More El Paso Victims Might Be Avoiding Hospitals Because of Their Immigration Status
Over the course of 24 hours this weekend, two separate mass shooters killed a total of at least 29 people in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. In the case of El Paso, the shooter was taken alive and law enforcement officials are now treating it as a case of domestic terrorism according to the Washington Post.
The shooter reportedly drove nine hours from his home outside of Dallas to the border city of El Paso, with the goal of fighting a "Hispanic invasion of Texas" according to a manifesto he's believed to have posted online shortly before the attack. He killed 20 people and wounded at least two dozen more in a largely Hispanic area, but on CNN former Homeland Security assistant secretary Juliette Kayyem worried that the number of wounded my be even higher. Kayyem told CNN:
This is a concern. It’s clear that there’s people that are not unifying with their family and that there are people they’re worried are injured that did not go to hospitals likely because of their immigration status.
As a result of the Trump administration's hyper-aggressive immigration policing, more and more immigrants living in the U.S., regardless of their legal status, are afraid to contact authorities about crimes or go to hospitals for fear that they may wind up detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Just last month, several immigrant rights groups published a study composed of interview with more than 600 attorneys and advocates. According to Ms., "Most [of the people interviewed] shared stories of immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence living in a state of heightened fear—of deportation, retaliation by their abusers and separation from their children—that stops them from seeking help or justice." In fact, in 2017, ICE agents appeared at the federal courthouse in El Paso and arrested a woman as she was getting a protective order claiming that she was the victim of domestic violence.
Kayyem told CNN that El Paso officials insisted there would be no immigration enforcement either at hospitals or at family unification sites for victims on Saturday's shooting.
Originally Appeared on GQ
