and lived experiences support this fear. Men often become vindictive and murderess when women leave—as expounded on in this column.
And Christine had to participate in visitation exchanges, which clearly put them in danger. A mother was just murdered at an exchange last week—at a police station!
Being fearful for her daughter’s and her lives, Christine fled to New Zealand. Fayth was 5 years old.
Christine got a job as an animal lab scientist at the University of Auckland on a two year “work-to-resident” visa. They made a life for themselves and were living safely and happily for over two years.
Christine was on the verge of establishing New Zealand residency when her ex petitioned Immigration Services to deny her residency and deport her back to Michigan on the grounds she was in violation of a custody order. She is set to be deported in September.
This has caused Christine to lose her job. She is in now in bad financial shape while trying desperately to fight deportation back to Michigan. Her ex will have likely get custody and control of Fayth. Like Leanne, she may be restricted to supervised visitation being labeled a “flight risk”.
Christine’s case has gotten national MSM attention. Kiwis are definitely supporting her fight to stay in New Zealand.
The written report is here: Top US scientist pleads with Immigration NZ not to deport her and daughter over fears ex-husband will kill them
New Zealand’s Immigration Act provides for ministerial intervention when all else has failed a refugee.
That is how we can help Christine—by contacting the Minister for Immigration, Hon. Erica Stanford. She has already heard from the reporter and is aware of Christine’s case.
A PETITION is directed to her (and her associate Chris Penk) which you may sign.
CONTACT THE MINISTER
It would help Christine so much if you would contact the Minister. You can write your own or copy the email below to:
Erica.Stanford@parliament.govt.nz
Subject: please don’t deport Christine
[you can cc to: cindydumas@womenscoalitioninternational.org if you want.]
Honorable Erica Stanford,
I am with Women’s Coalition International and we are requesting you intervene in Christine Masters’ deportation case. Her ex is a violent man who owns guns and has planned to kill her. She fled to New Zealand to protect herself and her daughter. If she is deported, she will likely lose custody and face criminal prosecution for having done what every mother is expected to do: protect her child.
As a woman who has gained a position of power in which you are able to help domestic violence victims, we fervently hope you will do the right thing. Please grant Christine the residency permit she deserves from having participated in your work-to-residency program.
Women around the world are watching.
Thank you
TAKEAWAYS
This is a long post so we’ll keep the Takeaways section mercifully brief.
The first is that even if the father is not the bio father, as in Christine’s case, he can take the child(ren) from the mother. Any man who has done even just minimal parenting can file for custody. This serves to keep all men in control of “their” women, whether the children are his or not.
The main takeaway from these two cases is that no matter what country women are running from or to, there is no “north”—no place women can run to be equal and free and safe, as the slaves could in the U.S. That’s because there is no fair process for deciding custody of children after divorce. And this is because judges have virtually absolute power to unjustly switch custody, i.e. “judges can do whatever the hell they want”.
To have a fair process, fact finding must not be done by judges. It must be done by juries in a regular civil court, where there are more due process protections.
Women will not be free until and unless they gain back the power to keep and protect their children from the father, the power they had before patriarchy took hold.
Join The Women’s Coalition to fight for the power to Keep & Protect Our Children.
IN OTHER NEWS
ROKIA RELEASED FROM JAIL!
Rokia has been released from jail! But she must stay under house arrest in Rome while appealing her extradition to Belgium.
Her story is in our column: Renowned Singer Imprisoned for "Abducting" Child from Molester Father. The Mali mother had been arrested in Italy when she went to perform at a concert there.
Rokia was been criminally convicted in absentia in Belgium for “abduction” of her daughter from the father. She was living in her home country of Mali and refused to allow her ex to visit their daughter due to her disclosures of sexual abuse.
Rokia has appealed her extradition in Belgium and is awaiting the ruling. The grounds for appeal are that she was not properly noticed and she did not have a defense attorney present at the trial.
