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Sexual Abuse Fueled by Abusive Immigration Language
Alternet
April 7, 2008
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Sexual Abuse Fueled by
Abusive Immigration Language
In all the furor over rising immigration rates in the U.S. -- often disguised as
concern over "illegal" immigration -- one story in particular demonstrates that
contrary to scare stories about the effect of immigration on this country, the
reality is that this country is often a scary and oppressive place for
immigrants. And immigrant women, having drawn the double whammy card, are
especially vulnerable.
A 22-year-old immigrant from Colombia exposed her immigration agent using the
threat of deportation to rape her, using her cell phone to tape the assault.
Unfortunately, as is all too common with these sorts of stories, most reports
describe the event as sex, even while making it clear that the sex is question
was coerced, and should be more accurately described as rape.
The story has hooks most likely because it's about how a common crime -- sexual
blackmail against immigrants and other women marginalized in society -- became
more difficult to hide and ignore because of new technologies. But despite the
dubious reasons why this story hit the mainstream news, the activist community
can still seize this opportunity to make two very important points: 1)
Immigration is a feminist issue and 2) The distinctions between "legal" and
"illegal" immigrants is red herring to distract from the fact that it's
immigrants, full stop,
who face oppression under a tidal wave of anti-immigration sentiment.
This woman's story demonstrates the way that the cut-and-dry distinctions
between illegal and legal immigrants touted by the Lou Dobbses of the world tend
to turn shades of gray when examined closely. Or actually, shades of paperwork.
The rape victim entered the U.S. legally on a tourist visa and overstayed, but
managed to enter the system to get her green card by marrying a citizen, which
all but the worst mouth-breathers accept as a legitimate way to get a green
card. Her story shows why it's front-loaded and racist to describe a human being
as "illegal," especially when her illegal actions were misdemeanors such that
they didn't even raise the ire of the law when she got her paperwork in order.
I've managed to drive a car before after letting my inspection lapse, and then
got the ticket straightened out by renewing my inspection sticker, an equivalent
crime. No one describes my very being as illegal, though. Though rape, on the
other hand, is not a minor crime and is earth-shattering enough that it's
acceptable to describe the people who commit that crimes as "rapists," I suspect
that rapists get called by that moniker less often than immigrants without their
paperwork in order get called "illegals."
Words like "illegals" dehumanize immigrants, whether or not they have their
paperwork in order, and that dehumanization makes immigrant women juicy targets
for assorted sexist oppressors, from anti-choicers to wife beaters to rapists,
as this woman's story shows. One
Honduran immigrant faced charges after trying to self-abort with an ulcer
medication, an attempt that failed to induce abortion, but was linked to her
giving birth to a premature infant who passed away. The same article notes that
a 22-year-old Mexican immigrant living in South Carolina was put in jail for
inducing her own abortion with the medication at home. That immigrant women
often resort to self-abortion should surprise no one. Not only is safe, legal
abortion financially daunting for a number of women, the atmosphere of
dehumanization of immigrants makes many women understandably eager to reduce
their encounters with authority figures of any type, including doctors.
Green card manipulation isn't just a trick practiced by immigration officials
wanting to control and dominate women, either. According to the
Family Violence Prevention Fund (PDF), many domestic abusers use threats
about immigration status to keep women in relationships with them. Whether
married to citizens or non-citizens, the quasi-legal status assigned to
immigrants means that many victims of domestic violence fear seeking help;
consequently, the rates of domestic violence are significantly higher for
immigrant women than women at large. Congress stepped in to create the
International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act, which gives immigrant women the
right to leave abusive marriages without being deported. It also requires that
men who go through "marriage broker" services to disclose their domestic
violence histories to potential brides.
If you ever want to despair of the human condition, Google the term "IMBRA" --
the vast majority of the results returned are authored by men outraged at these
entirely reasonable measures that keep men from beating their immigrant wives
and using green cards as leverage to perpetuate the violence. Strangely, few of
these websites argue that men should be given the direct right to beat women,
but it's hard to imagine what other worldview they could be operating under,
when they think that it should be perfectly legal for a man to threaten his wife
with deportation if she leaves him after a round of beating. If you are under
the incorrect impression that sexism is dead and feminism isn't needed anymore,
I recommend listening to the howls of men who think the government owes them the
right to treat immigrant women like a population available for their punching
bag and sexual assault needs. That goes double for you if you've ever sneered at
the term "intersections of oppression," because I can't think of a better
example myself.
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