"Carmen's abusive husband came home drunk one night last summer. He pounded and kicked the door. He threatened to kill her as her young son watched in horror. She called police, eventually obtaining a restraining order. Months later he returned and beat her again. Police came again and he was eventually deported. Thinking she finally escaped his cruelty, Carmen applied for what is known as a U-Visa."
"Congress created those visas to ensure immigrant victims would report crimes to law enforcement and be safe, but lawyers for the victims argue the administration has reneged on those promises. "These laws have existed because they keep us all safe, and there is a process and legal rights that attach when you seek out those protections," said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who is one of the lead attorneys on the case."
An immigrant woman who applied for a U-Visa after domestic violence was detained during an immigration check-in and deported with her young son despite a pending application. Lawyers sued the administration for implementing a policy that detains and removes survivors with pending survivor-based visa applications, arguing this contradicts decades-long practices intended to protect crime victims. Congress created these visas to encourage reporting and protect victims. The lawsuit contends that enforcement practices have repudiated those promises, jeopardizing victims' safety and undermining legal processes that attach rights to seeking protections.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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