Last year, C. paid close attention to a presidential election for the first time in her life. A 31-year-old mother of four, C. was born in Mexico and has lived in Los Angeles since she was two-years-old. After Donald Trump won the Republican nomination, C., who asked me not to use her name because she fears being deported, watched with alarm as his nativist message swelled the defiant movement behind him like a steroid. Unlike most observers, she was convinced he would win: “I know there’s a lot of racist people,” she told me. “A lot.”
C. was born in Puebla, Mexico. She is pretty and stylish, and was dressed in black the day I spoke to her. Despite her prescience about the election, even after Trump was sworn into office, she held onto a sliver of hope that all his hate speech was just a ploy to get votes. Then, last month, President Trump issued his temporary ban on travel into the United States by refugees and the citizens of 7 Muslim-majority countries. That was the moment when C. finally let go of any doubt that the danger she faced from the new administration was real.
She has a very specific reason to fear the Trump administration. Her husband, an American citizen, is currently serving a 6-month sentence for domestic violence, and C. does not yet have full custody over their children. If she is deported, her children will remain in the U.S. with their father. They will be alone to face his near homicidal rage.
Even before Trump became president, C.’s fear of deportation, combined with the lackluster response by the police to her reports of abuse, discouraged her from seeking police protection and trapped her in a horrific cycle of violence at the hands of her husband. Now, with Trump calling for direct collaboration between local police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), any shred of trust she had left in law enforcement has disappeared, making an unimaginably difficult situation an impossible one.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order to cut off federal funds to “sanctuary jurisdictions” — cities and municipalities that forbid local police from assisting federal agents in identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants. On Tuesday, the President issued a set of memos reiterating his directive to ICE and Customs and Border Protection to deputize local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws. Elected officials in sanctuary cities have defended their policies by arguing that collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE erodes trust between immigrant communities and the police. Immigrants are less likely to report crimes or act as witnesses, sanctuary advocates claim, when doing so could result in their deportation.
Even in Los Angeles, which has — at least on paper — prohibited its police officers from engaging in immigration enforcement since 1979, immigrants like C. are wary of the police. C. was taught by her parents from a young age to avoid the police at all costs. When I asked her about the Los Angeles Police Department’s non-cooperation policy with ICE, her response was instantaneous: “It’s a lie,” she said.
“LAPD cooperates more than they suggest in their public statements,” Emi MacLean, an attorney with the National Day Laborers Organizing Network, told me. Special Order 40, the 1979 policy, allows for “significant cooperation” with ICE, she explained. “We’re concerned that LAPD shares information with ICE and have conducted joint operations that have expanded in scope, which has led to people being deported.”
If the Trump administration gets its way, things will move much, much faster in this direction, in Los Angeles and throughout the country, and undocumented victims of domestic violence will find themselves at the mercy of their abusers.
It was C.’s profound distrust of the police that prevented her from reporting her husband’s violence, which began on their honeymoon, when she was pregnant. Her husband is an alcoholic and would drink every weekend. Every time he got drunk, he would beat her. C. wanted desperately to leave him, but without documentation, she could only get employment in the underground economy. She was afraid she would end up on the street with her kids.
C.’s husband used her immigration status against her. He kept promising he would get her a green card when he filed his taxes, but he never did. “He wanted me to depend on him for everything,” C. said. He would routinely threaten to call immigration authorities on her. “That’s part of the reason I stayed with him,” she told me. “I was scared to get deported and have my kids taken away from me.”
One day in 2013, C.’s husband was choking and hitting her, and her son, who was 9 years old, dialed 911. When his father saw that his son had called the police, he attacked him. When the police arrived, they arrested C.’s husband.
C.’s husband was eligible for bail, and C. was afraid that someone would post it and that he would come after her again. So she and her children were forced to move into a homeless shelter (C. had lived in a homeless shelter once before, as a child, when her parents lost their Section 8 housing due to their immigration status). Without a work permit, C. could only get the kinds of jobs that paid in cash. She had no pay stubs to show to a landlord to prove a steady source of income.
