West Jordan Police now believe that the father intentionally set the fire in a murder-suicide, and they also confirmed that there was a history of domestic violence at that residence. Family members of the victims told ABC4.com that the father had been violent for years, but the mother stayed with him for the sake of the children and because the entire family was undocumented. She was afraid of them being deported.
Kimmi Wolf, communications specialist at the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition, told ABC4.com that fear is a big barrier for victims of domestic violence seeking help.
“Right now, people are very fearful of drawing any attention to themselves even if they’re told that there is a safe way to do so,” Wolf said. “That’s one of the problems that I’m facing here, and all of our supervisors. We’re telling them that we’re safe, we’re telling them that we’re not going to ask about their immigration status, but we really do have to earn and develop a relationship of trust.”
Wolf said that undocumented immigrants are afraid of being deported, but a large part of that fear is that their children will be taken away from them. They worry that Child Protective Services will immediately become involved because there is domestic violence in the home.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill also acknowledged that people have these concerns, but he also explained that there are laws in place to protect victims of violence that transcend immigration status.
“If you’re a victim and criminally being abused, especially in the context of intimate partner violence or domestic violence, you should report that,” Gill said in an interview with ABC4.com. “And because you are reporting it, you are engaged in working with law enforcement and prosecution, you can get help.”
Wolf also explained that domestic violence shelters and hotlines can talk them through those concerns in a specific and personalized way, and that they are bound by confidentiality. They will not ask about immigration status.
“We’re there for victims, we’re there for their safety, and as a part of our federal funding contracts, we have to maintain a level of confidentiality, so if someone who is undocumented comes into one of our programs, we can neither confirm or deny that they are a client there,” Wolf said, adding that it doesn’t matter who comes to the door, they cannot say that an individual is with them.
“One of the most important things is our commitment to keeping our communities safe, and what we cannot do, certainly as a district attorney or law enforcement, what we don’t want to ever communicate is that one group or one community is not worthy of our concern,” Gill said. “If that is what we communicate, then what ends up happening is those victims and those family members go into the shadows of silence, and that doesn’t lessen violence or crime, it actually increases it.”
According to Wolf, the resources available for undocumented people experiencing domestic violence are not any different from the resources available for someone who is a citizen.
“Domestic violence programs do not require that anyone be a documented citizen,” Wolf said. “We don’t ask for any type of paperwork, and so I think that people need to understand that your immigration status, which often has been used as a tool for perpetrators to victimize their partners, we don’t require any of that.”
Gill also mentioned the U Visa program that victims of domestic violence can use if they are undocumented in order to find safety. He said that it gives them a legal status so that they are able to hold their abuser accountable.
Gill added that Salt Lake County law enforcement agencies have been trained on U Visas, to know that they are available for undocumented people who are victims of crime and how they work. He added that T Visas are available for anyone who is a victim of human trafficking.
“The public policy idea behind that really is that we know that when this violence occurs, we can’t turn a blind eye to it, whether you are a citizen or not a citizen, that we want to stop that violence in the community,” Gill said. The program is designed to prevent people from being further victimized.
Wolf is hopeful that more people will use that program, especially as deportation becomes a bigger and bigger fear in today’s political landscape.
“Their immigration status should not be a barrier to them seeking service,” Wolf stated. “So many people are just nervous about making even the initial phone call now, so I can imagine how they must feel to show up at the door of a shelter… So even making that first initial phone call takes a lot of trust.”
Domestic violence shelters obviously offer emergency shelter for victims, but you don’t have to be a resident to receive their other services, Wolf said. They can also offer case management and referrals for housing and childcare.
Undocumented victims of domestic violence may also be concerned about language barriers, and so Wolf stressed that the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition’s confidential hotline has full language services so that people can speak to them in their native language.
Wolf advised that concerned neighbors, friends, or family members should be cautious first and foremost.
“Immigration status, just like the existence of domestic violence, that is something that many people want to keep private, for multiple reasons,” Wolf said. “So, if you are a neighbor and you suspect or you absolutely know because you’ve heard, you’ve seen violence happening, be cautious. We don’t want any additional people to be harmed by the perpetrator.”
She said that neighbors can always ask if the person or the children are okay, but to do so in confidence. “You don’t want someone, a neighbor, to reach out to someone and then further endanger them or anger their perpetrator.”
She also advised concerned neighbors, friends, and family members to be prepared for the victim to say that nothing is happening and everything is fine, or for them to get angry with the person asking.
“Sometimes it feels like such a private matter, they may be embarrassed, or they may worry that if someone does know that there’s violence happening in the home, they may call police, and if the victim doesn’t want that done, then they may become very fearful of that,” Wolf said.
Gill said that neighbors can help by putting a safety plan in place, so that when abuse starts to happen, there is a plan for how to get the victim help, whether that be a place to stay or resources to get them in contact with.
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