Treating Undocumented Immigrants as Criminals Protects Rapists

When a woman is raped, questions on law enforcement's lips should be: What happened, who did it, and how can we find him? Health care professionals should be asking, What can we do to help you? Nobody should be asking for the survivor's immigration status, which is irrelevant to the top priorities: catching a rapist and treating his victim.

Yet, as Feministe points out in its series on Sexual Assault Awareness Month, many survivors of sexual violence fear to go to the police or hospital because of laws requiring that their immigration status be checked.

These laws are a blessing to rapists, who may target undocumented immigrant/refugee women precisely because they are less likely to go to the police. (Of course, as with any attempt to profile someone as "looking like" an undocumented immigrant, legal permanent residents and U.S. citizens will also wind up the targets of emboldened criminals.) It is a travesty of justice to prioritize punishing the minor administrative violation of being in the country illegally over the violent, shattering crime of rape. And survivors of abuse may actually be eligible for a little-known special U visa, making the insistence on finding out immigration status before taking action against the rapist even more absurd.

In addition to this, we have the problem of treating human trafficking victims as criminals who entered the country illegally. The fear of detention — jail, for all practical purposes, where the rate of sexual abuse is extremely high — and deportation keeps victims of trafficking for sex or forced labor (which often comes with a side of rape) from going to the police.

And, finally, "rape trees": Marisa Treviño writes on Latina Lista about trees along the U.S.-Mexican border where drug cartel members hang the bras and panties of women they've raped. (Excuse me while I go throw up.) Their victims will rarely report the attack, since this would reveal that they crossed the border illegally, which is why the rapists are so brazen about flying trophies of their crime. Yet it is vastly more important for us to stop violent drug cartels and rapists than women who just want to provide a better life for their families.

This Sexual Assault Awareness Month, let's remember that we need to get our priorities in line: stopping rape and violence against women, violent drug cartels, and human trafficking should be at the top of the agenda.

Photo credit: Lisa Norwood