After a month in jail, C.’s husband was released on probation, given a temporary restraining order, and was required to take classes in parenting and domestic violence. During this time, C. had managed to obtain a work permit. She got a job at Target and found an apartment in the San Fernando Valley.
But in 2014, after her husband’s probation ended and his restraining order expired, he came back for her. He saw that she had a car, a job, and an apartment. He broke into her apartment, took her car keys, and crashed her car. Then he drove it back into her parking spot. C. called the police to report the theft, but they told her she had no evidence he was the one who took the car. “It’s just your word,” C. said she was told.
Then C.’s husband started showing up at her work, and coming into her apartment while she was home. He beat her up and raped her. Even though she feared deportation, C. called the police over and over. But they did nothing for her. “We get those calls all the time and you guys always go back,” one officer told her, referring to domestic violence victims. After that, she stopped calling them. “You guys will do something once I’m dead,” she recalls thinking. “Probably that’s what it’s going to take for you guys to realize my kids are in trouble.”
C. started having nightmares about being killed by her husband. She worked out a plan with a friend. If she texted the numbers “911” her friend would call the police.
One day last December, C’s husband was punching her in the stomach and slapping her. He told their son, “I want you to see me kill your mom.” She managed to text her friend, and the police came and arrested her husband once again.
He was given a six-month sentence for his crime. He’s scheduled for release in May. This time, he will be released into a country in which the president is trying to force local police departments to round up and deport people like his wife, making it less likely that she will ever dare to call the police on him again.
Since Trump became president, C.’s fear of the police has surged. When she sees a police officer, she makes no eye contact and turns around and walks the other way. When she leaves the domestic violence shelter she currently lives in with her children, she avoids walking down major thoroughfares, preferring to zig zag through residential areas. C.’s son doesn’t want to go to school anymore, fearing that his mom could be taken from him while he’s there.
“I’m freaked out, paranoid,” C. told me. But her fear is not irrational. ICE has been conducting raids throughout Southern California, including areas of the San Fernando Valley near her old apartment. Last week, ICE agents in El Paso, Texas, entered a county courthouse and arrested an undocumented victim of domestic violence who had just been granted a protective order.
Jennie Pasquarella, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told me she has had numerous clients in situations similar to C.’s. “It’s a well-founded fear,” she said.
C. currently has a U visa —a type of temporary visa issued to crime victims who are willing to help the police in their investigation — and in normal times that would provide her with protection against deportation. But these are abnormal times, and C. was undocumented for most of her life. There’s a sense among immigrants, their attorneys, and their advocates that under this administration anything could happen. “I think her fears are founded,” C.’s lawyer told me. “I wouldn’t have said that a few months ago.”
Trump’s deportation agenda rests on the premise that undocumented immigrants in the United States wish to remain here to avail themselves of employment opportunities and government services. But C. is so distressed with her precarious existence in America that she wants to move to Mexico, a country she has not lived in or even visited since she was an infant. Her parents moved back to Puebla, and she hopes to move there with her children. “At least I won’t be walking in fear,” she told me. But without full custody, she can’t take her children with her. Until she obtains it, she’s trapped in Trump’s America.
“I try to be strong, like it don’t bother me,” she told me, her voice breaking. “But I’m scared. Because my kids are all I have.”
Later, when I asked her if she had anything to say that we hadn’t discussed in our interview, C. added a note of defiance to her despair.
“I’m proud to be a Mexican, no matter what,” she said. “Proud. Donald Trump can’t take that away from us.”
The trans woman who was arrested in court while o
Proud to be Mexican then go back to Mexico!
At the end she said she was proud to be Mexican??? Does she not want to be American? That’s all we hear, is that not true or are we being fed a line? What is the answer American or Mexican?
