1. The Brutal Impact of AntiImmigrant Laws on Women and
How We Are Fighting Back
Prerna Lal
Report from the Women’s Emergency
Human Rights Delegation to Arizona, USA

2. General Statistics on Immigrant
Women
• Women make up more than half of all immigrants living in
the United States. (U.S. Census Bureau).
• Women now make up 51% of all lawful permanent resident
seekers in the U.S., up from 38% in 2000.
• There are an estimated 4.1 million undocumented women in
the United States today.
• 4 million American citizens (ages 0-18) live in a household
with at least one undocumented parent. (Pew Hispanic
Center)
• Women are more likely to initiate the citizenship process for
their families. (New American Media: 2009 report, Women
Immigrants: Stewards of the 21st Century Family)
• Women are more likely to invest in their children’s education
and send them to college. (Stephan Frais, Global Education of
Girls Is Key to Development)

3. General Statistics on Immigrant
Women
• In the first ever poll of immigrant women, researchers found
that the majority of immigrant women that come to the
United States are educated, with many holding advanced
degrees and have held professional jobs in their countries.
(New America Media, 2009)
• 22% of the farm worker population is female (National
Agricultural Workers Survey, U.S. Department of Labor).
• Educated women immigrants often take low paying jobs in
factories, agriculture or childcare in order to make ends meet
for their families and become the breadwinner of the family
for extended periods of time. (New America Media, 2009)
• 10% of the detained population are women, majority of whom
are there as asylum seekers fleeing violence or victims of
domestic violence

4. Trigger Words and Phrases
• Illegal
• ―Anchor baby‖ – As a U.S. citizen, you cannot sponsor your
parents for citizenship till you are 21.
• Criminals – Being undocumented in the U.S. is actually not
a crime.
• ―They should not be blamed for the sins and wrongdoings of
their parents‖
• ―I will marry you‖ or ―Why don’t you just get married?‖
• Why don’t you just become legal?
• Go back to your country and come here legally
• Can I see your ID?
• What crime did you commit?

5. Current Landscape
• States adopting draconian
immigration laws, the gist being
that police have the legal
authority to arrest anyone who
they have a ―reasonable
suspicion‖ is undocumented.
▫
▫
▫
Arizona (SB 1070) - The ―papers please‖
law. Enjoined by Judge Bolton.
Georgia (HB 87) – Enjoined. Still bans
undocumented students from access to
higher education in five colleges.
Alabama (HB 56) - Judge Blackburn let
stand provisions that allowed schools to
track the immigration status of their K-12
students and render any contracts with
undocumented people as unenforceable.

6. These acts rip families apart
• ―I never knew this could happen,‖ said
Catherine, age 9 and a U.S. citizen. Both of her
parents were arrested in a workplace raid. Over
100,000 parents of United States citizens like
Catherine were deported in the past 10 years.
Few think about the implication of that
staggering statistic on children who are forced to
live without their families, on parents who are
separated from their children.

7. These acts rob women of the right to
support their loved ones.
• ―We come here to work and all the time we were
just trying to survive,‖ said Sandra, Catherine’s
mother. ―But we have to live closed in fear.‖
Even those who have been on the job for a long
time face increased incidents of workplace
harassment. Benita, a public worker for 23
years, told us, ―They give me more things to do
because of my color; they’re always telling me to
do something about my accent.‖

8. These acts subject women to
humiliation and violence from
enforcement agents.
• Alejandra suffered a broken jaw when she was detained
and then was denied medical care, despite her repeated
cries for medical attention, and suffers ongoing problems
as a result.
• We learned that Laura and many others were refused the
most basic sanitary supplies.
• When I was in bed, I was begging the sheriff, 'Please let
me free— at least one hand,' and he said, no, he didn't
want to," Juana Villegas. She was describing the
experience of being shackled to her hospital bed as she
went into labor. Villegas gave birth in the sheriff's
custody, after she was stopped by local police while
driving without a valid license.

9. These acts scar children and force
some to parent their younger
siblings.
• We heard from children who watched in horror
as a parent was arrested, or came home to an
empty house to get a call from immigration. We
learned of children who draw pictures of living
in a house in a cage. ―It’s not like a wound that
just heals,‖ Esperanza told us. ―They’re
damaging our soul. The scars will be there
forever.‖

10. These acts force women to live with
physical and sexual violence
• Sylvia told us the undocumented parents she works
with would not report a sexual assault for fear of
being deported. One woman put it this way: ―If the
law goes through, I don’t think any woman will ever
call the police again. It will be chaos. It will be
terrible.‖ This is in direct contradiction with federal
immigration benefits such as the Violence Against
Women Act and U visa, which allows undocumented
victims of violence in the United States to come
forward and get legalization based on their
cooperation with law enforcement.

