Case Studies of Intimate Partner Violence, Immigration-Related Stress, and Legal Violence During Pregnancy in the U.S.-Mexico Border Region

Abstract

This article explores how experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) combined with immigration-related stress shaped pregnancy and postnatal experiences among two immigrant women in the U.S.-Mexico border region of El Paso, TX. Enactment of U.S. immigration policies was changing rapidly during the period of data collection (2018–2019), generating a heightened sense of immigration-related insecurities for research participants. This context brought attention to how immigration law can exacerbate the potential for adverse health outcomes for pregnant and postnatal women caught in abusive relationships. This article presents the case studies of two women, Sara and Sofi, whose experiences reflected broader patterns documented in a larger qualitative study of the emotional experience of pregnancy among 35 first- and second-generation immigrant women in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Both women’s narratives highlight the ways U.S. immigration laws led to a sense of entrapment in abusive relationships during their pregnancies, which put them at heightened vulnerability. Further, the stress they experienced had the potential to lead to embodied health vulnerabilities. The case studies presented illustrate the ways the law can fuel processes that contribute to health risks, highlighting how U.S. immigration law can function as legal violence.

Emotional Pathways of Embodied Health Vulnerability: Maternal Health Risk and Emotional Distress among First‐ and Second‐Generation Immigrants on the US‐Mexico Border

“… 1 VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act) allows undocumented immigrants married to a US citizen or permanent resident to self‐petition for US residency if they have been the victim of intimate partner violence. See Solis and Heckert (2021) for a full discussion of the role of intimate partner violence, immigration, and pregnancy in this study.…”