Immigrants who have received protection under the Violence Against Women Act may be denied the opportunity to obtain a green card if their abusive spouses refuse to apply on their behalf. Men and women throughout the country who are victims of domestic violence have had their adjustment of status applications put on hold as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reportedly reevaluates its policy.

Until recently, men and women who had received immigration status under VAWA could submit their own petition for permanent resident status. But now, USCIS has indicated that recipients of VAWA protection who entered the United States without authorization after April 1, 1997 may not be allowed to obtain green cards unless their entry was tied to their abuse.

The National Immigrant Justice Center, World Relief-Chicago, and Life Span Center for Legal Services & Advocacy submitted a letter to the Chicago office of USCIS in November opposing the policy:

VAWA was enacted as a measure intended to prevent domestic violence and to curtail the harm that women suffer as a result of such abuse. Congress sought to ensure that all women would benefit from VAWA's provisions and, with that objective in mind, the legislation included provisions that were specifically crafted to offer relief to immigrant victims of domestic violence. The law recognizes that immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse because of linguistic and cultural barriers that impede their ability to seek protection or access justice. In addition to being beaten or subjected to extreme mental cruelty, these women are frequently held hostage by threats of deportation and economic subservience compounded by their inability to gain work authorization. Their unlawful status in this country prevents them from seeking recourse from government officials. VAWA was designed to address these obstacles and, in 2000, Congress introduced amendments that expressly clarified this objective.

The Sacramento Bee ran a story yesterday of one of the thousands of individuals whose petitions have been put on hold as a result of the USCIS policy shift. It is for women and men like her that the immigrant provisions of VAWA were intended:

Arellano's story, like many, begins with marriage to a husband she loved and with whom she had two children, both born here. But her husband, a permanent resident of the United States, never filed papers to sponsor her for permanent residency, she said.

 

After they were married, she said he told her to cross the border from Mexico illegally in 1997, saying he would submit their application once she got here.

 

Instead, she said, he used her undocumented status to prevent her from complaining about his subsequent beatings and verbal taunts.

 

Arellano, who agreed to tell her story publicly, thought she had no alternatives until she found a lawyer who helped her apply in 2001 for a temporary Violence Against Women Act visa.

 

With affidavits and other evidence, she proved to an immigration official that her husband had abused her and failed to sponsor her for a green card, and that her marriage had been in good faith and she was of good moral character.

 

She was granted a Violence Against Women Act visa and a work permit so she could support herself and her children by working legally. She started her own business and got health insurance through her janitor job, and based on that success used her temporary visa to petition, without her husband, for permanent residency - a green card.

 

When Arellano applied six months ago, she felt optimistic. With a green card, she would be able to travel freely and seek U.S. citizenship. With the temporary Violence Against Women Act visa, she can't travel to see her mother back in Mexico, she can't apply for citizenship, and the visa, she feared, could be revoked at any time.

 

Today, Arellano's fear is approaching panic. With the new policy pending, her green-card request has been put on hold at the Sacramento office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of Homeland Security.

Denying green cards to immigrants like Arellano makes it impossible for them to move on with their lives and achieve a degree of stability and safety for themselves and their children. Once threatened by an abusive spouse, they will continue to live in fear that they may be deported. For some, deportation would mean they would be stripped of any protection from their abuser. USCIS's attempt to tighten VAWA's provisions endangers men, women, and children who need our protection, puts them in a legal limbo, and plays into the hands of abusers who will undoubtedly use these denials as weapons to instill fear in their victims.