Abuse in Immigrant Communities

Physical, emotional, sexual, and other kinds of abuse occur in all communities. Immigrants are vulnerable to the same kinds of abuse as everyone else, described on our Forms of Abuse page. Abusers may, however, use immigration status as an extra weapon of power and control, threatening to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement if a victim challenges or reports domestic or sexual violence. Those who are undocumented may be particularly vulnerable to this type of threat because they fear being deported if they challenge or report their abusers to law enforcement.

Another way that abusers who are U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents can target undocumented immigrants is through their ability to sponsor, or to refuse to sponsor, the immigrant survivor for their legal status. They can use this control as a weapon against their victims to keep them from reporting abuse. For instance, if abused immigrant survivors report domestic violence, their abusive “sponsor” may call, or threaten to call, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to tell them that their marriage was a fraud and that they want to withdraw their sponsorship. This is why Congress created special routes to status for immigrants who are abused by U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident spouses through the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Through VAWA, an abused immigrant can self-petition for legal permanent residence or can get a battered spouse waiver to remove the abusive spouse from the process of changing a conditional green card to a ten-year green card.

An abuser’s threat to try to jeopardize a survivor’s immigration status isn’t only reserved for undocumented immigrants, however. Even an immigrant with lawful permanent residence may lose his/her legal status if s/he is convicted of certain crimes or for other reasons.¹

¹ See INA § 237