An In-Depth Reflection

As I read more information about themes surrounding my investigation I stumbled upon an article discussing the abuse Mexican Women endure by the hands of the Border Patrol. It's incredible to me to learn that people that are supposed to serve and protect are out there hurting and destroying lives by abusing their power. These women expect the violence from the Coyotes or the men that are helping them cross the border, but suffering violence by the hands of officers is like telling them that the United States will never respect them or take care of them if they enter the country. 

Knowing that most of these officers don't suffer consequences it's an indirect way that the system tells them, "Yes, you can keep on abusing and killing undocumented women because they are not citizens of this country and they are just a casualty". What's terrible is that women are weaponized if they try to speak up about their experience. An officer can say that they were trying to keep dangerous people out of the US and they did the best they could, and since officers are seen as respected figures, no one would doubt what they say. 

Fear plays a big role on undocumented women preferring not to talk about it since they are now living in a country illegally, speaking up means calling attention on their undocumented status and the government can easily deport them back to Mexico and they are done with the problem. However, getting rid of these women doesn’t mean the officers aren’t going to do it again with new undocumented women coming into the country basically every day. 

That is one of the reasons undocumented women don’t speak up about the abuse they suffered, not only because they are seen as the issue that the Border Patrol is dealing with but because we are essentially a male dominated society. The patriarchy plays the biggest role in this problem because as I’ve written before, women are the targets of men. Women can’t trust any men, not the Coyotes, not the undocumented men they are traveling with, and not even the officers. Rape is the biggest form of patriarchy, as Valeria Vera says; “In rape, men are on top.” They are subordinating these women because they feel like they are entitled to take whatever they want because no one is in a higher rank than them, and no one is going to stop them. 

Vera also writes, “The internalization of violence becomes clear as soldiers are prepared to objectify, injure, and kill an enemy that must be below them— the enemy must be dehumanized in order to be killed.” Basically, men don’t see us women as an equal or even as people because if they did, they wouldn’t inflict any type of violence against us. It’s clear that they objectify us in every single aspect so they can  go around abusing us without remorse. 

REFERENCES

Vera. Border Patrol’s Not-So-Secret: the Normalized Abuse of Migrant Women on the U.S.-Mexico Border. International Affairs Review. 2013. https://www.usfca.edu/sites/default/files/arts_and_sciences/international_studies/border_patrols_not-so-secret-_the_normalized_abuse_of_migrant_women_on_the_u.s.-mexico_border_-_university_of_san_francisco_usf.pdf