Guillén family pushes Congress for legislation, meets with Trump in D.C.
WASHINGTON — The voice of Vanessa Guillén’s little sister, Lupe, echoed down the National Mall on Thursday as she demanded that Congress act after the death of her sister, a Fort Hood soldier who was killed after she told friends and family that she was being sexually harassed by a sergeant.
“This could have been prevented,” Lupe Guillén told a crowd of more than 100 gathered near the Capitol. “My sister never reported it — why? Because she was afraid to. She was afraid of retaliation, of being judged every day.”
The Guillén family was in D.C. to rally support for legislation they say is badly needed to curb a scourge of sexual harassment and assault in the military.
During the trip, they met with President Donald Trump at the White House, who said his administration is looking into the case “very powerfully” and vowed to support the legislation.
“You have our support and we’re working on it already, as you know,” Trump said. “And we won’t stop, and hopefully something very positive will come out in honor of your sister and your daughter.”
The 20-year-old Houston native was killed in April at the U.S. Army post in Killeen, sparking calls for reform. Army officials say Guillén never reported sexual harassment through official channels. Guillén,
however, had told her mother that a sergeant had been harassing her but that she wasn’t going to file a complaint for fear her superiors would laugh or brush it off.
While no bill has yet been filed in Congress, several lawmakers are working on legislation aimed at making it easier for soldiers to report harassment and assault and taking those claims out of the chain of command by standing up independent oversight.
“Women have the fear of filing a complaint when it has to go up the chain of command because there’s potential retribution,” said U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat. “They fear whether they’ll be demoted, whether they’ll be laughed at, whether they’ll be taken seriously. But something out of the chain of command is just treated a lot, lot differently.”
The U.S. Army, meanwhile, announced on Thursday that it has appointed an independent panel to investigate the “command climate and culture” at Fort Hood and the surrounding military community. The five-person panel will be led by Chris Swecker, a former assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.
Also on the panel is Queta Rodriguez, a former director of veterans services for Bexar County and recent Commissioners Court candidate, who is now a regional director for FourBlock, a national nonprofit that helps veterans transition into civilian careers.
“The Army is committed to taking care of our soldiers, civilians, families and soldiers-for-life,” Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy said in a statement.
A congressional hearing on Wednesday revealed that more than a third of women at Fort Hood surveyed by an Army inspector general said they have been sexually harassed.
The inspector general’s report says that two dozen of the women interviewed said they had been sexually harassed in the past year. It said that soldiers on the base voiced a “lack of trust” in the immediate chain of command to handle complaints and a “lack of confidence” in the reporting process, though it concluded the vast majority of soldiers there — more than 85 percent — felt comfortable reporting sexual harassment and assault to officials.
Advocates say the problem reaches far beyond Fort Hood.
“We know all too well that harassment and assault are pervasive in our armed forces and we know that most military survivors and those who unfortunately don’t survive — we don’t get these reports, and it’s because of retaliation, the fear of retaliation by commanders and cohorts for daring to speak up,” said Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, a national organization that advocates for sexual assault survivors. “They believe that perpetrators will be shielded from facing any consequences and that cannot stand.”
While the inspector general’s report found that the Fort Hood sexual harassment and assault prevention program meet the Army’s standards, Lupe Guillén said it clearly isn’t working.
“Those SHARP classes — that little PowerPoint — that doesn’t work,” she said, referring to the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention Program.
“I have all right to be mad, to be upset,” she said. “We keep demanding a congressional investigation — where is it?”
Several members of Congress are working on legislation in response to Guillén’s death, including U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat who chairs a House Armed Services subcommittee that held Wednesday’s hearing.
Among the key pieces of that legislation, which Speier’s office says she plans to unveil in the coming days, is the creation of a new independent prosecutor to bring charges in cases of harassment and assault. The bill would also allow service members who are sexually harassed or assaulted to pursue monetary claims for negligence against the Department of Defense and it would require a comprehensive review of the military’s prevention and response programs.
“For Vanessa, and for all those who have been failed as she was, we must make drastic, transformational change to ensure justice is served and the toxic rot that has eaten away at our armed forces — and some of our best and brightest — for far too long,” Speier said in a statement.
The Guillén family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, said she is working with U.S. Reps. Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma Republican, and Tulsi Gabbard, a Hawaii Democrat, on a separate bill, as well. Khawam has called for establishing an independent commission similar to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. She said she also wants to see a hotline for reporting.
“Let’s give it a hotline,” she said. “If there was a hotline available that says, ‘Hey you could report this’ — you’re not only telling your girlfriends or your mom, you’re actually reporting it to the hotline where no one knows that you’re doing this, and that way you’re protected.”
During the meeting there, Trump acknowledged that the Guillén case is “sadly … probably not that unique.”
“It’s a terrible thing,” Trump said. “I’ve seen statements about her from other people as you know and you don’t get better statements about a person. I see statements about many people. I don’t see statements like that.
“Maybe things can come out that will help other people in a situation like Vanessa,” he said.
Trump also vowed to help with Guillén’s funeral in Houston, saying he would “make sure” it happens soon.
The Guillén family vowed to keep pushing until reforms are enacted.
“As long as you guys keep pushing along with us, we’re going to go a long way, and that way we can help all these military members — both men and women,” Mayra Guillén, Vanessa’s sister told the crowd.
One person shouted in response: “We’re not stopping until we get justice.”