National Domestic Violence Helpline. People experiencing domestic violence can receive confidential help over the phone thehotline.org or by calling 800-799-7233.
An Indian immigrant believed her husband when he told her on the phone that he would kill her if she was still in their Georgia home when he arrived 10 minutes later.
She said her husband and his family – also immigrants – mistreated her throughout their marriage: they beat her with a belt, poured hot water on her body, cut her skin and slammed her head against a wall.
“I tried to escape several times, but they found me and took me home,” said the woman, who is in the country without legal permission and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear that her identity would harm her chances of regularizing her immigration status.
With no time to flee after hearing her husband's threat, she called 911 in July 2020, even though she knew it could get her deported. The police arrived, she recalls, to find her husband threatening her with a knife in front of their young children. The man was arrested but not charged, she said.
The woman and her children turned to the Tahirih Justice Center for help (Tahirih Justice Center), a non-profit organization that offers services nationwide to immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Five years later, he is still dealing with the immigration process.
According to researchers, immigrants are not only more vulnerable to sexual violence, but also face numerous physical and mental health problems. They have high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide and anxiety, according to the study. 2024 study.
“On a personal level, I know that anxiety associated with the current political climate is leading to costly emergency room visits and affecting people's ability to get to work and earn a living,” said Nicole E. Warren, a nurse-midwife and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing in Baltimore.
Undocumented immigrants also face higher rates of chronic disease and more deaths from preventable diseases due to their limited access to health care services and fear of seeking them, according to activists.
“One of our clients was so afraid to leave the house that she avoided seeking medical care during her pregnancy for fear of contact with ICE,” said Miriam Camero, director of client advocacy and social services at Tahirih.
Food banks reported that many immigrants who previously sought help have stopped coming for fear of deportation.
Undocumented people have always had a hard time getting help when they need it. But the Donald Trump government's immigration crackdown has compounded the difficulties. And the situation has also made the work of those who defend their rights more difficult.
“We are working overtime to be able to cover everything,” said Vanessa Wilkins, executive director of Tahirih’s Atlanta office. “Security planning and the additional protection that clients may need, including documentation to prove their safety, can leave a person feeling completely overwhelmed.”
The Difficult Path to a U Visa
For victims of domestic violence without legal status, like the Indian woman, going to authorities becomes even riskier amid the immigration crisis, says Maricarmen Garza, senior attorney for the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence (American Bar Association Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence).
“There are no guarantees,” Garza explained, “especially because immigration enforcement is intertwined with law enforcement.”
In more than half of the states, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can work through formal agreements with state and local law enforcement to identify and deport people who are in the country illegally. Victim advocates say this could hamper efforts to obtain the certification needed to apply for a U visa, which would allow a person to legally live and work in the U.S. with the possibility of permanent residency.
A woman from India remembers police telling her that if she pressed charges, she could receive a certificate to apply for a U visa. She agreed, but remembers the anxiety that led her to file about five allegations of abuse in two years. “I started having panic attacks writing them because it meant reliving everything,” he said.
Asked about the challenges facing immigrants who are victims of domestic violence, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson praised President Donald Trump's efforts to curb illegal immigration. “The President's successful efforts to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records makes all victims safer and ensures they are no longer harmed by dangerous criminals without legal status,” Jackson said in a statement.
He added that “unsubstantiated claims” that immigrants were asked to drop charges “should not be taken seriously.”
Immigrant women without legal status may be especially vulnerable to violence and exploitation due to language barriers, cultural and social isolation, according to researchers.
Report for 2023 noted that in some immigrant groups, up to 93% of women have experienced intimate partner violence at some point in their lives, compared with approximately 41% of United States-born women.
As the Trump administration overhauls the country's immigration system, those who were abused and arrived illegally face greater difficulty proving their abuse and injury to immigration authorities, advocates say.
The Refugee and Refugee Health Program at Johns Hopkins University offers free forensic examinations to immigrant victims to support their requests for humanitarian assistance, including U visa applications.
Warren, the program's associate director for women's health, said previously a written statement of clinical results was sufficient to support applicants' legal claims.
“Now they are asking us to testify in person,” he said.
Delays in application
A woman from India applied for a visa after receiving a police certificate in 2023. 11.6 million immigration applications pending until June the highest figure recorded by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). There are 415,000 pending U visa applications, according to the agency.
Only about 10,000 of these visas are issued per year, Garza said, and the process can take more than seven years.
Add to that, the Trump administration has reduced the availability of Section 8 housing vouchers, which help low-income people pay rent. From Septemberthose without legal permission to remain in the country will no longer be able to receive this assistance, even if they live with US citizens.
“If Tahiri hadn't supported me, I could have ended up on the street,” said the woman, who said she could only pay half the rent.
Victim advocates say they are working harder than ever to support their clients, but resources are being strained by federal cuts and growing demand.
The Tahirih Center reported a 200 percent increase in calls in the four months after Trump took office compared with the same period a year earlier.
“We end up getting a lot of emails and a lot of people that we can't respond to as quickly as we used to,” said Casey Carter Swegman, the center's director of public policy.
To reach immigrant survivors who are afraid to ask for help, advocates are “going back to basics,” says Joanna Otero-Cruz, president and CEO of the Philadelphia-based group Women Against Violence.
“We do community outreach with hair salons and other small businesses,” he explained. “They are our eyes and ears.”
In Riverhead, New York, a 38-year-old woman from El Salvador said she had been the victim of domestic violence twice but was afraid to report it to the police.
He said the second attack was carried out by a man for whom he cooked and cleaned. The woman, who also requested anonymity out of shame and fear of deportation, said he raped her, took nude photos of her and threatened to post them on social media if she went to authorities. According to her, after that he began to pester her.
Noemi Sanchez, regional coordinator for the Long Island Department of Agriculture and Migrants, a nonprofit that supports farmworkers, works closely with women to strengthen their self-esteem and help them understand that “no woman deserves to be mistreated by a man.”
Meanwhile, a survivor from India received a temporary work permit in 2024 and is now working as a registered nurse. “It helps me survive,” he said.
“I’ve come a long way,” he added. “It wasn't easy. I had a lot of support. They didn't leave me alone.”
