This is what fear looks like.
Last week, LAPD’s Chief Charlie Beck shared more distressing news about life in Trump’s America—domestic violence and rape reports in Latino communities are down thanks to fear of deportation. Huffington Post reports:
Since the beginning of 2017, reports of rape among the city’s Latino population have declined by 25 percent, compared to the same period last year. Domestic violence reports have dropped nearly 10 percent. According to statistics provided by the Los Angeles Police Department, no other ethnic group experienced a comparable decrease.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Beck said there was a “strong correlation” between the Trump administration’s new immigration rules, which empower federal agents to more aggressively deport those without documentation regardless of whether they’ve committed a serious crime, and the deflated numbers.
What we’re seeing in the Los Angeles area—which has the second-largest number of undocumented immigrants in the country after New York City—is part of a nationwide trend. There are reports of undocumented women avoiding hospital births and abandoning their legal complaints against abusers so they can stay in this country.
This is particularly heartbreaking because it is already so difficult to make survivors comfortable enough to report abuse. Trump and his ilk claim to desire peace and safety, but their fear-mongering creates the exact opposite in Black and brown communities.
“We have entire communities of people feeling like it’s no longer safe or feasible for them to report crime,” said Jacquie Marroquin, director of programs for the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence.
She said local domestic violence organizations in Los Angeles have been flooded with calls and emails since Trump’s immigration policies were announced, spiking after an undocumented woman was arrested while seeking a domestic violence protective order. The woman now faces up to 10 years in prison.