Ok, so first of all, having HUUUUGE mental problems does not mean you get amnesty from immigration laws. I sympathize with her situation, but since when is it the US’s responsibility to care for all of the abused children of the world? If it were up to me, we would take ALL the children, but since we aren’t doung that and CAN’T do that, why does this siruaption mean we DO intervene? The problems associated with that are too huge to even consider. Secondly, why does the Intercept think that the only choices here are mom or abusive dad? Since both of these parents sound ridiculous, i think the DCS who take them away from these people. And thank god, cuz the parents sound like walking nightmares.
But the real question no one EVER addresses is Mexico’s role in all of this. Mexico is not a poor country. Their people are poor but they have an oligarchy just like ours. Why is the social support of the US required to take responsibility for the impoverished people of another country, for the tens of millions of impoverished in another country, when they have their own share of sickeningly rich, sickeningly callous billionaires? Why do you guys ne er attack Mexico for allowing this to happen? Why do American businesses have to provide jobs via bordertown businesses and factories? Do you not think it is time for the idiots in Mexico’s ruling class to step up to the plate?
I understand her fears but what I don’t understand is why does she have 4 kids with an abuser?
“It was C.’s profound distrust of the police that prevented her from reporting her husband’s violence, which began on their honeymoon, when she was pregnant.” ….
“One day in 2013, C.’s husband was choking and hitting her, and her son, who was 9 years old, dialed 911. When his father saw that his son had called the police, he attacked him. When the police arrived, they arrested C.’s husband.”
This woman is not fit to care for these children and they should be taken from both parents. She knows this guy is unstable and dangerous, yet she keeps her children in that environment. It’s called NEGLECT, and there is no excuse for it. He beat her on their honeymoon while she was pregnant. How many more ‘signs’ does she need? With a regular pattern of alcohol abuse and violence as described, I seriously doubt this is the first time the husband “attacked” any of the children.
Perhaps the author should focus more on what would be best for these kids rather than use their story to pump his own anti-deportation agenda. In this case, terminating parental rights for both parents is the best option. Whether the mother is deported is irrelevant.
Were this any other time, this article would be focused on the real story here. Sad.
100% correct. kids should be raised in foster care. would be much better off.
Sorry, you did not have to have four children. You could have left earlier. Knock on the pope door, he will take care of you, or you can stay withnCrookdClintOs basements– they are willing to share.
Another fake news story about another lying snowflake.
Lawbreakers fear the consequences of their actions–why is this a story? I’m sure that you could write stories about mothers who fear losing their kids because they’re running a meth lab or committing some other crime, so why the fascination with illegal aliens? We have these laws for a reason, so why are some people angry when these laws get enforced?
Eleven or so million illegals living in the USA who are facing deportation and Canada, which already sold out Mexico as Trump regnegotiates NAFTA, doesn’t want them either rather than mounting a super effort to bring many here. Canada is worse than Trump. Prime Minister Trudeau and Canada’s Parliament are, at best, horrible hypocrites.
What a second. I thought you automatically got a Green Card if you marry a US citizen. Right?
Think they become automatic US Citizen if they marry a US Citizen. Look what happened to Obama. His father was a Kenyan, yet he became POTUS because his mother was a US citizen.
President Obama is automatically a U.S. citizen because he was born in the United States. It doesn’t matter who his parents were or what their citizenship is — the law says that if you’re born here, you’re a citizen. In his case, his mother was also a citizen.
if you divorce them, you have to leave though. She was looking for a free citizenship and that can’t be done by marrying someone you don’t love or want to be with.
I wish I could say that the misogyny in these comments is incredible, but unfortunately, it is quite common. It certainly shouldn’t be a surprise that this woman was trapped in this relationship for so many years considering the attitudes displayed here.
Thanks for a thoughtful article. Sexism is a tricky subject to write about since sexism occurs within the close family sphere as well as the wider community, unlike other forms of prejudice. I think you did a good job of understanding and portraying the victim. I wish I could help her.
