Scared into silence: Fearing deportation, immigrant women seldom report domestic violence

Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

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Susana Ramos says Nevada is not doing enough for battered immigrant women.

As a victim's advocate for the Reno city attorney's office, she gets calls every day from Hispanic women who are victims of sexual assault or domestic violence.

She has detected a pattern in their stories. Many of the women say their husbands or boyfriends threaten to inform the Immigration and Naturalization Service of their undocumented status if they dare report the abuse.

Ramos decided something needed to be done to get the word out to immigrant women that reporting the crime will not get them exported. She is the driving force behind seminars set for later this month in Verdi, near Reno, and in Las Vegas.

At the seminars, attendees will learn about the rights of undocumented immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence.

Ramos said immigrant women are calling her office in greater numbers. She said her office received 60 calls in June but only 24 the previous June.

"They mention how their husbands or boyfriends threaten them with deportation if they go to police," Ramos said. "There are many cases where they have children born here, so the man says, 'I'll turn you in to the INS and keep the kids.' This scares them to death."

She said the past decade's increase in the Hispanic population statewide from 10.4 to 19.7 percent of the total population will tend to increase the problem.

Metro Police Officer George Vince is a member of the department's Hispanic American Resource Team. Because immigrants are generally afraid to call police, his team was formed to reach out to immigrant crime victims.

In a recent one-month period, he said he talked with four immigrant Hispanic women whose abusive husbands had threatened them with deportation if they went to authorities.

"This is a reality, a trend," Vince said. "It's getting bigger."

Victims do not have to fear reporting a crime against them, Vince said, because officers investigate immigrant status only in those cases where someone is caught committing a crime.

Sandra Marucci works at the Crisis Call Center in Reno, which helps women from all over the state.

"What often occurs is that the husband or boyfriend has legal status here in the United States and he uses this as a symbol of power," Marucci said. "The woman often has no job and doesn't speak the language, so she really doesn't see any way out of the abusive situation.

"We've seen a 70 percent increase in Hispanic callers in the last year, going from 326 to 556 calls," Marucci said. "Many of these had to do with domestic violence."

Susan Reid, director of Community Action Against Rape, with staff in Las Vegas, Laughlin, and Mesquite, said her organization is trying to extend its reach in the Hispanic community.

Since May, four of her 25 volunteers are Spanish-speaking. Her center is also publishing brochures in Spanish and looking to hire Spanish-speaking counselors.

"We just want to get the message out that it's OK to report the crime, and that there are laws to protect them," Reid said.

Leni Marin is associate director of the San Francisco-based Family Violence Prevention Fund and advised authors of the Violence Against Women Act. This law was passed in 1994 and authorized again in 2000.

It allows immigrant women who have been domestic violence victims to petition for permanent residency without depending on their spouses. Before the law was passed, the women needed the sponsorship of their husbands. The intricacies of this law will be discussed at the seminars.

"Battered and abused immigrant women are not always aware that these laws exist and they don't trust government agencies to help them," Marin said.

In Nevada, Asians are the second largest immigrant community after Hispanics. In 1990, Asians numbered 35,232, or 2.9 percent of the total population; by the 2000 Census, they had reached 90,266, or 4.5 percent.

Mie Linstrom, who works at the Las Vegas Korean Family Counseling Center, said, "We see situations where women who are suffering abuse are waiting for their green cards, and the man tells them they won't get the cards if they go to authorities. Also, most Korean women think they can't talk to a stranger about these problems."

Sgt. Russell Shoemaker, of Metro's Sexual Assault Division, said, "We've seen that sexual assault is happening in all immigrant communities, and they often don't report it -- both because of cultural practices and because of control issues, where the man is threatening the woman with deportation if she goes to police."

Ramos said cultural issues may be linked to the problem of battered immigrant women.

"The fact is, not all cultures are the same and machismo and the role of the church are very important in our community," she said.

"Men still tend to exercise a lot of control. This is a communication problem and it's worth taking into account when dealing with Hispanic women immigrants who have been victims.

"As for the church, it's an undeniable influence in our countries. Many women call me saying their mothers and grandmothers tell them to go to church and confess, and to go back home and be good wives."