11. These acts rob students of access to
education
• We met a brilliant DREAM Act eligible student
accepted to a graduate program at Harvard and
promised financial aid by a group of supporters
here, who are now afraid that due to SB 1070, they
could be jailed for providing this help. Other
teenagers have dropped out of school in order to
earn income lost with a parent’s detention while
some do not see the point of high school if they
cannot see a pathway to higher education.
• In Alabama, 2000 Latino students failed to show up
for school the day after HB 87 was signed into law.
Even U.S. citizen students stayed home so that they
won’t expose their parents and siblings.

12. These acts instill terror of those who
should be protectors.
• Mary Rose Garrido Wilcox from the Board of
Supervisors told us she had to ask Sheriff Joe
Arpaio's office not to send representatives to the
annual baseball outing for students. ―The kids
are so afraid of those brown shirts,‖ she said,
―they won’t come if the sheriffs are there.‖
Besides law enforcement, some have expressed
that the legislation might even deter people from
seeking the help of clergy.

13. These acts create fear of doing the
most basic activities simply because
of the color of one’s skin.
• Carrie said she often gives people rides to the
doctor or the store. ―Since SB 1070 was signed,‖
she told us, ―a lot of people haven’t been coming
out, even to get free food. They’re afraid to leave
their homes.‖

14. These acts increase crime and
wrong-doing
• One of the most insidious side effects of SB 1070
is that it breeds a culture of impunity for those
who exploit and abuse immigrants by
discouraging immigrants from reporting crimes
to local law enforcement. SB 1070 gives a free
pass to actual criminals to attack undocumented
immigrants and those who could be perceived as
undocumented, thus increasing crime.

15. These acts are unconstitutional and
provide no solution to broken
immigration system
• The system is undoubtedly broken when it takes
more than 20 years for families to unite, when
adult children are not considered immediate
relatives of their own parents and siblings, when
mothers are ripped apart from their children,
most people in detention and removal
proceedings have no criminal records.

16. Dora the Explorer

17. Undocumented Immigrant Youth
Organizers
• DREAM Act
▫ Arrived before the age of 16
▫ Lived continuously in the U.S.
for 5 years
▫ Graduated from high school
or have G.E.D.
▫ Finished two years of college
or military
▫ Good moral character
• Lost And Found: Short
documentary by the late Tam
Tran

18. In response to federal inaction and state anti-immigration laws, in May
2010, four undocumented youth -- three women and a gay man –- and a legal
resident occupied Senator McCain’s office in Tucson, Arizona in what is widely
believed to be the first act of civil disobedience by undocumented
immigrants, risking arrested and deportation.

19. Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance. Six undocumented students (four
women) were arrested after an act of civil disobedience near the state capitol
building. The youth aimed to take a stand against HB 87, a recently passed law
modeled after Arizona’s SB1070 that would severely restrict and isolate the
immigrant community within the state.

20. Tania Mattos
Tania was born in Bolivia and
raised in Jackson Heights, Queens
from the age of 4. She graduated
from SUNY-Fashion Institute of
Technology with a B.S. in Direct
marketing, and holds a M.A. in
Political Science from CUNYBrooklyn College. Disturbed by the
after-math of Hurricane Katrina,
she ventured to New Orleans to
conduct research on the lives of
undocumented Latina’s living in
New Orleans. While there, she cofounded People for the Gulf, an
organization that aids indigenous
communities that live in the Gulf.
Last year, along with a dozen other
undocumented students in New
York, Tania participated in a two
week hunger-strike to get
Democratic Senator Schumer’s
attention and support.

21. Diana Martinez, 18, an undocumented student, was one of 12
arrested after refusing to leave their sit-in in the Hart Senate Office
building last July. She was brought here from Mexico when she was
only 6 years old and aspires to get a PhD in Anthropology.

22. ―I grew up here eating pizza and hamburgers, listening to NSync, TLC, and
watching Full House and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.‖ - Isabel Castillo from
Harrisonburg, Virginia. Isabel bravely confronted the Virginia Governor
about her undocumented status at a townhall event last year. She has a BA in
Social Work, an honorary doctorate from the University of San Francisco.
Despite her educational achievements, Isabel works as a waitress.

23. Three young immigrant women -- Viridiana, Loida and Rosario – went
on a hunger strike to demand that North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan
(Democrat) support the DREAM Act. Senator Hagan responded by
being one of the 5 Democrats who voted against the DREAM Act in
December 2010, which failed to invoke cloture by 2 votes.

24. Queer and Undocumented
• Deal with backlash and
pressure to get married from
their own immigrant families
• Constantly worry about
separation from bi-national
partner
• Deal with backlash about
being queer from the often
clergy-led immigrant rights
movement.
• Worry about the reaction to
their immigrant status from
people in the LGBTQ
community.

25. Questions?