National Domestic Violence Hotline: People who have experienced domestic abuse can get confidential help at thehotline.org or by calling 800-799-7233.
The immigrant from India believed her husband when he said that if she wasn’t gone by the time he got to their Georgia home in 10 minutes, he would kill her.
She said her husband and his family, who are also immigrants, abused her throughout their marriage, beating her with a belt, pouring hot water on her, cutting her, and pushing her head through a wall.
“Several times I tried to escape, but they found me and brought me back home,” said the woman, who is in the country illegally and spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is afraid being identified would harm her chances of gaining legal status.
With no time to run after her husband’s call in July 2020, she dialed 911, even though she knew she could be deported. The police arrived to find the husband threatening her with a knife in front of their young children, she recalled. He was arrested but not prosecuted, she said.
The woman and her children sought services from the Tahirih Justice Center, a national nonprofit organization that serves immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. She is still winding through the immigration process five years later.
Besides immigrants’ increased vulnerability to sexual violence, they face a host of mental health and physical challenges, researchers say. They have high …