Undocumented girls, women easy prey for border criminals

After days of hiking through hot, weed-tangled paths in Mexico, the coyote, or human smuggler, who first promised to safely lead Lupita into the United States tried raping her and drowning her sister in a lake.

"We were very scared," Lupita said. "At first he promised us so much, but then he just abused us."

The two sisters had been traveling with the smuggler through Mexico when he began requesting sexual favors from Lupita. After she repeatedly rejected the man, he grew violent and began hurting her sibling in retribution.

"When someone wants to touch you, you just want to get away," said Lupita, who only provided The Monitor a pseudonym in fear of deportation. "It's not like when they want to hit you or hurt you. You just want to get away."

For years, border thugs have exploited vulnerable, desperate immigrants sneaking into the United States under the veil of secluded paths many of their victims choose to take.

Girls and women, who are sometimes sexually abused or raped during the disorienting trip, are often their easiest prey.

For Lupita and her sister, the only escape from such conditions was being captured by customs officers when they were first smuggled into the United States.

Since then, Lupita has snuck back into the United States, hiding from authorities and her abusive husband in a small apartment with her two children.

Most women don't report sexual abuse crimes because they feel ashamed and they don't want to relive the scenario by talking about it.

"Women that are raped often don't want to think about it," Erica Schommer, an immigration attorney for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid. "They want to ignore it and forget it happened."

That is especially true for women like Lupita, who are assaulted as they make their way illegally into the United States. Not only do they not want to report the crime, they think there is no point because they are not entitled to civil rights because of their resident status.

ASSESSING THE PROBLEM

Border Patrol officials say it is nearly impossible for them to determine how many undocumented women are assaulted along the border because so few report the crimes.

"I know that it does happen, but many of them don't want to come to us for help," said Dan Doty, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.

The Border Patrol refers complaints of violent crimes committed against illegal immigrants to local authorities in the United States and Mexico.

Doty said that in 2008, only three reports of sexual abuse were filed by women along the sector's 316-mile stretch of land. All of those reports were filed by women who were already in the Border Patrol's custody.

But this number is not representative of how frequently sexual abuse actually happens along the U.S.-Mexico border, Schommer said.

"It's rare that (an undocumented immigrant) will tell an agent that they were abused," she said. "(Undocumented immigrants) don't trust anyone and coyotes often threaten them to keep them from talking."

Schommer said women rarely know where they are raped because smuggling operations, often carried out at night, can be very disorienting.

And without specific details about the case, the victim cannot file a law enforcement certification document that would allow her to receive legal assistance.

"It also doesn't help that the majority of Border Patrol agents are men," she said. "It's extremely difficult for these women to talk."

In 2007, 64 rapes were reported by the Hidalgo County Sheriff's office, according to Texas Department of Public Safety statistics. Overall, law enforcement agencies in the county reported 121 rapes.

Many women who do seek assistance after being abused go to Mujeres Unidas, a women's crisis center in McAllen.

Last year, the shelter admitted 2,033 clients, according to its Web site.

Eva Rangel, a community educator with the center, said Mujeres Unidas helps women who are confused and are looking for sanctuary from their attackers.

"These women are often very vulnerable," she said. "The shelter is here to get them through these traumatizing scenarios."

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Ana Ley covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4428.