ADDITIONAL

RECOMMENDATIONS BY LEADING NATIONAL EXPERTS TO ADDRESS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM*
April 8, 2013 In addition to the key legislative reforms urged in Priority Recommendations by Leading National Experts to Address Violence Against Women in Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Congress can further protect immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and other gender-based abuses in the following ways: Ensure uniformity in Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) cancellation of removal cases by clarifying eligibility. Two interpretations of the current statute by Immigration Judges are resulting in the deportation of immigrant survivors of domestic violence that Congress intended to protect. Congress can fix this in two ways: (1) by making clear that extreme cruelty is a legal concept encompassing well-recognized forms of non- physical abuse, not an issue for judges to decide based on personal views or experience, or a lack of education on domestic violence and (2) by making disqualifications when applying for VAWA cancellation the same as (not stricter than) the disqualifications that apply generally for 10-year cancellation. These fixes should help ensure that survivors are more fully protected under law. Enhance protections for VAWA Self-Petitioners. Survivors who have suffered extensive abuse by their abusive LPR or USC spouses are sometimes not able to receive immigration benefits because of immigration violations in the past that are often related to the abuse. For this reason, Congress should strengthen VAWA protections in three areas: 1) Cancel reinstatement of removal against individuals otherwise protected by VAWA; 2) Modify the waiver for the permanent bar to recognize the range of circumstances facing victims of abuse and exploitation; and 3) Create a waiver from deportation for petitioners for SIJS or VAWA-related relief who have made false claims to US citizenship. Enhance protections, or remove other obstacles to accessing VAWA/T/U protections, by:

Eliminating the on account of grounds required for the adjudication of T visa applications, to enable more human trafficking victims to find protection in the United States (the T visa, created by Congress in 2000, has been vastly under-utilized; while 5,000 are available each year, only about 600 have been issued in any year).

Waiving the 2-year foreign residency requirement for J visa exchange holders who are otherwise eligible to apply for VAWAs/Ts/Us, permitting them to apply and be granted from within the U.S.

Allowing visa waiver entrants in removal proceedings to apply for VAWA/T/U/SIJS or other humanitarian immigration relief for vulnerable or victimized immigrants.

Strengthening protections for abused fianc(e)s who entered on K1 visas, by allowing them to access VAWA self-petitioning regardless of whether the US citizen fianc (e) marries him or her within 90 days of the immigrant fiance()s entry into the U.S.

*These recommendations are endorsed by a national committee of leading experts on existing protections and protection gaps in US laws affecting refugee and immigrant women survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and gender-based persecution, including ASISTA Immigration Assistance, Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities, The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, The Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the Tahirih Justice Center and the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. For more information or to meet to discuss these priorities and proposals, please contact Cecelia Levin, ASISTA Immigration Assistance (cecelia@asistahelp.org) or Jeanne Smoot, Tahirih Justice Center (jeanne@tahirih.org).