Tahirih Justice Center: Domestic Violence & Immigrant Women in Houston, TX

The following is part of a report from the Tahirih Justice Center that highlights domestic violence amongst immigrant females in the greater Houston area, before 2012:

There is a considerable gap between Tahirih's service capacity and the direct legal needs of immigrant women and girls residing in the greater Houston area. As you know, our region is home to a large and growing foreign-born population; more than one in four (28.4%) residents in Harris County is now foreign-born.  According to 2011 American Community Survey, of 5,836,814 total individuals residing in the Houston-Sugar Land–Baytown Metro Area, 1,282,771 are foreign-born.  Of these foreign-born, 848,603 are not U.S. citizens.

Moreover, the population of foreign-born women is also growing. Per the 2011 ACS, 617,374 foreign-born women and girls reside in our region and nearly two thirds (393,768) are not yet U.S. citizens. Our services target those survivors among nearly 400,000 women and girls who experience violence, but are likely to face significant barriers to service – lack of awareness of their rights or the rights of their children under American law, fearfulness of law enforcement and the courts, and lack of access to resources to address their legal needs, including language access.  Of note, 70% women and children from this target population are of Latin-American origin; ACS 2011 also showed that Spanish speaking households in Harris County are most likely to be linguistically isolated (two of every five households) than other foreign-born groups.

In addition to the growth in our target population, police and court statistics also show growing need.  For example, the total number of reported family violence incidents in the state in 2011 remained unacceptably high with approximately 178,000 incidences – a slight decrease from the year before, but an indicator of a persistent, pernicious problem. Incidents in our service area in 2011 accounted for almost a quarter of all domestic violence throughout the state, with Harris County incidents comprising nearly 20%; the largest percentage of family violence incidents reported in our area were between married spouses.

These numbers, while disturbing, do not accurately reflect the higher risk of violence faced by immigrant women. One study concluded that 48% of Latinas report that their partner’s violence against them had increased since they immigrated to the United States and that married immigrant women experience higher levels of physical and sexual abuse than unmarried immigrant women, 59.5% to 49.8%, respectively. When a woman depends on her spouse for immigration status the rate of violence skyrockets to 77%. Sadly, the same study showed that more than 40% of domestic violence victims surveyed took no action. Texas state data supports these findings; while the Latino population comprises one third of the total population, almost 40% of victims in the last reported year were Latinas. This disparity is striking, but likely to be even larger than reported.

Similarly, we are finding that court statistics also show increasing need among other vulnerable immigrant women and girls we serve – asylum seekers.  Although we do not have a means of knowing how many women who reside in our region have fled gender-based violence abroad to seek safety in our region, we do know that the path to justice is becoming ever more difficult.  Right now, there are over 14,638 pending cases before the Houston Immigration Court – an exponential rise from previous years that is yielding longer and longer wait times for our clients, as depicted by the TRAC Immigration-produced table below.

Furthermore, our anecdotal evidence sadly confirms these trends.  In the past six months, we were forced to completely close down intake for 2.5 months because our attorneys and social workers have been at capacity with significantly large case loads. In the remaining 3.5 months, we fielded 119 calls for service impacting not only 119 women, but also 93 girls under 21 years of age and 75 boys under 21, or 287 individuals total.  In that same time period however, we have only had the capacity to open 37 cases (impacting 37 women and 39 dependents). This means that, even as we have proactively reached out to our partners to inform them of our limited service capacity, we have been able to meet the needs of only a small percentage of the individual who need representation to access protection – opening cases for only one in four women who courageously reach out to us for help.  

As you know, Tahirih is well connected with peer and complementary agencies throughout the region to ensure that we do not duplicate services and so that we can best leverage our strengths to serve women and girls with unique legal and social needs. In particular, our clients often reach us through direct targeted referrals from the following agencies: Harris County District Attorney's Office (law enforcement agency), US Attorney’s Office and other law enforcement partners of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance, Asian Americans Against Domestic Abuse, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Houston Area Women's Center, Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston, Bay Area Turning Point, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Fort Bend County Women’s Center, Catholic Charities of Galveston/ Houston, Northwest Assistance Ministries (Family Violence Center), DAYA Inc., Family Time Crises and Counseling Center, Houston Trafficking Rescue Alliance, Neighborhood Centers Inc., The University of Houston Law Center's Clinical Legal Programs, South Texas College of Law's Clinical Program, and the YMCA International Services.