“Why do men kill women? Because they can. Because they do it and nothing happens.”
, a San Diego-based immigration attorney, is representing a brother and sister from El Salvador. The pair say they lived in a precarious zone between two rival gangs and were targeted by both. One gang asked to store weapons and drugs inside their house; when the family declined, members threatened to kill them.
One month after Sessions’s ruling, Zittlau also lost a domestic violence case. Her client was a Guatemalan woman whose husband beat and sexually assaulted her for more than 10 years. He refused to let her use birth control, so she had five children, “which wasn’t her choice,” Zittlau says. In court, Zittlau’s client testified about the abuse for six hours, but the judge found her account “not credible.” “She had poured her heart out for hours,” Zittlau says.
The following weekend, Zittlau joined the nonprofit organization Border Angels to distribute gallons of water for migrants trying to cross into the U.S. through a stretch of desert in the Jacumba Mountains. Scattered in the brush, Zittlau noticed a small, tattered turquoise bra and decaying t-shirt that looked like they had belonged to a teenager.
A month later, Gabriela had good news to report: She and her children had made it through and were now in Delaware awaiting their asylum hearing, which, as of press time, has yet to be scheduled. “My children are fine. We were allowed to pass,” she texts. “I think everything is going well. Now, we are okay, thank God.” For the time being, she felt good. Most importantly, she and her kids were safe. For Gabriela, the grey zone had a silver lining after all.
Reporting for this story was supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation as part of its Adelante Latin America Reporting Initiative.
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