Fearing Donald Trump’s Deportation Force, four undocumented domestic violence victims in Denver have abandoned their claims against their abusers. Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson told Slate that because the women are no longer cooperating with the city out of fear of being torn from their homes and families, her office was left with no choice but to drop their cases and let their abusers go free. #MAGA:
Bronson: These women were violently assaulted. Police had been called out and arrested the abusers under our municipal code. We were proceeding with prosecutions and headed toward a trial. But after the president issued his executive order on Jan. 25, all four women called our office. They told us they were unwilling to continue participating in their cases because they feared deportation. They were concerned that if they continued to pursue their claims—and especially if they were called to testify—their identity, address, and location might become known to ICE.
Bronson says she believes some of the women were frightened by a recent video showing three ICE agents in plainclothes waiting to make an arrest in a Denver courthouse. Tragically, ICE already has a history of further stigmatizing undocumented women already going through abuse. In El Paso, Texas, an undocumented transgender woman was arrested by ICE as she was leaving court, where she was attempting to obtain a protective order against her abuser. Advocates believe he may have tipped them off to her location.
Trump may have promised to “cherish” woman as president, but his own circle is filled with abusers and anti-woman animus. White nationalist Steve Bannon was once charged “with domestic violence, battery and attempting to dissuade a victim from reporting a crime,” according to the New York Times, allegedly threatening his former wife if she testified in the case against him. The charges were dropped when she didn’t show up to court.
Other abusers include former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, former Labor pick Andrew Puzder, and Trump himself, who confessed on tape to sexually assualting women.
Despite the very real fear from Denver’s undocumented community, Bronson said her office is committed to supporting victims. In January, the city’s mayor said his administration was firm in keeping Denver “welcoming, open and inclusive for everyone.” Bronson added that the city was also rejecting a recent executive order from Trump that would allow local law enforcement officers to act as federal immigration agents:
Bronson: Federal cooperation of that sort would start to blur the line between the federal and local role, eroding the vital trust relationship that our community has with our police officers. It’s really important for us that victims of violence and witnesses to violence cooperate with police and prosecutors in pursuing charges. Without that level of trust, we aren’t able to do our jobs. We aren’t able to keep the community safe because people don’t step forward and help us. Federal cooperation would create further fear in our immigrant communities that our police officers’ priority is something other than our safety and security. And that’s not the case in Denver.
We’ve tried to send a strong message to our community that we are a welcoming and inclusive city, and to make a clear distinction between the federal and local role. We want to make sure our immigrant communities know that as far as our police and public services are concerned, we don’t care if you’re documented or undocumented. You have rights here, and we’re going to respect those rights and treat you with the same level of consideration that a documented person would have.