AUSTIN, Texas - For three years now, the Guillen family has been fighting for change in the military.
After the murder of Fort Hood specialist Vanessa Guillen, at the hands of a fellow soldier, Congress passed parts of the "I Am Vanessa Guillen" Act in 2022, moving serious crimes out of the military's chain of command when it comes to sexual assault and harassment.
"It really brought everybody who had been advocating before this together to come up with grassroots efforts to bring change and bring it to congress," said Danitza James with the LULAC National Military & Veteran Affairs Committee. "To do an investigation and really get to the root of the problem and why this is happening."
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Vanessa Guillen family speaks out after death of Fort Hood soldier Ana Basaldua
The Vanessa Guillen family is speaking out after the death of Pvt. Ana Basaldua earlier this month.
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"We now have thousands of women who have come forward and said, I was raped, I was abused, I complained. I tried to bring it up and nothing happened," said LULAC president Domingo Garcia.
On Friday, President Biden signed an executive order to overhaul the military justice code for sexual assault victims. The executive order transfers key decision-making authorities from commanders to specialized, independent military prosecutors in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, murder and other serious offenses.
"As a survivor of military sexual trauma myself, I know that there will be many who will not be fearful of reporting their assailant for fear of retaliation from the chain of command," said James.
Members of congress argued that commanders, at times, were willing to ignore charges or incidents in their units in order to protect the accused.
They say using independent lawyers will beef up prosecutions.
"The leadership really needs to empower their leaders, the NCOS, and just educate their everybody in the unit so that they know what are the consequences if this happens and what are the rights that everyone has to make a report without the fear of being retaliated," said James.