Fortunately, the European Union Court, based in Luxembourg, has agreed to take up her case! They will rule on whether the Belgian extradition order is valid or not.
Watch this page…
ALIENATED MOTHERS ALLIANCE
There’s a new support group for alienated mothers!
Alienation from children is the worst thing that can happen to a mother, other than death. And death is rare, whereas, judge-enabled alienation is quite common. A large percentage of Custody Crisis cases involve kids being forcibly alienated from the mother after custody is switched to the father.
Alienation occurs on a spectrum: from damaged to destroyed. Where are you on the spectrum?
We have over 100 mothers signed up for our support group so far. If you’ve been alienated from your children, you can join us by filling out this form.
If you’ve already signed up, you can share this opportunity with other mothers.
Our first zoom get together for alienated mothers will be Saturday, August 3rd: 1pm Pacific; 4pm Eastern; 8pm GMT; 9pm UTC; 7am (the next morning) in Sydney, Australia.
You can read more about this group in our last column: "Alienated Mothers Alliance": A New Support Group.
SISTERS IN SOLIDARITY
Our next Sisters in Solidarity forum will be this Saturday, July 20th at 1pm Pacific; 4pm Eastern; 8pm GMT; 9pm UTC; 7am (the next morning) in Sydney, Australia.
If you’d like to join SIS, please fill out this form. More info here. You will receive an invitation to the zoom a few days before [check alternate inboxes].
CHAPTER 22 IS OUT!
“Because He Can” is Chapter 22 of Mother-Fucking: The Saga of One Fucked Mother.
In this chapter, Legion finds a divorce attorney and unknowingly enters the “mother-fucking” Family Court, in which her entire marriage and motherhood and self will be reduced to “the case”. In retrospect, she understands that Herry could easily take her kids from her because he can. Because a man just has to accuse a woman of being “nutty or slutty” (re: Anita Hill) and a judge, working within the “androcentric” system, will gladly bequeath him his “property”. Herry was licensed by the court to wreak his revenge, to “gut the bitch”, to “obliterate” Legion for having dared step out of line and asked him to work on his sex addiction so as to save their family.
Dr. Blue’s novel is based on her own experience of the Custody Crisis. It uniquely conveys how Family Court judges are “mother-fucking” women—a form of systemic oppression and violence directed at ex-wives—as protagonist Legion is systematically and methodically deprived of her children and money and reduced to “one fucked mother”.
Chapters are stand-alone interesting so you can begin reading anywhere. A Cast of Characters follows to help readers at any point [on the web page]. All published chapters are included in the Section: “Saga of One F**ked Mother” accessible on the top bar of the home page of Women’s Coalition News & Views. Sequential chapters are published every Wednesday and subscribers will find them in their inboxes, so make sure to subscribe if you haven’t yet!
You may also give a gift subscription to a friend who is going through the Family Court nightmare.
Or feel free to support the Coalition’s work through a one-time or recurring contribution at paypal.me/TheWomensCoalition.
All contributions are greatly appreciated and thanks to everyone who has subscribed!
The link to the Alienated Mothers Group sign up form was not working for some mothers. Not sure why. If it doesn't work for you, you can email womenscoalitionintl@gmail.com and put AMA in the subject line.
Family court judges abuse their power. They have the power to separate good mothers from their children. Family court judges endanger women and children. Male entitlement dominates family court. Males that request child custody usually get it. It doesn't matter if they're abusive or the biological father. Family court judges rule however they want. They face no consequences for their decisions. Women and children face a lifetime of consequences. They suffer immense pain and grief. Abusive males are master manipulators. They use precious children to control, punish and destroy women. Children are vulnerable. Their best interests don't matter in family court. Children are considered male property. Family court judges enable abusive males to harm women and children. Women can't protect their children or themselves in family court. Family court judges can take your children for no good reason. This is not acceptable. Women must continue to unite and fight for a new system. Family court must end.