Separated by William D. Lopez

Author:William D. Lopez
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2019-10-26T16:00:00+00:00

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In multiple conversations, community members clearly noted the blatant pattern of arrests that occurred on the day Santiago’s taller was raided: Santiago, “the suspect,” was a Latino man. Everyone arrested throughout the day was also a Latino man. Meanwhile, every woman encountered by law enforcement, both on the road and in the raided apartment, was left behind. While the scale and visibility of the arrests on that day was unlike anything the area had experienced, the pattern—a focused removal of Latino men—represented the way in which arrests and deportations have occurred on the national level.42 With Latino men most at risk of apprehension and deportation, the burden of support largely fell to women, especially those who were white, citizens, or visa holders.43

This gendered pattern of support was evident in the moments after the ICE agents departed from Guadalupe’s apartment. As the men in uniform left the apartment with Santiagito in tow, four women entered to support Guadalupe and Fernanda and to bear witness to the violence they had experienced. Between Diane (the mother of Santiagito’s girlfriend) and the three urgent responders from WICIR, all four women were US citizens, and three were white.44 None of the four women who entered the apartment were fearful of deportation, and the three who were white were unlikely to even be questioned about their immigration statuses or that of their families.

I asked Guadalupe who had supported her following the raid. Initially, my naïve and admittedly biased intention was to highlight the bravery of the women who, though they may not be deported, still risked interpersonal violence from either law enforcement officers or others they encountered on the property of the taller.

William: There were a number of women who helped you then?

Guadalupe: Yes [laughing]. Many women helped us.

William (sarcastically): Where were all the men!?

While my point—that it was courageous of the women in the community to support each other at their own risk—was perhaps accurate, Guadalupe educated me about the enormous risk differential for deportation experienced by men versus women.

Guadalupe: [The men were] scared. Just scared.

William: Why do you think there is a difference between how men and women reacted?. . .

Guadalupe: Well, I talked about that with Hilda [Arturo’s wife]. It’s this idea that for women, as some kind of justice or something, there is more understanding [from ICE]. For men, no. For men, they just detain them and take them away . . .

That is, while undocumented women were at risk of deportation, undocumented men were far more so, as they appeared to be immediately swept up and removed. As former agent Jaime had attested, “Arresting men individually or by the dozen didn’t bother me.” There was no way that undocumented men were approaching the taller or the familia marcada who had inhabited it.

The support Frida provided in the aftermath of the immigration enforcement actions illustrates the different risk of deportation between men and women that Guadalupe describes. Frida was the girlfriend of Francisco, who was arrested as he drove away from the taller in the hours preceding the raid.

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