President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda has created a climate of terror and isolation for immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and the threat of detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has left many survivors too scared to seek critical help from law enforcement and the legal system.
Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, a national network that advocates for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence, surveyed over 170 victim service providers, including social workers and immigration attorneys across the country. Providers worked with immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, though many of the anecdotes experts shared with HuffPost centered on domestic violence.
The survey found 76% of providers reported that immigrant survivors currently have concerns about contacting the police to report domestic violence and sexual assault. Half of them said that victims who had concerns about contacting law enforcement or going to court chose not to because they were scared of the potential consequences contact with police could have on their immigration status. Nearly 80% of all service providers said they have seen an increase in immigration-related questions since Trump took office.
Immigrants who are undocumented, as well as some who already have legal status, are so scared of deportation under the Trump administration that many are worried to leave their homes, fearful that they could be picked up by ICE. Under Trump, immigration officials have been targeting people at court houses and other public spaces. Other survivors have avoided going to the hospital after being assaulted or declined to renew a restraining order against their abuser.
“One survivor was afraid to go to the hospital and report abuse to the police after she was assaulted,” the survey found. “She waited two days after the incident and went to the hospital only after her immigration attorney assured her it was safe. She had a broken nose and orbital bone.”
“One survivor we worked with,” one service provider wrote in the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors survey, “did not call the police when her abuser stalked and assaulted her because she was afraid that the police would find out her immigration status and deport her. She specifically feared that her abuser would disclose her immigration status to the police as retaliation if she called them for help.”
“One survivor was afraid to go to the hospital and report abuse to the police after she was assaulted. She waited two days after the incident and went to the hospital only after her immigration attorney assured her it was safe. She had a broken nose and orbital bone.”
It’s common in situations of domestic violence and trafficking for abusers to use the threat of deportation to keep victims from reaching out for help, and Trump’s mass deportation agenda has only increased abusers’ ability to exploit this threat.
Many survivors also share children with their abusers or rely on their abuser financially. If a survivor’s abuser is deported, she may no longer have money for rent or groceries; she also may be next in line for deportation. If a survivor is detained or deported, her children may be left with her abuser or, in some scenarios, handed over to Child Protective Services.
“We’ve been through different iterations with immigration, but now is probably the most extreme I’ve seen in terms of trepidation from our clients,” Hannah Shapiro, the supervising attorney for Legal Aid’s DV Immigration Project and a service provider who responded to Alliance for Immigrants Survivors survey, told HuffPost.
“To seek protection, just the initial ‘I’m not safe. Should I go to family court? Should I call the police? Should I go to the hospital?’ Our clients are really paralyzed with respect to that.”
Immigrant survivors of violence are afforded certain protections under the Violence Against Women Act and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act ― federal laws that have been in place for decades. These benefits include U-visas, mainly used for victims of gender-based violence, and T-visas, used for victims of human or sex trafficking. There’s also something called a VAWA self-petition, which permits a victim married to a U.S. citizen to pursue their own path to legal status ― allowing a person to seek citizenship without ties to their abuser.
These benefits were created “to make sure that survivors who did come forward to report these crimes were provided some sort of path to safety and independence in recognition of the myriad of barriers it often takes to come forward,” Cecelia Levin, advocacy coordinator at Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, told HuffPost.
While those benefits are still available for eligible immigrants, Shapiro said more and more of her clients are terrified to apply for U- and T-visas, especially since the process includes getting fingerprints taken.
“The idea that someone is putting themselves in front of immigration, alerting them that they’re in the United States without status, is so much more terrifying to our clients right now than I’ve ever seen,” she said. “The clear indication that ICE is everywhere is pushing a lot of our clients into vulnerable spaces where they’re just not willing to pursue those benefits.”
Shapiro has been practicing immigration law nearly as long as these VAWA benefits have existed. She believes it’s generally safe to apply for them, but she is concerned for those clients who have arrest histories or are more vulnerable to being detained or deported.
“We now can’t say with such certainty what we anticipate might happen in practice or experience, because everything has been turned upside down,” Shapiro said.
The Trump administration has also rolled back ICE guidance on how to sensitively handle immigration enforcement with survivors of gender-based violence. ICE used to follow guidance that encouraged prosecutorial discretion when dealing with someone who is a survivor and eligible for immigration benefits. But a Trump directive canceled that and with it any sensitive care used when dealing with immigrant survivors.
“What I think advocates are struggling most with is their ability to help their clients realize the promise of these protections in the face of this increased fear,” Cristina Velez, the legal and policy director at ASISTA, told HuffPost.
Trump’s rescission of sensitive zones has also deeply impacted immigrant survivors, allowing ICE to enter schools, hospitals and, in at least one case, a domestic violence shelter. Last month, ICE reportedly showed up at a domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles looking for someone who was not there at the time. The shelter’s location is confidential, like many women’s shelters, to ensure survivors’ abusers cannot find them. It’s unclear how ICE found the location.
Experts told HuffPost they have not heard of other similar instances and don’t believe ICE entering domestic violence shelters is a widespread issue.
Alexander Delgado, the policy director at Esperanza United, said during a press call last month that his organization runs a domestic violence hotline in Minnesota and has seen calls decrease “tremendously” since Trump’s immigration policies have gone into effect. He said their organization has received requests from survivors to do more Zoom calls because they’re scared to leave their homes.
It shows “the deep fear and the mistrust that is now growing within the immigrant survivor community, that the courts and the systems that are meant to protect them, simply will not do that now,” Delgado said. “And actually those systems are going to end up causing them harm.”
Experts told HuffPost things will likely only get worse. The tax bill Trump signed last week provides $45 billion to build immigration jails ― a 13-fold increase over ICE’s 2024 detention budget, HuffPost’s Matt Shuham reports. An additional $29.9 billion will be allocated to other ICE activities.
The reconciliation bill will have unfathomable consequences for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence, eliminating critical safety net programs and establishing financial penalties on immigration benefits.
Velez was deeply worried about what’s to come, noting the bill will create more barriers for immigrant survivors to come forward. “Congress has inflicted deep and lasting harm – choosing an agenda of cruelty over an agenda of safety and justice for all,” she said when Trump signed the bill into law.