IMMIGRANT DOMESTIC ABUSE VICTIMS ARE WAITING LONGER THAN EVER FOR RELIEF
Rocío was an undocumented immigrant married to a United States citizen who never wanted to regularize her immigration status. She only had a part-time job as a kindergarten teacher, which didn’t generate enough income to sustain her. Being undocumented in Texas, she couldn’t access any government help or health care. Even finding housing was a challenge.
Rocío’s story is not unique. Undocumented immigrants experience intimate partner violence at least as much as U.S. citizens or legal residents but are less likely to call the police, seek medical care or reach out to family services when it happens, studies have found. When they are married to U.S. citizens or permanent residents their precarious immigration status is often used as a controlling device.
“The immigration status is both a carrot and a stick,” said Glenaan O’Neil, the legal operations manager at Raíces, a Texan immigrant advocacy organization with an office in San Antonio. “‘If you do what I want you to do, I will get you your papers.’”
The problem became so pervasive that in 1994, Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which allows victims to apply for legal immigration status without their abusers’ help. But COVID-19 significantly slowed the application process.
