1. IMMIGRATION REMEDIES FOR SURVIVORS OF VIOLENCE
Dominique C. Quevedo, Senior Attorney The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles

3. The Landscape
Women (and men) who are victims of battery and/or extreme cruelty and other serious crimes that occurred in the United States or violated a U.S. law
Individuals sexually assaulted and harmed in other ways in the workplace
Young children fleeing child abuse and gang warfare who come to the U.S. unaccompanied
Women (and men) fleeing domestic violence in their home country
Individuals whose spouse files a family-based immigrant petition and who are later subjected to domestic violence
Children and teenagers abused or abandoned by their parent(s)
Children, men and women forced into sexual slavery or forced labor

4. Unaccompanied minors - countries of origin
Source: Department of Homeland Security, May 27, 2014

5. Potential Immigration Remedies
Asylum
SIJS
U Visa

6. Potential Immigration Remedies
T Visa
VAWA
Battered Spouse Waiver

7. ASYLUM - Elements Well-founded fear Reasonable probability
Both subjective and objective fear
Afraid to return (subjective)
Fear is objectively reasonable
Lower than preponderance of evidence
One-in-ten probability
INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 481 (1987)

8. Asylum - Elements Of Persecution:
Not defined by Immigration Nationality Act (INA)
Idea: Serious threat to life and freedom
Behavior that threatens death, imprisonment or substantial harm
Indicators: unlawful prosecution, arrest, interrogation, torture, beatings, harm to family members, rape

9. Asylum - Elements By the government of home country
Source of persecution must be gov’t, a quasi-official group or person(s) or groups that the gov’t is unwilling or unable to control
Can be non-state actors, such as family members
On account of one of the five protected grounds(nexus):
Race
Religion
Nationality
Political Opinion
Membership in a Particular Social Group

10. Asylum - Benefits Remain in the U.S.
Apply for Legal Permanent Residence after 365 in asylee status
Work authorization without conditions
Path to U.S. citizenship

11. Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS)
Eligibility
Be under 21 years of age
Unmarried
Have been declared a dependent upon a juvenile court of the U.S. or legally committed or placed youth in custody of a dept. of the state or an individual or entity appointed by a state or juvenile court

12. SIJS - continued Eligibility – con’t:
Juvenile court must also find that:
Reunification with one or both parents is not viable due to abuse, neglect or abandonment or a similar basis under state law; and
It is not in the young person’s best interest to be returned to his country of nationality or last residence

13. SIJS - Benefits
Legal Permanent Residency
Path to citizenship
Benefits

14. U Nonimmigrant Status Definition
Victim of a serious crime that resulted in substantial physical/mental harm where victim can provide certification from law enforcement official.

15. U Nonimmigrant Status Requirements
Victim of certain criminal activity INA § 101(a)(15)(U)(iii)
Suffered substantial physical/mental harm
Has been helpful, is being helpful or is likely to be helpful in investigation or prosecution
Applicant must be admissible
Occurred in U.S. or violated U.S. laws

16. U Nonimmigrant Status
To qualify for U nonimmigrant status, immigrant must have been the victim of certain crimes, which include:
rape, torture, trafficking, incest, domestic violence, sexual assault, abusive sexual contact, prostitution, stalking, sexual exploitation, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, or any similar activity*

17. U Nonimmigrant Status - Benefits
U nonimmigrant status expires after four years
Can apply for LPR status after three years of continuous physical presence in the United States.
Path to U.S. citizenship
Access to benefits

18. Human Trafficking - T Visa
Victims trafficked for:
Forced labor:
Examples: restaurant work, agricultural work, domestic work, factory work, or illegal enterprises such as selling drugs and serving as decoys in smuggling cases
Sexual exploitation:
Examples: prostitution, use in pornography

19. Human Trafficking
The term ''severe forms of trafficking in persons'' means:
(A) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
(B) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery
(Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000)

20. T Visa - Benefits Path to green card Path to citizenship
Access to benefits

21. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
Abused non-citizen child or spouse of U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident
Abused parent of a U.S. citizen
Child (whether abused or not) of a parent who was abused by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse

22. VAWA Requirements for marriage-based cases:
Abuser is or was a U.S. citizen (USC) or legal permanent resident (LPR)
Self-petitioner is (or was) legally married to USC or LPR abuse; marriage was in “good faith”
Self-petitioner subjected to “battery or extreme cruelty” during the marriage
Self-petitioner lived with abuser
Self-petitioner resides in U.S. (certain exceptions exist if living abroad**)
Self-petitioner is a person of good moral character

23. VAWA - Benefits
Legal permanent residency
Path to citizenship
Benefits

24. Battered Spouse Waiver
Conditional Resident: A person who immigrates through a visa petition filed by their spouse within 2 yrs. of the date that they marry.
Intended for immigrant spouses who obtained LPR status through a regular family-based petition filed by a USC or LPR spouse and who suffered battery or extreme cruelty during the 2 years of conditional residency.

25. Questions/Discussions
Dominique C. Quevedo
The Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
601 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802
(562)