Denver – Laws intended to make life more difficult for undocumented immigrants in the United States have fomented stress and anxiety among visa-less Hispanics and contributed to an increase in mental health disorders and domestic violence, according to a Colorado specialist.
“Latino immigrants, without regard to their immigration situation, in general, are trying not to be detected. That means that they’re living without an aid or support group. But now the immigration debate is focusing attention right on those who don’t want their presence to be known,” said Hector Villalobos.
The certified bilingual therapist has been working since 2003 with Latino immigrants who are the victims of family violence in the seven counties in the Denver metropolitan zone.
“The immigrants don’t know what to do, because they feel that the new laws are pushing them even more to a marginalized life,” he added.
Villalobos said that in the family counseling sessions he has participated in over the past few months, the phrase that keeps coming up with more and more frequency is “there’s no hope for me,” not only because of what the person feels is the impossibility of regularizing his or her immigration status, but also because of the fact that “they’re on the verge of losing everything and having to leave the country.”
In one recent case, a man became violent with his wife and she called the police, who arrested the husband. In later conversations, Villalobos discovered that the couple had been living without immigration documented in Denver for the past 15 years.
The man, who worked in construction, had managed to set up his own contractor business and had a high standard of living with a large new house and two new European cars in the garage.
However, after the recent approval in Colorado of a law demanding that employers verify the immigration situation of their employees and contract workers, the man was fired because he could not present the proper documents.
“They don’t have papers. They only speak Spanish. They don’t regularly attend a church or belong to a social group. Suddenly, they see themselves without anything and without knowing what to do, and the only response (is) violence, because they don’t have anyone to turn to,” said Villalobos.
He added that he treats these type of cases “two or three times a week,” whereas they used to “occur only rarely.”
“but these are only the reported cases. How many other cases occur without our ever learning of them, nobody knows,” he said.
According to the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, in 2004 the organization helped 5,677 women who were the victims of abuse, but another 4,793 women did not receive any help because the community organizations had already run out of resources. And in 2005, they received more than 218,000 complaints of domestic violence.
Due to the nature of this problem, the CCADV does not keep statistics on the ethnicity or immigration status of the victims it helps, but Villalobos – who is not directly connected with the coalition – believes that at least 20 percent of the victims are Latino immigrants.
“The good news is that there is help and nobody has to suffer in solitude. The same immigration debate that caused the problem has also caused many community agencies now to be aware of this situation and to dedicate more resources to helping Hispanic families,” Villalobos said.