You can blame some of the louder voices on the Left for that, for seeing inequality everywhere to the point where words like “misogyny” have lost their meaning.
While I doubt you’d agree with me on that, I do agree with you. What this man is doing is reprehensible, and the LAPD is clearly still bent on maintaining it’s decades-old reputation.
She was pregnant when they married. Her husband’s violence began on their honeymoon. Despite that, she didn’t return to Mexico and instead stayed with him and had that child and three more children. Somehow, I don’t feel any sympathy for this woman. Her troubles are self-created.
““I’m proud to be a Mexican, no matter what,” she said. “Proud. Donald Trump can’t take that away from us.””
I wonder if she knows where it is.
precious –
CULTURE CLASH. Mexicans who live on the ground, prefer siestas (as do i), maintain a macho first attitude, and cling like clan to each other…. does not quite fit the American way.
the mexican invasion does not sit right with me. just like getting robbed by wallstreet thieves, not willing to take the hit – not a punching bag. i would be just as pleased to see mexicans go back to mexico as i would be to see a bigger wall around wallstreet.
The article explains she’s lived in the US since she was 2. Do you understand what it would mean for a low income individual to just pack up and try to start over in a country they know virtually nothing about?
Let’s see what else the empathy impaired have to say in this thread…
You mean the way her parents did?
This woman is the victim of her own defeatist attitudes, and the longer she waits to fix herself, the harder it will be on her and her kids. She’s an adult and should behave accordingly.
I prefer empathy impaired when it comes to public policy than empathy ruled, there are so many fuzzy thinkers on the left.
Immigration s/b designed to benefit the US, not the immigrant. We already have too many unskilled laborers here. If you want their wages to rise, there needs to be less of them.
You seem to confuse fuzzy thinking with principled vs. utilitarian thinking. You believe everything should be decided according to what will produce the most benefit to you or a group of people you identify with. That sort of thinking can justify virtually anything.
And its progressive left readership goes, “Duh? “
…and the sequestered pillow cushion venue sprinkled with a couterie of globalist attendants.
I happy that Glenn has been removed from a wider audience of serendipitous readership potential and delicately placed on the top shelf of a niche blog out of reach of the hoi polloi with the generous assistance of Silicon Valley money.
“Abusive husband” isn’t on the list of critera for residency and work approval.
Can’t you find something else more valuable than ramble incessantly here?
Why, because the points are spot on and you disagree with them?
The fact that she was 2 when she first entered the US (i.e. she didn’t commit an immigration violation, for the same reason that a 2 year old can’t be accused of a crime) should absolutely be a reason to grant her permanent resident status, on humanitarian grounds.
I agree with this entirely. So someone that was born here can stay, but someone who came here when they were 2 cannot? In either case, the person has no memory of any other life. The rest of you folks can cite laws all you want. I want to know the moral or even the rational argument for this, because it sounds to me like it’s just a cold technicality.
I would agree with something like that. A trade off being she can’t ever be a citizen, and neither can her anchor babies.
Finally a President who wants to change the incentive structure of immigration!
I don’t understand why this trade-off is necessary. If she’s that ingrained in American society and, indeed, paying taxes, she should be allowed to vote. No taxation without representation.
I heard on the radio today that President Obama deported 3 million people and that about half were convicted criminals. I also know, as a former immigration attorney, that he deported many people who left families behind in America. Stop the alarmism, please, and deal honestly with the issues. I do not support President Trump’s actions, but I did not support President Obama’s actions toward immigrants
People who do not have criminal records do not have to worry. The main problem is that some Mexicans have joined the police and ICE, and they are the ones who are hyperactive against their own ex-countryfolks. So if C lives in a community where there are no Mexican or BLM types law enforcement chaps then she should be reasonably safe.
