![]() Now Herrera is living at home with her son and writing an autobiography about her life. “Once immigration started getting that publicity and they started looking like monsters, that's what helped me,” she said. She said that media pressure instigated by Lal and others was a big reason the courts changed its mind. This time it worked, and in January, the immigration court reversed the previous decision, and Herrera was allowed to legally stay in the US. ![]() “But instead of doing that, they tried to deport me for entertainment videos.” “All of that should have played in court, and they should have made the decision to protect the victim and not persecute them,” she told me. According to Herrera, this is what they didn't do the first time around. The next time in court, Herrera's past was closely considered, including a missing-children's report from when she was kidnapped at age 14 and evidence that she was forced into prostitution. But others have argued it's no different than what some rappers do when they brag about sexual conquests in their lyrics-Herrera just didn't have a beat behind her when she did it. And no doubt many of Herrera's online detractors will LOL at such a claim. The idea that Herrera was talking shit about rappers in YouTube videos as a way to fight back against the people who abused and trafficked her sounds strange. “She fought against her situation, and she shouldn't have been penalized for fighting back.” “Kat Stacks-or Andrea Herrera, her real name-was a victim of her circumstances who overcame those circumstances by empowering herself and other people,” said Prerna Lal, one of the founders of, the group behind the petition. Going from a hard-knock life of horror to internet fame and popularity might not be as traditional as starting a business and sending your kids to college, but clearly, Herrera had determination, smarts, and a sense of entrepreneurship-values praised by Democrats and Republicans alike.Īs Herrera sat in an immigration holding center waiting for her one-way flight to Caracas, a group of DREAM activists created an online petition that focused on her troubled life as a victim of sex trafficking and turned the infamous Kat Stacks persona into a positive by arguing that hers was a narrative of victimhood and empowerment, which embodied the struggle many undocumented immigrants and sex trafficking victims face. And Herrera's online persona was more American than Betsy Ross eating a Big Mac at a gun range without health insurance. “Negative equity”? Getting famous for bragging about sex before an anonymous audience of millions is the new American dream. The immigration judge who considered her case saw her online persona and decided that there was absolutely no way America could benefit by keeping a foul-mouthed Superhead wannabe who once bragged about having sex with Lil Wayne for $1,200. “The Court finds that the Respondent's behavior as an online persona is a significant negative equity,” the judge said in his decision to deport her. “That just goes to show you karma is a bitch.” In retaliation, something happened to her plane ticket, and after airport authorities did a background check on Herrera, they arrested her on an immigration charge. “How was I supposed to know she was flying dirty?” the promoter said at the time. In 2010, she had a falling out with a promoter in Nashville who claims she took her money without going to the event she was hired for.
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