"He Has Me Tied with the Blessed and Damned Papers": Undocumented-Immigrant Battered Women in Phoenix, Arizona

Human Organization, Summer 2004 by Salcido, Olivia, Adelman, Madelaine

Undocumented-immigrant battered women in the borderlands have been pushed and pulled across the U.S.-Mexico border seeking socioeconomic advancement, maintenance of sociocultural ties, and physical security for themselves and their children. Legality and illegality play a central role in the lives of these women due to a combination of factors, such as how immigration policies linked to the needs of corporate capitalism have led to the creation of the "undocumented" population in the U.S. Southwest. Based on ethnographic research on battering among immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona, we bring a domestic violence perspective to immigration policy and an immigration perspective to domestic violence research to trace how battering contributes to illegality and how immigration policies contribute to men's battering. We explore how border crossing and criminality can constitute survival as well as battering strategies and reflect on the place of kin and family in how immigrant women from Mexico struggle simultaneously around being "illegal" and battered. We conclude the analysis with a reflection on the theoretical and policy implications of this study.

Key words: undocumented immigrants, battered women, U.S. immigration policy, U.S.-Mexico border, Phoenix

In 1992 Gloria1 illegally crossed the Mexican border into Arizona, "escorted" by a coyote, and eventually made her way to Phoenix to live with her sister. Gloria established a life in the United States and earned money cleaning houses and caring for children. She also formed a relationship with a man she met through a mutual friend. When she became pregnant, he "took off to find work in another state." Gloria decided to return to Mexico with her baby daughter, and for about a year she worked "in the field from dawn to duskpara mal comer y vestir, to eat and dress poorly." Then a friend in the United States invited Gloria to assist her cleaning houses. For a thousand dollars her sister hired another coyote to secure Gloria's passage to Phoenix. She worked to repay her sister, remit money to her parents in Mexico, and support her child, Claudia.

When Gloria met her current husband, "at first everything was fine. I think what most attracted me to him," she explained, "was that he was so attentive. To be honest with you, I was lonely and at the time he was willing to listen. He was patient.... He didn't seem to mind that I had a daughter and he had his papers and a good job, so I thought it was time to think about getting married. The people who knew me thought it was a good idea, even my roommate!" After the wedding, he changed. "He'd say that it was time I had more time for myself, my daughter, and him. So, I stopped working with my friend and I stayed at home. I spent more and more time at home and his demands became greater and greater. At first it was having the dinner ready when he got home, then that it be warm and served by the time he would walk in the door. This was also the first time he slapped me." Soon, he was staying away from home entire weekends "using Claudia as an excuse to not come home . . . because he needed his rest." Gloria disagreed but "he would tell me that if I didn't like it there was the door. He knew I had stopped working and that without papers it was hard for me to find a job."

In some ways, Gloria's story sounds familiar to domestic violence researchers and advocates. She entered her marriage in good faith, seeking companionship, economic stability, and a father for her child. After the wedding, her husband cut her off from work, friends, and family, and managed her whereabouts and their interactions through intimidation and violence. Her family and friends provided some support, but also constituted obstacles to her safety. But Gloria is an undocumented woman from Mexico who lives in the United States illegally: without the sponsorship of her husband, a lawful permanent resident (LPR), she will remain in legal limbo, unable to seek legal employment, and possibly face deportation and contestation of the custody of her U.S.-born daughter.

In this article we analyze the lives of battered undocumented-immigrant women in the U.S. Southwest who, like Gloria, have been pushed and pulled across the international border seeking socioeconomic advancement, the maintenance of social and cultural ties, or physical security. We are interested in revealing the place of legality and illegality in the lives of immigrant women from Mexico who strategize about being undocumented andbattered. First, we review the history and political economy of U.S. immigration policies that led to the creation of the undocumented in the Southwest. Second, we discuss the intersection of domestic violence and immigration. Third, we examine women's narratives about links between illegality and battering. Specifically, we explore how border crossing and criminality constitute survival as well as battering strategies; reflect how kin on both sides of the border provide support to or endanger immigrant battered women from Mexico; observe how immigration policies and immigrant women's resulting undocumented status contribute to or contain men's battering; and indicate how batterers' criminal histories shape undocumented women's survival strategies. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and policy implications.