However because people may be proven to have criminal records at some point in the future…
http://www.blacklistednews.com/UK_Towns_Told%3A_Don%E2%80%99t_Name_Streets_After_Famous_People_In_Case_They_Are_Pedophiles/56946/0/38/38/Y/M.html
Pedophiles should have public urinals sewer mains named after them, if you agree.
That’s false. New ICE orders are clear: Anyone undocumented is fair game, including this woman, who entered the US when she was 2.
If her husband was abusing her from the time of the honeymoon, why have four kids with him? She must take responsibility for her actions and not put them on other people. Is she so special that she thinks she can come into and stay in a country illegally when the rest of us have to go through legal means? This woman is selfish. It’s always someone’s fault for her misery.
ACTUALLY THIS WOMAN IS LEGAL SINCE SHE IS MARRIED TO AN AMERICAN FELON IN JAIL……SHE HAS A TYPICAL STORY OF AN ABUSIVE HUSBAND ,,,,,WHO ABUSES AND IS AN ALCOHOLIC…..SO UNLESS YOU ARE THE HUSBAND ,,,YOU OBVIOUSLY HATE WOMAN……MAYBE YOU SHOULD TRY MEN….LOL
She should be a permanent resident, given that her husband is American. But the guy has been using that against her and has never moved the process forward. It’s a horrendous situation, where she’s clearly the victim, and the nativists here are too sociopathic to see that.
@Dj: She didn’t choose to enter the US illegally.
Being married to a citizen doesn’t confer any status on an immigrant.
Dj you are either delusional, or very immature, or Both. This Lady was brought here as an infant, is not the Children’s fault they have a Abusive Father, and since the Father,and the Children are USA Citizens
They Have Every Right to All the Legal Help Their Country Can Assist them with. Also she is Automatically a USA Citizen because she married a USA Citizen. Where’s your
Compassion as A Human Being?
TRY TO …
HAVE COMPASSION FOR ALL HUMAN BEINGS … TRY
“She must take responsibility for her actions and not put them on other people.”
Your church-of-psychology indoctrination is showing (along with a vast ignorance about relationship perps and domestic relationship-hostage-taking situations). Perps are responsible, not vics. Stop drinking the victim-blaming-kool-aid.
“This woman is selfish. It’s always someone’s fault for her misery.”
Your point of view is what is selfish. And it is her nasty relationship-perp husband who is responsible for her misery.
“Is she so special that she thinks she can come into and stay in a country illegally when the rest of us have to go through legal means?”
What a MASSIVE WHINE!!! Are you f***in’ kidding me? Did you even read the article to know that she was a tiny two-year-old when she thought she was so special that she could just waltz right on into our country illegally?
Good grief. “Trump’s America.” Is it just me or has this site changed very quickly?
It’s now an official Wailing Wall for those who object to enforcing the laws of the country.
Hopefully, California will successfully petition the other states to secede so it can rejoin itself with Mexico and fly that flag proudly.
No, you’re just confused. The Intercept has always been adversarial to power, regardless of who’s in power.
Exactly. The Intercept highlights instances of the powerful taking advantage of the weak, and that happens to align with Liberal beliefs more often than not. And to The Intercept’s credit, they (usually) highlight the personal stories of people facing REAL oppression, rather than the perceived oppression special interest groups often whine about (no one cares if your race is underrepresented at the Emmys), plus they’re independent enough to point out when it’s happening within the Democratic party.
Please. Can’t you write something about Hillary Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speeches? Who is Donald Trump? I haven’t seen that name at The Intercept before.
They did, actually. Back when it was relevant. And there’s an article up critical of the current DNC chair. Have fun.
