National Domestic Violence Hotline: People experiencing domestic violence can receive confidential help at: thehotline.org or by calling 800-799-7233.
An Indian immigrant believed her husband when he said that if she didn't leave by the time he got to their Georgia home in 10 minutes, he would kill her.
She said her husband and his family, who are also immigrants, abused her throughout their marriage, beating her with a belt, pouring hot water on her, cutting her and ramming her head through a wall.
“I tried to escape several times, but they found me and brought me back home,” said the woman, who is in the country illegally and spoke on condition of anonymity because she fears her identity will harm her chances of obtaining legal status.
With no time to flee after her husband called in July 2020, she dialed 911 even though she knew she could be deported. Police arrived to find her husband threatening her with a knife in front of their young children, she recalls. He was arrested but not prosecuted, she said.
The woman and her children sought help from the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit that helps immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. Five years later, she is still going through the immigration process.
In addition to immigrants' increased vulnerability to sexual violence, they face a host of mental and physical challenges, researchers say. According to scientists, they have high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, suicide and anxiety. to the 2024 study.
“Personally, I know that anxiety associated with the current political climate is driving costly emergency room visits and negatively impacting people's ability to get to work and earn a living,” said Nicole E. Warren, a nurse-midwife and assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore.
Immigrants without legal status also face higher rates of chronic disease and higher death rates from preventable diseases because of their limited access to health care and fear of seeking it, advocates say.
“One of our clients was so afraid to leave the house that she avoided seeking medical care during her pregnancy for fear of interacting with ICE,” said Miriam Camero, director of client advocacy and social services at Tahirih.
Food banks reported that many immigrants in need of food assistance have stopped coming for fear of deportation.
People without legal immigration status have always had a difficult time getting help when they need it. The Trump administration's crackdown on people in the country illegally has added to the pressure. The situation has also made it difficult for lawyers and advocates to defend their rights.
“We are working overtime to get all the work done,” said Vanessa Wilkins, executive director of Tahirih’s Atlanta office. “Security planning and the extra protection that clients may need, including paperwork, just to make sure they're safe can definitely make you feel overwhelmed.”
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For victims of domestic violence without legal status, like the Indian woman, turning to authorities seems more dangerous amid an immigration crackdown, said Maricarmen Garza, general counsel for the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence.
“There are no guarantees,” Garza said, “especially given the way law enforcement is intertwined with immigration enforcement.”
In more than half of the states, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents may cooperate through formal written agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove people from the country illegally. Advocates say it could prevent victims from being certified to apply for a “U visa,” which would allow them to live and work in the U.S. with the possibility of legal permanent residence.
A battered woman from India remembers police telling her that if she didn't press charges, she could get a certificate for a U visa. She agreed to their offer, but recalls having to file about five allegations of abuse over two years to get the certificate. “I had panic attacks when I wrote them down because it meant I was reliving the situations,” she said.
When asked to comment on the challenges facing immigrant victims of domestic violence, White House press secretary Abigail Jackson praised President Donald Trump's efforts to combat illegal immigration. “The President's successful efforts to deport criminal illegal aliens makes all victims safer and ensures that dangerous criminal illegal aliens will never harm them again,” Jackson said in a statement. She said “unsubstantiated claims” that immigrants were told 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 and cultural and social isolation. researchers found.
According to report for 2023Some immigrant groups have rates of lifetime intimate partner abuse as high as 93%, compared with about 41% of U.S.-born women who experience such abuse in their lifetime.
As the Trump administration overhauls the nation's immigration system, victims of violence who entered the country illegally are having to struggle to prove abuse and injury in order to get help, advocates say.
The Refugee Health and Shelter Program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore provides immigrant victims of violence with free forensic testing to support their claims for humanitarian assistance, including U visa applications.
Warren, the associate director of the women's health program, said that in the past, the clinic's affidavits were sufficient to support a claimant's legal testimony of past trauma.
“We are now receiving requests for our personal statements,” Warren said.
Application logs
A woman from India applied for a visa after receiving a certificate from law enforcement authorities allowing her to do so in 2023. This is one of nearly 11.6 million applications pending. according to data for June – the highest caseload ever recorded by USCIS. The number of pending U visa applications stands at 415,000, according to the agency.
Only about 10,000 U visas are issued per year, and applications can take more than seven years to process, Garza said.
Adding to these pressures, the Trump administration has cut the availability of Section 8 housing, which helps low-income people and others pay rent. As of Septemberpeople who are not legally allowed to remain in the United States are not eligible for rental assistance compared to U.S. citizens.
“If Tahiri hadn't supported me, I could have been homeless,” said the woman, who said she could only afford half her rent.
Victim advocates say they are working harder than ever to support their clients, but their efforts are wearing thin as they face cuts in federal funding and increased demand.
The Tahirih Center reported a 200 percent increase in calls in the four months since Trump took office compared with the same period last year.
“We end up getting a lot of emails and a lot of people that we can't reach as quickly as we used to,” said Casey Carter Swegman, the center's director of public policy.
To reach immigrant survivors of violence who are afraid to come forward, advocates are “going back to basics,” said Joanna Otero-Cruz, executive director and president of the Philadelphia-based group Women Against Violence.
“We are doing outreach to hairdressers and other small business owners,” she said. “They are our eyes and ears.”
In Riverhead, New York, a 38-year-old woman who emigrated from El Salvador said she was the victim of domestic violence twice but was too scared to report it to the police.
She said the second attack was carried out by a man for whom she cooked and cleaned his home. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of shame and fears of deportation, said he raped her, took nude photos of her and threatened to post them on social media if she tried to go to police. He then began stalking her, she said.
Noemi Sanchez, regional coordinator for the Long Island Department of Agriculture and Migrants, a nonprofit organization that supports farmworkers, works closely with the woman to boost her self-esteem and help her 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 working as a registered nurse, which “is helping me survive,” she said.
“I’ve really come a long way,” she added. “It wasn't easy. I had a lot of support behind me. They didn't let me down.”
