"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

Legal and illegal immigration to receiving countries such as the United States continues to grow exponentially as the global economy rewards capital's desire for cheap, flexible labor from the South. The U.S.-Mexico border acts as the conduit for workers who, in turn, seek to establish stable homes for themselves and their children. Clearly, domestic violence diminishes home security at the individual and family level. However, the structural contraction of the state's responsibility for the public good through the reduction of assistance to the economically marginalized has resulted in the feminization of poverty among immigrants specifically, and among the stigmatized, nearly invisible population of illegal crossers especially. Still, undocumented-immigrant battered women seek safety and security through such strategies as border crossing. Despite immigration reform and intensified border patrol, women like Gloria, Chave, Sonia, and Jazmin continue to survive, albeit as members of one of the most marginalized communities in the Southwest borderland.

Notes

1 Pseudonyms are used for all immigrant women.

2 AYUDA, Inc., is a nonprofit community-based organization located in Washington D.C. that has provided legal services on immigration and domestic violence since 1971. In 1990, the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVFPF) and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) collaborated with AYUDA to plan the first national conference on immigrant and refugee women's rights. Soon thereafter, the three agencies joined together to found the National Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant Women (now the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women). In 1999, the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund became a codirector of the network, along with the FVPF and the NIP-NLG .

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