Utterly heartbreaking. I wish we had a domestic security detail that ANYONE being held in a domestic hostage situation like this one (yeah, the perp is in jail for now, but she’s still a hostage) could call to REMOVE THE PERP!!!! (Not the police btw.) Someone she could have called long ago to get rid of and put this nasty perp in his place. Relationship/domestic perps should leave, not the other way around! For all you idiots that say “why does she stay?” — if someone broke into your house and held you hostage, you wouldn’t expect the vic, completely dominated by the perp, to figure out how to get away and “leave” now would you? The house would be surrounded and the perp would be removed. Long-term love fraud/relationship usury/relationship assault/relationship hostage situations ARE NO DIFFERENT. These types of crimes just take place over a longer period of time.
And i wish this article would have explained how she could get custody before the six months are up (if there is a way). Pro bono anyone?
She should be scared they though all be scared. These are the consequences of sneaking in to our country or overstay ingredients a visa. She shouldn’t have put her children in this situation in the first place. She’s got none to blame but herself.
No, bob, she doesn’t need to blame herself. NOT her fault. And as a tiny little baby, she most certainly didn’t “sneak” into our country. (Did you read the article or did you just miss that detail?) Assuming you are a fully developed grownup (which includes full ethical development, by the way), where the HELL is your compassion?
ACTUALLY BEING MARRIED TO AN AMERICAN GIVES HER LEGAL RIGHTS
And everybody that looks like you, thinks like you, and acts like you. May you be raped, beaten, ignored by the authorities and then threatened by the authorities and then have some total asshole comment that it is all your fault.
And that goes for everyone else that agrees with him. I find it very disheartening to find that these are the people reading this blog, written by some of the worlds best journalists, while having the world’s worst thoughts. I am hoping you are just all trolls.
in other words, an illegal immigrant gets caught because she needed help from the government that she’s been fooling. And now she may be deported. Which would leave her kids with her husband, who is abusive. And Trump somehow made all of that happen? How?
It sounds to me like she’s kind of OK with the whole idea of going back to Mexico — it’s just that she can’t get custody of her kids from a multiply convicted abuser. Is that a Trump problem or some other kind of problem? He might just as well be taking his kids away into some gated fringe-Mormon community and she could be an American citizen out here singing the same sad song.
“He might just as well be taking his kids away into some gated fringe-Mormon community and she could be an American citizen out here singing the same sad song.”
What difference does it make, Wnt? And assuming you are a fully developed grownup (which includes full ethical development, by the way), where the HELL is your compassion?
Look, we lost the freaking election. And the reason why we lost is in large part that Democratic compassion depends on your ability to cross the border illegally, which very often depends on whether you pay a coyote who pays the Mexican cartels who kill people. The American people have told us that they are sick and tired of not being able to enforce the laws they wrote, and of people being rewarded if and only if they break those laws. We have a choice here. We can listen to them and try to find some other outlet for our compassion, or we can sit around and stand around making beautiful protests and comments and wondering why the Republicans still have the House, Senate, and Presidency every two years until the whole shithouse goes up in flames. Which is it?
C. should seek out an immigration attorney. If C has been granted a visa, then it seems that she has been here legally for the time she has had the visa.
I know from personal experience that if a non-US citizen has been in the country legally (on a visa) for a period of 5 years, then they can file for permanent resident status and obtain a greencard. This could be done independent of her husband. She may need to find someone to sponsor her. Perhaps she has some US citizen friend’s willing to help her out.
I know this to be the case, as this was the case with me and my spouse. Once she files the status change, she will be allowed to stay in the country legally until the outcome of the application.
Please don’t spoil the carefully contrived narrative implying this woman’s several problems (owing mostly to her serial bad judgement) somehow justify nullifying or ignoring long-standing immigration laws she finds inconvenient.
That’s not exactly right. It’s unlikely she’d get permanent resident status that way. It has to be done through marriage or through sponsorship by an employer.
mother of 4 fears….
ps, people in mainstreet have fears that the invasion of 40M people from south of the border are looking to seize control of the US and vote Mexico into power.
meanwhile this is what is going on
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4243194/California-police-officer-killed-traffic-accident.html
but wallstreet needs more people for their criminal currency scheme that demands ENDLESS GROWTH.