A few weeks ago, the country’s new “border czar” Tom Homan gave an interview to NBC News about the administration’s deportation plans. Responding to the concern that deporting millions of immigrants would disrupt the American economy, including in vital sectors like agriculture and construction, Homan responded in the language of women’s safety. “I think mass deportation and results of mass deportation are more important to this country than anything,” he said. “I don’t put a price on all these young women who’ve been raped and murdered. I don’t put a price on our national security.”
Homan’s interview is just one in a long line of messages by members of Congress and Trump administration officials that cite violence against women and girls as a rationale for restrictive immigration policies. Before the inauguration, Congress and the incoming administration advanced, or announced their attention to implement, four changes to immigration law that use the language of protecting women, but in reality facilitate mass detention and deportation with little or no due process. These changes also make it substantially harder for migrant survivors of domestic violence to leave abusive situations and safely report their abuse to the authorities.
The first two immigration bills advanced by the new Congress leave little doubt as to how this protection narrative will take shape. The Laken Riley Act, which derives its name from the tragic murder of Georgia woman Laken Riley by an immigrant who had previously committed property crimes, has little connection to protecting women like Riley from harm. Rather, it expands mandatory immigration detention of largely nonviolent immigrants at the staggering cost of $26.9 billion. The law has no provisions to exempt minor children, victims of human trafficking or domestic violence, or other vulnerable populations who commit minor crimes out of force or desperation. If enacted, the bill could result in minor children being detained in facilities only meant for adults and punish women who are trafficked or suffering from abuse.
By its title, the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act would appear to protect survivors of domestic violence and other gender-based crimes. In reality its provisions would increase migrant women’s vulnerability to domestic violence by handing a powerful tool for coercion back to abusers. The bill expands the definition of crimes like domestic violence, child abuse, and child neglect in federal immigration law, and requires that any person who “commits” one of these crimes (conviction not required) be subject to removal.
Abusers often falsely accuse their victims of engaging in domestic violence or child abuse. Under this bill, victims of abuse are vulnerable to arrest and prosecution if they act in self-defense. Victims are also subject to arrest and prosecution for “failing to protect” their children from witnessing their abuse—in effect punishing victims for being abused. If enacted, the law would add a substantial risk of deportation when a victim tries to leave her abuser or report her abuse to the authorities. This give abusers more power over their victims, allowing them to threaten their victims with deportation if they act to protect themselves and their children, and makes it significantly more difficult for women to get help if they are experiencing abuse.
The Trump administration has announced its intention to rescind ICE’s Protected Areas Policy, which will allow ICE agents unfettered discretion to enter “sensitive zones” like hospitals and domestic violence shelters to arrest and deport migrants. Knowing that they may be targeted by ICE in these emergency spaces will force women into impossible choices between their immediate safety and arrest and deportation.
The administration has also announced its intention to reinstate public charge regulations from the first Trump administration, which deter survivors from using emergency services like domestic violence shelters out of fear that it will later disqualify them from obtaining legal immigration status, for example through a US citizen spouse. The public charge regulations cut survivors off from critical services like non-emergency Medicaid, food stamps, and housing support to which they would otherwise be entitled, making it almost impossible for them to rebuild lives for themselves and their children after abuse.
Using the language of protecting women to advance unrelated policy goals is an old strategy. Protecting white women from violence committed by Black men was used to justify the practice of lynching during Jim Crow segregation; the violence derived from false and stereotyped fears about the inherent criminality of men of color. Historians have also documented how the imperative to protect women underwrote US colonial endeavors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by justifying overseas intervention, immigration restrictions, and other restrictive policies, often to the detriment of the women supposedly being protected.
Immigrant survivors need solutions that protect and support them, rather than policies that worsen the problem they seek to solve. The Women’s Refugee Commission urges Congress to look behind the titles or language used to message these bills to assess whether they really meet their stated goals of supporting women or protecting public safety. We encourage Congress to support legislation that genuinely protects immigrant survivors, including the WISE Act, which strengthens protections for survivors by expanding their access to immigration relief and necessary services, and legislation to protect sensitive zones. Policymakers can also take action to strengthen access to U and T visas, which provide support to victims of violent crime and human trafficking and allow them to cooperate safely with law enforcement. We should reject laws and policies that “protect women” in name only and advance those that reduce violence and support women and children rebuilding their lives after abuse.