Immigrant Women: Prisoners in and out of Prison Institutions

Women of color have always known to be discriminated against in a society- they have little to no voice. As Gayatri Spivak mentions in the work “Can the Subaltern Speak?”, women of color are what is known as a subaltern- someone who’s existence is not acknowledged or cared about. Because of this, they cannot be heard, their struggles and pains cannot be heard. If we discuss women who are illegal immigrants, this burden only becomes worse. The fact that they are illegal removes whatever significance they could have possibly had, because the little “protection” society gives to women only applies to citizens of the Country. This allows for women who are immigrants to be abused both in and out of prison systems with little to no consequences for her abuser. As Angela Davis states, the badge that guards and officers wear give them access and power to do what would be considered sexual assault in the “free world”. If women report, they are hypersexualized to hide the fact that their bodies are being abused. This applies to women of color in general, and as stated before, is even easier to get away with when it comes to a woman who is not a citizen. Data taken from the years between 2009–2013 shows the amount of sexual assault accusations from detention centers within that time. “Our analysis of ICE JICMS data showed 15 substantiated allegations of sexual abuse and assault in ICE detention facilities from October 2009 through March 2013. The 15-substantiated sexual abuse and assault cases had several similar underlying factors…” This does not mean that there were only 15 cases of women who were sexually assaulted, rather how many reported and were heard. Many cases have been and continue to be ignored or thrown away because they were blamed of being hypersexual. Even when these women are out in the “free world”, they are still imprisoned in a different way. Many women who come to the United States illegally find themselves marrying citizens to speed up the process of becoming a citizen themselves, something that can take years otherwise. Because of this, many women are legitimately under the control of the men they marry, which often leads to abusive situations.

An example would be a woman used in a study to so the trauma that immigration causes for people, especially women. “Three years ago, Bianca married George, an American citizen, with the explicit purpose of obtaining legal immigration status. Despite the immigration ruse, Bianca hoped the marriage would work anyway… her husband was controlling: he locked her in the house, took away her passport, used abusive language, and forced her to have sex with him”. Even when women go to extreme measures to avoid being detained and deported, they face similar forms of abuse that they would face in an institution. They are still locked up. They still have no voice. They are still a subaltern. What is ultimately pushed on women who decide to come to the U.S. illegally is to either go through the fear of being caught by the law, or getting married to be “safe” from this fear. However, are they ever escaping it, when they face similar, and sometimes worse abuse within their homes? Is it not worse to know you are being abused and not be able to report anything because then you are essentially selling yourself out and will more than likely be forced to face the cruelty that takes place behind the walls of a detention center or prison? What makes matters worse is that women’s rights in prison systems are ignored, domestic abuse is ignored, and even more so for women of color. So, what hope do women have when they face the argument of, “you should not be here in the first place? How are these women supposed to speak out or fight for any change when they are not heard? When the system that most Americans consider to be the protector of their rights is the one imposing the harm? For any hope for these women, and other women of all backgrounds who are abused in and out of prison systems, is for all of society to acknowledge that this is a problem in this country. Angela Davis claims that for any of this to happen, society must stop seeing men’s prison practices as constituted as the norm and women’s as marginal, because otherwise people will not bother to think about it at all. Not only do I agree with her statement, I would add that domestic abuse must be viewed as what it is- patriarchal abuse. Domesticating it makes it personal and gives an excuse for people to ignore the issue, which needs to end for any change to take place. Acknowledging that women of color are being abused in general, especially those who are illegal, is necessary to give hope of them being heard in a society that has always tried keeping them quiet.