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A federal agent holds handcuffs outside an immigration court in Phoenix, Ariz.<\/span>Ross D. Franklin\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Monday, <\/span>as ICE swept<\/a> Los Angeles with raids in President Donald Trump\u2019s escalating drive<\/a> for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, a client of the Survivor Justice Center had an appointment for a court hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n The purpose was to secure a permanent, five-year restraining order against her abuser, who had already violated a temporary restraining order, according to Carmen McDonald, executive director of the organization, which supports immigrant survivors of domestic violence. The woman had been dealing with extensive physical abuse, McDonald said, which\u2014coupled with her abuser\u2019s violation of a prior order\u2014made getting stronger protection critical.<\/p>\n But on Tuesday, the day after the hearing was to take place, McDonald learned from a staffer that the survivor had not shown up. Based on the woman\u2019s immigration status, prior concerns she had shared with staff, the fact that ICE has been ramping up arrests at courthouses<\/a>, and the agency\u2019s ongoing raids across LA<\/a>, McDonald and her staff believe the woman was likely afraid of being detained. As of Thursday, their client remains missing\u2014\u201clikely back with her abuser,\u201d McDonald says. If so, she could be in serious danger: Advocates say survivors wind up at increased risk just after they file for a restraining order or try to leave an abuser.<\/p>\n \u201cShe literally had to choose [between] physical harm or potential [ICE] custody,\u201d said McDonald, who added that the survivor had a pathway to citizenship independently from her abuser. McDonald believes that \u201cit\u2019s the fear and the tearing apart of families that kept her in a dangerous situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe literally had to choose: physical harm or potential [ICE] custody.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n McDonald is one of a half-dozen domestic violence service providers in the LA area who told Mother Jones<\/em> that the increased presence of ICE<\/a> over the past week is creating a chilling effect for their organizations and the undocumented survivors they serve. Despite President Donald Trump\u2019s claims he would<\/a> \u201cprotect women,\u201d advocates contend that intense immigration enforcement<\/a> in LA and elsewhere is putting women and LGBTQ people, who experience the majority of domestic violence, at increased risk by making them less likely to seek help for fear of being detained.<\/p>\n A recent federal policy change allowing<\/a> immigration enforcement at domestic violence shelters and similar organizations has also created more barriers for undocumented survivors, who advocates say already deal with abusers threatening to report them to ICE or take their children out of the country as means of control.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you send enforcement agents into courthouses and you take such broad immigration actions, you\u2019re actually making it less safe for survivors because of this chilling effect,\u201d said Connie Chung Joe, chief executive officer of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. \u201cNow victims are more scared about getting detained or separated from their children and family, and that becomes scarier than [not] being able to protect themselves against their abusers.\u201d<\/p>\n Local domestic violence advocates say the prospect of ICE appearing at shelters is their worst fear. That has become a more pressing concern since January, when the Trump administration rescinded<\/a> guidance<\/a> the Biden administration implemented characterizing domestic violence shelters and victim services centers, among others, as \u201cprotected spaces\u201d where immigration enforcement should not take place due to the harm it could inflict on a community. The Trump administration\u2019s updated guidance says ICE officials will make \u201ccase-by-case determinations regarding whether, where and when to conduct an immigration enforcement action in or near a protected area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Cristina Velez, legal and policy director at the immigrants\u2019 rights organization ASISTA, the policy change led to \u201ca flood of concerns and questions about what that meant for [domestic violence] orgs and how they could\u2026protect everyone at those locations.\u201d Several service providers in LA note that many of their staff are also from mixed-status families, making the concerns relevant to both staff and survivors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the fear and the tearing apart of families that kept her in a dangerous situation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The policy change already appears to be having an impact. On Wednesday, LA city councilor Hugo Soto-Martinez said<\/a> in a video posted to Instagram that ICE had shown up at a confidential domestic violence shelter, apparently in search of one person who was not present. \u201cHow they found out this information, we don\u2019t know,\u201d Soto-Martinez said in the video. (Federal laws protect<\/a> individual survivors\u2019 confidentiality, and many shelters keep their locations secret.) \u201cThese are places where people go and find refuge and try to be safe fleeing violence,\u201d the lawmaker added. (His office did not immediately provide further information on the alleged incident; spokespeople for ICE, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and LA Mayor Karen Bass did not immediately respond to questions from Mother Jones<\/em>.)