McGill-Gardner: Stoking Fears of Immigrant Victims Undermines Public Safety
Anyone practicing immigration law the last few weeks has been barraged by calls from panicking clients wanting to know if they will be deported, if they will lose their children, if they should send them to school.
For me as a staff attorney with HIAS Pennsylvania’s program serving survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, these callers included one mother, a victim-witness in an active prosecution of her abuser, who wanted to know: what about me? Does it help me at all that I have been going to court, testifying, and otherwise aiding prosecutors and investigators for the last two years? Are me and my children at risk?
The current administration rode a wave of exaggeration about immigrants and crime to the White House, but the numbers do not back up their claims that immigrants are criminals. To the contrary, the facts show for anyone who cares about data more than a raw anecdote, it is abundantly clear that undocumented immigrants, regardless of their legal status, are far less likely to commit crimes – violent or otherwise – than their U.S. citizens counterparts.
We hear far less from the administration about immigrant victims. For decades, law enforcement agencies have struggled to build trust with immigrant victims of crime, who fear that coming forward, or remaining cooperative in an investigation after that initial 911 call, could expose them to deportation.
In my work as a lawyer assisting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, I see this challenge every day. My clients have been conditioned, often for years, by their abusers to believe that the police will not help them, and that asking for help will only lead to their deportation and wrench them away from their children. Congress sought to address this problem when it created the U visa in 2000.
This visa provides a pathway to lawful immigration status for victims who cooperate in the investigation or prosecution of violent crimes committed against them. The U visa has provided law enforcement with a valuable tool, born of the recognition that when victims are willing to come forward, all of us are safer.
Yet on Friday, Jan. 31, reports emerged that ICE had rescinded its prior guidance that agents should consider victim status when making enforcement decisions. Social media amplified these rumors, and panic spread in immigrant communities.
That Monday, I was inundated with calls from panicked clients with pending applications for U visas, asking if ICE was going to deport them. A particularly pernicious online rumor said that the U visa itself had been cancelled. (That is not true, though the U visa is a target of the infamous Project 2025).
This latest ICE announcement attacking crime victims followed on the heels of the well-publicized news that ICE could begin enforcement operations in locations previously deemed off-limits, including the courts. Victim-witnesses must now contend with fears of encountering deportation agents when they appear to testify against their abusers.
All of this undermines the 20-year effort by law enforcement to build trust with vulnerable victims of crime. It remains unclear how such policies might be implemented by ICE in practice. But what has been very clear to immigrant survivors is the overarching message: you are not safe. When fears grow within the immigrant community, abusers gain leverage. ICE compromises public safety when their messages undermine victims’ confidence in the legal systems meant to protect them, as well as for all of us.
