Legal
Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program has filed an amicus curiae brief in support
of a lawsuit filed in Arizona
federal court to block implementation of the state’s notorious immigration law,
S.B. 1070. The brief, filed in conjunction with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips,
LLP, pertains to the lawsuit, Friendly House v. Whiting, brought by the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education
Fund (MALDEF), the National Immigration
Law Center
and the Asian Pacific
American Legal Resource
Center.
The
brief outlines key areas where Arizona’s
new law undermines federal civil rights protections for immigrant women and
their families, including those who are victims of violent crime. The law is an
evisceration of decades of humanitarian incentives by Congress to protect the
health and safety of all people living in the United
States, regardless of legal status.
The
brief notes that over the past two decades, the United States Congress and the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have made major strides towards
addressing the vulnerabilities of immigrant women and the widespread barriers
to help that are experienced by immigrant victims of domestic violence,
trafficking, and sexual assault. Many laws have been enacted to protect these
women and families, rights that Congress has called essential for the
prevention of violence against women. Specific laws have been established to
protect immigrants from arrest or deportation when they report crimes or
participate in prosecution. In addition, federal law guarantees that all
persons, without regard to immigration status, have access to programs and
services necessary to protect life and safety, including shelter, emergency medical
services, victim assistance, soup kitchens and disaster relief.
Yet
Arizona S.B. 1070 is a direct assault on all of this. Of the countless
devastating consequences of the law, it threatens the safe and health of
immigrant women and children, it increases the risk that immigrant mothers will
be separated from their children, and it punishes immigrant victims of
violence.
S.B.
1070 puts immigrant women and their children at risk of being detained or
arrested any time they leave their homes. Those in need of aid and federal
services will no longer seek help because of fear. These critical services
include, but are not limited to, Emergency Medicaid for immigrant women and
children, shelters and transitional housing, and community-funded health
clinics offering urgently needed health care, including child care.
Additionally,
S.B. 1070 devastates the right of a mother to safely care for her children,
regardless of legal status. Children will perpetually be at the risk of losing
their mothers, who will face the constant threat of deportation in all
locations, including the workplace, the home, and even places of worship. Children
who are separated from their mothers will be placed in the overburdened foster
care system because S.B. 1070 disregards federal “sole-caregiver” humanitarian
release protections that offer primary caretaker parents alternatives to
detention. In Arizona, 84 percent
of children with at least one immigrant parent are U.S.
citizens.
Because
they are unable to participate in the family law cases that ensue after
separation, immigrant mothers often face permanent termination of parental
rights. Separation and the subsequent placement of the child in foster care is
in nobody’s best interest, especially mothers and their children.
Finally,
S.B. 1070 punishes immigrant victims of violence by hindering victims’ ability
to report a crime without fear of persecution. In their pursuit of detaining
undocumented immigrants, Arizona law enforcement is even allowed to stake out
rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, locations even federal law
enforcement are strongly cautioned against operating in. Currently, fewer than
20 percent of battered immigrant women who are undocumented or who have
temporary legal status seek help from law enforcement, compared to more than
half of battered women generally. These numbers will drastically fall with the
implementation of S.B. 1070, as victims will rightly fear deportation and
persecution by Arizona law
enforcement.
Indeed,
S.B. 1070 will cause irreparable harm to immigrant women and children and must
be immediately stopped. Legal Momentum’s brief concludes, “SB 1070 deters
immigrant women from so much as leaving their homes, let alone from
affirmatively contacting law enforcement or going to schools, health care
providers and social service agencies related to the care and nurturing of
their children. The law chills the exercise of legal rights, stops pursuit of
justice system remedies, and cuts off immigrant women and their children from
federally funded services that protect life and safety and prevent significant
morbidity and mortality among immigrant women.”