IMMIGRANT WOMEN, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, AND HURRICANES IRMA AND MARIA IN PUERTO RICO: COMPOUNDING THE VIOLENCE FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE.

INTRCDUCTION 632 I. OBSTACLES FACED BY IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE U.S. AND PUERTO RICO 636 A. FEDERAL IMMIGRATION VISAS FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE 637 II. LACK OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS ISSUE IN PUERTO RICO 640 A. SEGUIMIENTO DE CASOS: CIVILIAN RESEARCH, AN END TO IMPUNITY, AND STEADFAST ACCOUNTABILITY 652 III. THE "DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN PUERTO RICO" CASE STUDY, PUERTO RICO LAW 54, IMMIGRANT PROTECTION INCLUSION AMENDMENT TO LAW 54, SPECIALIZED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COURTS, AND PUERTO RICO POLICE PROTOCOL ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 658 A. SUMMARY OF LAW 54 AND ITS IMMIGRANT AMENDMENTS 658 B. PUERTO RICO POLICE PROTOCOL 660 C. STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SHELTERS 663 1. The Problem Post-Hurricanes Irma and Maria 666 2. Obstacles to Domestic Violence Remedies During and Post Hurricane Maria 669 D. CASE STUDY OF "SOFIA" 671 1. Immigrant Domestic Violence Victims in Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane Maria 677 IV. CONCLUSION: RECOMMENDATIONS & SOLUTIONS 682 Appendix--Seguimento De Casos Data 688 Seguimiento De Casos 2018 688 Seguimiento De Casos 2017 690 Segutmiento De Casos 2016 691 Seguimiento De Casos 2015 692 Seguimiento De Casos 2014 693 Seguimiento De Casos 2012 695

INTRODUCTION

The most dangerous place for a woman is in the home, according to the latest United Nations Global Study. (1) The U.N. study states a total of 87,000 women were intentionally killed in 2017. (2) Over half of them (58%)--50,000--were killed by intimate partners or family members. (3) Over a third (30,000) of the women intentionally killed in 2017 were killed by their current or former intimate partner--someone they would normally expect to trust. (4) The U.N. report further states that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day. (5) In the United States, nearly twenty people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. (6) In one year, this impacts more than ten million women and girls. (7) The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that of all women who were the victims of homicide globally in 2017, eighty-two percent were killed by intimate partners compared to eighteen percent of male homicide victims. (8) In Latin America and the Caribbean, according to official data from twenty-four countries, a total of 2,559 women were victims of femicide in 2017. (9) Furthermore, violence against immigrant women and girls in the U.S. and its territories is complex and has systemic ramifications. As addressed in this Article, this is especially true in Puerto Rico, where these issues have been compounded post natural disasters, as has been the case after Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

The top two most pertinent issues impacting immigrant women and girls subjected to domestic abuse are: (1) lack of legal remedies to prevent deportation and (2) fear and mistrust of the police. (10) The legal remedies available in the U.S. are narrow legal standards that seem designed to prevent those in dire need of protection from receiving asylum." Fear and mistrust of the police are high in places...