Astrid Munn

By Kara Schweiss
Photo by Ron Coleman, C4 Photography

Immigrants in this country are in a precarious situation right now, and unfortunately, this has done nothing to alleviate the risk of violence for women immigrants, who already tend to experience a high rate of intimate partner violence.

Astrid Munn, who serves as lead attorney for the Center for Immigrant and Refugee Advancement (CIRA), said immigrant women and those who are undocumented face layers of vulnerability that make them more likely to be targeted for violence.

“Many of these women are coming from countries where machismo is deeply ingrained, sometimes rising to the level of femicide,” she said. “They may be coming to the United States conditioned to see violence against women as normal or unavoidable. They often don’t realize that our criminal justice system, despite its flaws, is largely designed to put the victim’s safety first, regardless of immigration status. That lack of awareness can make them less likely to report domestic violence or seek help. And on top of that, they might be bringing with them experiences from their countries where police and courts are corrupt, and reporting abuse might actually make things worse. So they bring with them a distrust that doesn’t go away once they cross a border.”

Research shows that immigrant women are experiencing domestic violence at rates at least comparable to U.S.-born women, and in some communities the rates are even higher, Munn said.

“One study in the Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Journal found that the prevalence of lifetime intimate partner violence in some immigrant groups can be as high as 93 percent, but those numbers vary from region to region. Part of that variation could reflect the differences in reporting, because if you’re coming from a society where patriarchal norms are stronger and domestic violence is normalized, women might be underreporting the violence because they aren’t even clocking it,” she said. “The problem persists, and whether we see it reflected in numbers depends a lot on cultural factors, reporting practices and whether immigrant women feel safe coming forward.”

Munn said a fear of legal intervention may actually be perpetuated by an abuser.

“A lot of women will believe what their abuser tells them, and that fear can paralyze them into silence for years,” she said. “Socially, the isolation that can come about because of domestic violence is profound. Women tell me their stories of how over time they were cut off from their church friends, their work friends, and their community because of their partner’s jealousy and machismo and controlling behavior. Undocumented women in particular face a unique layer of trauma because immigration status itself becomes a weapon in their abuser’s hands, and those threats are extremely effective.”

An abuser may apply constraint in other ways, too, Munn said.

“There can also be financial abuse, where their partner might be withholding money or taking their earnings or refusing to let them work, and that further strips them from their independence. So, it’s not just about bruises and fear in the moment; it has ripple effects in women’s lives.”

Those lives themselves may even be at stake, Munn said.

“At the end of the day, we are talking about life and death. The Journal of Family Violence found that right now in the United States, intimate partners are responsible for nearly 50 percent of female homicides,” she explained. “So, when we talk about physical consequences, we’re not exaggerating.”

Legal protection is possible for immigrant women experiencing abuse, Munn said.

“Congress put a lot of thought into this, and they created tools that basically help local law enforcement help victims of violence. We have the U visa, the T visa and protections under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The U visa is for people who have experienced certain forms of violent crime and then went on to cooperate with law enforcement in the detection, investigation and prosecution of the crime they suffered,” Munn said.

“I would say the majority of the U visa cases my agency takes on are domestic violence, and it’s a tool, because we don’t want to have a community where perpetrators are preying on undocumented victims, banking on their not reporting crime. That just creates this entire underworld of unchecked crime, and so the U visa counteracts that phenomenon and encourages people to come out of the shadows and report violence and crime.”

The T visa, on the other hand, is for individuals who experience debt bondage, involuntary servitude and other forms of trafficking.

And then there is VAWA, which allows any abused immigrant—not just women—to petition for themselves without having to rely on their abusive partner.

“So those are some legal incentives for them to come forward about the abuse,” she said, “because by cooperating with law enforcement or being forthcoming about abuse they’ve experienced, they can secure legal status, and (U visa, T visa, VAWA) can be pathways to legal permanent residency and ultimately, U.S. citizenship.”

Munn’s CIRA colleague Monica Meier, the organization’s director of social work, said there are now disheartening threats to the future availability of some resources for immigrant women experiencing abuse.

“Historically, providers that offer DV services—shelter, protection orders, advocates, et cetera—have been fairly easy to access. Because of the current administration and their attempt to make life as difficult as possible here, so that immigrants choose self-deportation, funding may be in jeopardy. Many of these providers have ties to federal funds, and those are now being distributed with the caveat that someone has to be able to attest to immigration status,” she said “So, while we haven’t seen the full scope of these changes, it will prove to complicate things drastically in the near future.

“At CIRA, we are lucky because there are social workers and we can step in and do the things that other organizations might not be able to do anymore. We take people to get protection orders, we have funds to put someone in a hotel or an Airbnb until stable housing can be found, we educate them on the cycle of DV and safety plan with them.” W