<\/p>\n Chung Joe, McDonald, and two other LA service providers say their organizations have seen increases just this past week in survivors calling and asking for advice on how to navigate ICE. \u201cOur clients are calling and scared, asking, \u2018Can I go to my doctor\u2019s appointment? Can I go to this Pride event? Can I take my kids to school?\u2019\u201d McDonald said. She added that of the approximately 1,000 survivors her organization serves per year, 70 percent are immigrants and more than half of those are undocumented. Another LA-area service provider who is not being identified for fear of retaliation added: \u201cDomestic violence programs, rape crisis programs, should be safe sanctuaries, and we can\u2019t even guarantee that anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n LA-area service providers said they have ramped up \u201cknow your rights\u201d trainings and implemented pandemic-era precautions to avoid potential raids. One LA organization that supports South Asian survivors said that its staff has been working from home since Monday, leaving their in-person office temporarily closed. <\/p>\n Two other organizations located in areas close to raids also reported closing physical spaces where survivors can typically drop in to get resources; one provider said her organization left a note on its door instructing survivors to call their help line for assistance, and started what she calls \u201cdifficult conversations\u201d with clients in shelter about how to prepare for the worst-case scenario: line up emergency contacts, gather their documents, and designate someone safe to take care of their kids if they are detained. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if we\u2019re sending a client to sit in a lobby to wait for a service, [if] ICE will come in,\u201d <\/strong>the provider said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some providers say their clients have also been afraid to appear in-person for court <\/strong>hearings\u2014as McDonald believes her missing client was\u2014and have instead opted for virtual appointments. In California, state courts do not deport<\/a> undocumented people, who can access domestic violence restraining orders and other family court services regardless of their status. Immigrant survivors of domestic violence and related crimes can also often access<\/a> pathways to citizenship through special visas. But these protections can feel meaningless for undocumented <\/strong>survivors in light of Trump\u2019s mass deportation efforts coupled with ICE\u2019s increasing presence in and near courthouses. \u201cThey can\u2019t afford to be detained and separated from their children or their families, so they\u2019d rather just stay with their abusers,\u201d said Chung Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we keep these individuals from walking through the doors to any of these facilities because of fear, then as society, we have failed them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Some lawmakers have floated special protections for domestic violence shelters that they say are newly relevant in light of what\u2019s happening in LA. Susan Rubio, a Democratic state senator in California, has put forth a bill<\/a> that would prohibit immigration enforcement in private sections of shelters for homelessness, human trafficking, and domestic violence, along with rape crisis centers, without a judicial warrant. \u201cIf we keep these individuals from walking through the doors to any of these facilities because of fear, then as society, we have failed them,\u201d said Rubio, who is also a survivor of domestic violence. The legislation has passed the Senate and has been referred for committee hearings in the Assembly. Similar legislation was recently proposed<\/a> in New York and signed into law<\/a> in Maryland. <\/p>\n Casey Swegman, director of public policy at Tahirih Justice Center, an organization that serves immigrant survivors, said she is \u201cheartened that states are taking up the mantle,\u201d adding that these bills \u201cempower the staff at those agencies to leverage the law to better implement policies at their shelter.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n At the federal level, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) has reintroduced<\/a> the WISE Act in this session of Congress, a bill that offers a slate of additional protections for immigrant survivors, including prohibiting enforcement at domestic violence shelters and similarly sensitive locations. \u201cWhen ICE shows up at domestic violence shelters or arrests survivors seeking help, it only empowers abusers, who too often use immigration status as a threat to keep people in abusive situations. This also impacts public safety overall by making immigrants fearful of local police and less likely to report abuse,\u201d Jayapal said in a statement provided to Mother Jones<\/em>.<\/p>\n As promising as those bills may be, advocates say they cannot stem the immediate fear facing undocumented survivors, in LA and across the country. \u201cOur clients are already living in fear,\u201d McDonald, from Survivor Justice Center, points out. \u201cNow, they\u2019re afraid at home and they\u2019re afraid in the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If you or someone you care about is experiencing or at risk of domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by texting \u201cstart\u201d to 88788 or calling 800-799-SAFE (7233) or visiting <\/em>thehotline.org<\/a>. The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors also offers<\/em> a list of resources<\/em><\/a>, and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence maintains <\/em>a directory<\/em><\/a> of organizations across the state.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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