ImmigrationIn U-Visa limbo: Undocumented immigrants who are victims of crimes

Many immigrants who are victims of crimes, along with their close family members, remain at risk and are denied the opportunity to live and work in the United States as long as Congress fails to increase the number of U-visas which immigration authorities can grant per year. Congress established the program in 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act to provide an incentive for immigrant victims to report crimes to law enforcement without fear of deportation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, applicants must allege that they have been the victim of a serious crime and provide a certification form signed by law enforcement confirming the applicant’s help or potential help in investigating the crime.

Demand for U-visas has outpaced the 10,000-per-year cap set by Congress, with over 26,000 applications filed last fiscal year. The Times reports that there is even a wait to get on the waiting list. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which processes the applications in the order they were received, has not evaluated any applications submitted after December 2013. To deal with the backlog, the agency has been issuing temporary work permits to some applicants on the waiting list, but that option is available only to victims filing for U-visas from inside the United States, and visas for family members of victims are not extended until a proper U-visa has been issued to the victim.

Immigration officials say the program’s popularity has risen sharply due to an outreach campaign by the federal government. Applications have increased fourfold since the first applications were approved in 2009. Gail Pendleton, co-director of Asista, which supports immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, believes Congress should increase the 10,000-per-year-cap to reflect the program’s popularity. In her letter to USCIS director Leon Rodriguez, Pendleton asked for policy changes which will allow relatives of victims who are living abroad to come to the United States on parole status. “Family members abroad desperately need to reunite with the primary crime victim, and the crime victim needs family support to heal and build a new life,” she wrote.

A 2014 Senate proposal for immigration reform included a provision to raise the annual U-visa cap to 15,000, but the bill failed to pass the Republican-controlled Congress. Representative Judy Chu (D-California), who has unsuccessfully sought to increase the cap and to extend U-visas to victims of labor exploitation, felt her Republican colleagues did a disservice to “immigrants who bravely speak out.”

An investigation into the U-visa application process by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) reveals that some law enforcement agencies are making it difficult for immigrants to obtain the certifications needed to apply for a U-visa. Officials in Kern County, California approved four out of 160 requests for certification in the last three years. The ACLU notes that other jurisdictions signed thousands of certifications during the same period. Kern County officials have said they refused to sign certifications for crimes committed years ago because they felt victims were trying to take advantage of the immigration system.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates stricter immigration enforcement, said the premise of U-visas is wrong. “We shouldn’t have to bribe people in this way to come forward to report crimes or report information,” she said.

Michelle Carey, an attorney at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, said victims already put themselves at risk by reporting crimes to law enforcement. “They’ve done that really hard work,” Carey said. “They deserve this.”