Domestic abuse of immigrants is on the rise

Monday, May 20, 2002 | 9:14 a.m.

For seven years Maria endured abuse from her husband, convinced she could do nothing about it.

The two had crossed the border illegally from Mexico. He let her sell tamales from their house, but otherwise shut her in and kept her from building a life of her own. He also hit her.

He became a legal resident, but she didn't. He would tell her she better not leave him or go to the police, or she would be deported and never see their two children again.

"I had to work hard for her to trust me, since she thought nothing could save her and that even if she sought help, the Immigration and Naturalization Service would come after her," said Suzanne Ramos, victim's advocate for the Reno city attorney's office.

Maria -- whose last name was withheld -- represents a growing problem of domestic violence in the immigrant community in Nevada.

In normal circumstances the crime is a challenge for law enforcement and social services agencies to address because many cases go unreported and victims often do not cooperate with prosecutors.

In the immigrant community there are additional obstacles. The abuser often uses the victim's undocumented status as a weapon, threatening to have the victim deported if abuse is reported.

Experts say the problem will continue to grow as the state's immigrant population, mostly Hispanic, grows at a higher rate than the general population.

Though no agencies keep track of the number of undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence, those who work on the issue say the problem seems to be on the rise.

Ramos said she got about 100 calls a month from Spanish-speaking women who were victims of domestic violence in the first four months of 2002, compared with an average of 70 during the same period of 2001. About 90 percent were from undocumented immigrants, she said.

Maria, who was referred to Ramos when she filed a restraining order against her husband, was able to petition for a special visa under the Violence Against Women Act, a federal law passed in 1994 but still little-known. She became a resident in March and has left the state with her children to start a new life.

But dozens of others in the same situation don't know they have rights despite their lack of papers, and private and public agencies statewide are trying to spread the word.

Locally, Clark County Legal Services and Nevada Legal Services, both nonprofit agencies, have been offering free classes on the federal law since last December as part of a pro bono immigrant protection project.

"When we decided to create the project late last year, it was because we saw a growing need," Barbara Buckley, executive director for Clark County Legal Services, said.

Liliana Loftman, lead attorney for the agency, said she gets about 15 calls a week on the issue, and that their classes, held every three weeks, are full.

Roxana Castillo, paralegal for Nevada Legal Services, said the two agencies together have about 45 visa petition cases involving domestic violence in progress.

Buckley's nonprofit helped organize the second annual state summit on battered immigrants in Las Vegas earlier this month, with domestic violence workers, national experts from the INS and some of the federal law's authors.

"We did the summit because many people working in law enforcement or at shelters for women still don't know about the legal remedies available to immigrants in this situation," Buckley said.

Silas Shawver, director of the Immigrant Workers' Citizenship Project, a nonprofit founded last year to help immigrants become citizens, was at the summit. He said he sees undocumented immigrants in his office who are victims of domestic violence and want to know how they can become legal residents and, eventually, citizens.