National Domestic Violence Hotline: People experiencing domestic violence can get help confidentially. thehotline.org Or call me 800-799-7233.
An immigrant from India believed her husband when he told her he would kill her if she did not leave by the time he arrived at their Georgia home within 10 minutes.
She said her husband, who is also an immigrant, and his family abused her throughout their marriage, including beating her with a belt, pouring hot water on her, cutting her with a knife and pushing her head against a wall.
“I tried to escape several times, but they found me and brought me home,” said the woman, who is in the country illegally and requested anonymity for fear that public disclosure of her identity would reduce her chances of obtaining legal status.
With no time to run after receiving a call from her husband in July 2020, she called 911, even though she knew she could be deported. Police recalled arriving to find the husband threatening her with a knife in front of their young children. He was arrested but not charged, she said.
The woman and her children sought services from the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit that helps immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Five years later, she is still going through the immigration process.
In addition to increased vulnerability to sexual violence, immigrants face mental health and physical challenges, researchers say. They say they have high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide, and anxiety. By 2024 research.
“Personally, I know that the anxiety associated with the current political climate is making emergency room visits more expensive and negatively impacting people’s ability to get to work and make a living,” said Nicole E. Warren, a midwife and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore.
Immigrants without legal status have limited access to and fear of health care, leading to higher rates of chronic disease and higher death rates from preventable diseases, advocates say.
“One of our clients was so afraid to leave her home that she avoided seeking medical care during her pregnancy for fear of interacting with ICE,” said Miriam Camero, Tahirih’s director of client advocacy, social services.
Food banks have reported that many immigrants in need of food assistance have stopped coming for fear of deportation.
It has always been difficult for people without legal immigration status to get help when they need it. Pressure has intensified as the Trump administration cracks down on people living in the country illegally. The situation has also hindered advocates and lawyers defending their rights.
“We’re working extra hours to get everything done,” said Vanessa Wilkins, executive director of Tahirih’s office in Atlanta. “The safety plans and additional protections your clients may need, including documentation to ensure safety, can certainly overwhelm you.”
All of you
Maricarmen Garza, senior counsel for the American Bar Association’s Domestic Violence Committee, said that for domestic violence survivors without legal status, like Indian women, reaching authorities amid immigration raids is more difficult.
“There are no guarantees, especially as to how law enforcement agencies are intertwined in enforcing immigration laws,” Garza said.
In more than half of the states, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cooperates with state and local law enforcement agencies through formal written agreements to identify and remove people in the United States illegally. Advocates say this could hinder victims’ efforts to obtain certification to apply for a “U visa” that would allow them to live and work in the United States with the possibility of lawful permanent residency.
A woman who was assaulted in India remembers police telling her she could get a U visa certificate if she didn’t press charges. She agreed to their offer, but recalls the anxiety of having to submit about five abuse reports over two years to get the certificate. “Just writing it down gave me a panic attack because it meant reliving the situation again.” she said
White House Press Secretary Abigail Jackson praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration when asked about the challenges facing immigrant victims of domestic violence. “The President’s successful efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens are making all victims safer and ensuring they are never again victimized by dangerous criminal illegal aliens,” Jackson said in a statement. She said “unsubstantiated claims” that immigrants were told to drop charges “should not be taken seriously.”
Immigrant women without legal status may be particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to cultural and social isolation, as well as language barriers. Researchers discovered:
According to 2023 reportAccording to the , rates of lifetime abuse by an intimate partner can be as high as 93 percent in some immigrant groups, and among U.S.-born women, the lifetime rate of experiencing such abuse is approximately 41 percent.
As the Trump administration overhauls the country’s immigration system, survivors of violence who entered the U.S. illegally face difficulties proving abuse and trauma to receive relief, advocates say.
The Refugee Health and Asylum Program at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore provides victims of immigrant abuse with free forensic evaluations to support their claims for humanitarian relief, including U visa applications.
Warren, the program’s associate director of women’s health, said that in the past, a written statement of the clinic’s findings would have been enough to corroborate an applicant’s legal account of past trauma.
“Now we are being asked to testify in person,” Warren said.
application backlog
The woman from India applied for the visa after receiving a certificate from law enforcement saying she could apply for the visa in 2023. Her visa application is one of about 11.6 million pending. According to data through June — This is the most cases ever recorded by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. According to the agency, there are 415,000 pending U visa applications.
Only about 10,000 U visas are issued annually, and applications can take more than seven years to be processed, Garza said.
Adding to the pressure, the Trump administration has reduced the availability of Section 8 housing, which helps low-income individuals and others pay their rent. As of SeptemberPeople without legal permission to reside in the United States are less eligible for rental assistance than U.S. citizens.
“If Tahiri wasn’t behind me, I would be homeless,” she said, adding that she can only afford half the rent.
Victim advocates say they are working harder than ever to support their clients, but are struggling due to federal funding cuts and increased demand.
The Tahiri Center reported that call volume increased 200% in the four months following Trump’s inauguration compared to the same period last year.
“At the end of the day, there’s just too much email and a lot of people you can’t reach as quickly as you could in the past,” said Casey Carter Swegman, the center’s director of public policy.
To reach immigrant abuse survivors who are afraid to come forward, advocates are “going back to basics,” said Joanna Otero-Cruz, executive director and president of the Philadelphia group Women Against Abuse.
“We do grassroots outreach to hairdressers and other small business owners,” she said. “They are our eyes and ears.”
In Riverhead, New York, a 38-year-old woman who immigrated from El Salvador said she had been the victim of domestic violence twice but was too scared to report it to police.
She said the second assault was by a man for whom she cooked and cleaned at home. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of shame and fear of deportation, said he sexually assaulted her, took nude photos of her and threatened to post them on social media if she reported them to police. He then stalked her, she said.
Noemi Sanchez, Long Island regional coordinator for Rural & Migrant Ministry, a nonprofit that supports farm workers, works closely with the woman to boost her self-esteem and help her understand that “no woman deserves to have a man abuse her.”
Meanwhile, a survivor from India said she received a temporary work permit in 2024 and got a job as a certified nursing assistant, saying, “It’s helping me survive.”
He added, “We’ve really come a long way.” “It wasn’t easy. I had great support behind me. They didn’t let me down.”
