Undocumented Immigrants Face Abuse at the Hands of Smugglers and U.S. Citizens

By Andrew Benfield
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

ARIZONA, United States – Seven human smugglers, or “coyotes,” were arrested on October 20, 2007 after sheriff’s deputies raided a house expected to house illegal immigrants.  Officials estimated that 43 undocumented immigrants were found to be housed in the raided home. 

Captain Paul Chagolla, representative for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, said, “The toilets [in the house] were filled with human waste, and buckets were dispersed throughout the house as makeshift toilets.”  Also, Chagolla suggested that there was nearly no food within the home. 

In addition to the deprivation to food and toilets, the undocumented immigrants were subject to physical torture.  Common forms of torture included assaults, threats with a gun and wrapping a plastic bag around the head of an immigrant before submerging their head in an unflushed toilet.  Some immigrants reported that the coyotes put a gun to their head and demanded money.  Unfortunately, the abuse documented in the October 20 raid is common in the business of smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States. 

After establishing themselves in the United States, undocumented immigrants still face the possibility of abuse.  Undocumented women immigrants face a high risk of domestic abuse within the United States.  The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates that one in four women will fall victim to domestic violence at some point during their adulthood.  However, the Coalition suggests that the likelihood of domestic abuse is greatly increased for undocumented immigrant women.  A majority of the abusers are United States citizens who “refuse to apply for legal status for their spouses to keep them isolated.” 

Common abuse techniques used by the male abusers are accusations of infidelity, “jail-like isolation from family and friends” and sexual abuse.  These undocumented women immigrants become vulnerable to abuse because their immigration status is often tied to the discretion of their abuser.  The male U.S. citizen threatens his immigrant wife with deportation in order maintain their obedience. 

The United States has taken steps to react to the growing problems of abuse among undocumented immigrant women.  In 1994, Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act that provided a caveat for battered undocumented immigrants married to U.S. citizens.  This caveat gave these women the right to apply for legal residency on their own rather than “depending on their husbands to petition for them.”  In 2000, Congress expanded the right to special visas to these women regardless of their relationship to their abuser. 

For more information, please see:

BOT! - Police: 'Coyotes' tortured migrants - 20 October - 2007

Tuscon Citizen - Deputies: Smugglers nabbed at torture site - 22 October 2007

USA Today - Domestic Abuse Rises Among Illegal Immigrants - 1 March 2005

Las Americas - Deportation Threat Keeps Many Battered Women Silent - 21 February 2005