Mims’ stance on SB 54 endangers immigrant women who are abuse victims

Sheriff (Margaret) Mims endangers women who are victims of sexual violence and abuse. By looking for ways to circumvent California law to serve her personal political ambitions, she has created a climate of fear and intimidation for abused women who desperately need the help of law enforcement to escape their batterers. Sheriff Mims’ actions drastically undercut the legitimacy of her office and community faith in policing. We call on her to follow the law, purge herself of the gangster mentality that guides her leadership, and restore public trust in the office of the sheriff. If she cannot, then she should resign.

As reported by The Fresno Bee, Sherriff Mims, along with other elected co-conspirators, met last year to organize opposition to the California Values Act, Senate Bill 54. This law limits local law enforcement’s ability to work with federal immigration officers. Sheriff Mims, and her Republican comrades who organized the meeting, foolishly believe that California passed the law as a rebuke to Trump. They are wrong. California passed the law because it makes communities safer, especially for women. Let’s look at the facts.

A comprehensive ACLU survey of police officers from across the country found that immigrant crime reports of abuse dropped by 40 percent between 2016 and 2017. Over half of the police officers surveyed said that domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault crime are now harder to investigate and prosecute because victims are afraid to seek assistance. Indeed, police officers note that when ICE arrests increase, cooperation with police in communities with limited English proficiency dramatically drops.

Advocates, too, note the chilling effect of immigration enforcement on community relationships with law enforcement. A 2017 nationwide survey of violence prevention organizations found that many undocumented women are too afraid of ICE to file for temporary restraining orders. Some clients, advocates say, drop charges altogether simply because they fear deportation. Victims of human trafficking, too, fear immigration authorities because their abusers relentlessly tell them that they will be deported if they go to the police.

Let that sink in for a minute. Women are willing to get beaten and raped, they are willing to forgo their legal entitlements to police protection, because they believe the police will conspire with ICE. The authors of the California Values Act and the elected officials who voted for it understand these realities. Indeed, when they voted for Senate Bill 54, they were voting to save women from their abusers, to rescue young girls from their brutal traffickers.

The hateful rhetoric spewing forth from the White House fuels anti-immigrant sentiment in the political sphere. When law enforcement officials opportunistically reproduce this rhetoric to forward their own narrow agendas, vulnerable communities are materially threatened, especially women and children. Immigrant communities in the Valley know that Sheriff Mims visited the White House to speak out against the California Values Act. They know that she has allowed immigration arrests at the courthouse. They know that she met with an anti-immigrant hate group, then said that she was ignorant about the nature of the organization. Together, these actions result in blocking community members’ fundamental rights to equal protection under the law.

Are these realities lost on Sheriff Mims? I doubt it. She just is willing to sacrifice these women for her own professional gain. Her political machinations may help her get a job at the Department of Homeland Security, but they do little for our community. Sheriff Mims, change or resign.