“He moves things around in the diaper bag,” Elsa M. says, and her eyes anxiously shift from the child on her lap to the bag by the door. “Even this scares me. I get scared about little things like that because I don’t know what his intentions are, after everything he has done to us.” She is referring to the man who is her husband, the father of her children, and the violent abuser who has filled years of her life with terror. They have recently separated but share child custody, and each time he takes the kids, she is petrified, to the extent that she questions his motives even when he merely shifts the contents of their youngest child’s diaper bag. She describes a recent trip to Wal-Mart where she had the feeling of being watched while walking the aisles. She is almost certain a pick-up truck followed her car out of the parking lot.

In many respects, Elsa’s experience mirrors that of millions of American women caught in abusive relationships. The subtle manipulations and outright threats of her abuser echo words recounted by women of varied backgrounds in any number of domestic violence shelters. But Elsa’s abuser had an additional tool for trapping her in a cycle of violence. He held the ultimate trump card: he was a US citizen and Elsa, born in Mexico, lacked authorization to live in the US.

Globally, more than 100 million women live outside the country of their birth, more than double the number in 1960. Migrant women face additional barriers to accessing justice for violence committed against them, whether it happens in their workplaces, on the street, or in their homes. These barriers can include lack of awareness about local laws and procedures, language and cultural differences making it difficult to report violence, geographic isolation from authorities and services (for example with migrant farmworkers), fear of retaliation against family members in their home countries, and discrimination on the part of law enforcement authorities. For those migrant women who lack authorization to live and work in their country of residence, the possibility of deportation can be manipulated by abusers to trap them in violent relationships and ensure their silence.