Life as an undocumented immigrant in the United States comes with its own set of challenges. When you add the extra burden of life with an abusive partner it makes life even more dangerous — abusers often use the undocumented status of their victim to instill fear and exert control.
While the government technically says there are protections for undocumented immigrants on the site by the Department of Homeland Security, real life often doesn’t reflect this. Take what happened in El Paso, Texas, for example.
According to the El Paso Times, an undocumented woman was arrested at the El Paso County Courthouse — right after getting a restraining order against her abusive boyfriend. That is a particular level of cruel. To make this situation even more infuriating is that she was likely arrested because her abuser sent ICE the tip about her immigration status. Her boyfriend was already jailed for forgery and, in typical abuser fashion, wanted to harm his victim even more by getting her arrested.
It’s pretty chilling that ICE came to arrest her in court where other victims of domestic violence are seeking recourse. This sends a message that undocumented victims are vulnerable to retaliation. In an interview with the paper, El Paso County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal says this has been a problem for a very long time:
...[S]he and other officials said protective-order courts are not the place for immigrant detentions.
“Our clients come to us at the lowest point in their lives,” said Bernal, whose office represents domestic abuse victims when they seek court orders against their abusers. “Many of them are so frightened of coming to us because of possible immigration concerns.”
This may be just one story, but I am sure there are many others. This is absolutely connected to Trump’s anti-immigration stance; his xenophobia has emboldened federal officers across the country to treat immigrants as threats instead of people. It doesn’t surprise me that having an abuser president like Trump leads to throwing domestic violence victims under the bus.