The U Visa Program

The U visa was created with strong bi-partisan support as part of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 2000, the follow up to landmark legislation that encompasses Congress’ efforts to address and prevent gender-based violence. Congress recognized that immigrant women are especially susceptible to violence and that a significant number of women suffering violence stay in abusive relationships because of fear of being reported to immigration authorities.

To address this problem, Congress created immigration protections to ensure that undocumented women and children would no longer be tethered to abusers because of their immigration status. They could instead apply for a “U visa” which confers a legal status called “nonimmigrant status,” and protects immigrants against deportation if they were willing to help in the investigation or prosecution of certain crimes. This important protection also covers victims (men and women) of other violent or coercive crimes, such as trafficking and sexual violence. A similar program, the T visa, was introduced at the same time and allows victims brought to the US for sex or labor trafficking to come forward without fear of punishment.

In researching this report, Human Rights Watch spoke not only to immigrant victims of crime, lawyers, and experts, but to more than a dozen law enforcement officials from Arizona, California, Colorado, North Carolina, and Texas, all of whom told us the U visa has been an essential tool in strengthening relationships with immigrant communities and ensuring public safety. They emphasized that effective crime-fighting requires that all members of the community are comfortable reporting crimes to the police.

If an immigrant victim fears coming forward, police officers and prosecutors noted, perpetrators remain free to commit crimes against others in the community. Even if the perpetrator cannot immediately be apprehended, reports of criminal activity help police understand exactly where crime is occurring, allowing for informed decisions about where to deploy resources. Several emphasized that information provided by undocumented victims or witnesses on dangerous criminal activities has a ripple effect that makes the whole community safer.

Denver City Attorney Kristin Bronson said, “U visas are a very important tool to keep people involved in the system and it enhances the trust of the community in law enforcement.”[1] Other prosecutors and police officers described the visas as “crucial” and “essential” to their work, and lamented the fact that they are not more widely available. Several emphasized that the program strengthens communities by embracing those who are willing to make sacrifices to benefit others.

There is a tight nationwide cap on U visas, 10,000 a year, creating a years-long backlog in the application process. An administrative tool that immigration judges can use to put deportation proceedings on hold while U visa applications are adjudicated has been put in jeopardy by a 2018 Department of Justice decision. This uncertainty about status while waiting for visa approval takes a significant toll on the applicants: they may endure severe economic hardship before they receive work authorization and be forced to rely on an abusive partner in order to survive. They may become more vulnerable to labor or sex trafficking. And, abusers, perpetrators of crimes or their associates may threaten to turn victims or witnesses in to immigration authorities while their visa status is in limbo.

Many of the victims whose experiences are recounted in this report are women who suffered sexual and other physical assault. Undocumented victims have helped bring to justice serial rapists and other repeat criminals. Some have intervened in crimes underway to protect innocent victims from harm. They have stepped forward at risk to themselves to provide evidence that has led to the prosecution of individuals who might have gone on to commit new crimes against citizens and non-citizens alike. Without them, American society would be less safe.

With the renewal of VAWA on the horizon, Congress should preserve this important program. It should also seriously consider expanding it to protect immigrant victims and witnesses of a broader range of violent crimes, and should consider raising or removing the cap on the number of visas, or at least allowing unused U or T visas each year to be carried forward to help eliminate the U visa backlog.

Two Immigrant Crime Fighters

Alan Gonzalez

On September 4, 2014, in the small town of Gypsum, Colorado, 23-year-old construction worker Alan Gonzalez stopped by a local store where he was a regular only to discover an armed robbery in progress. Gonzalez was incensed to see the store owner being held at gunpoint. He thought “What if this happened to my mother or sister?”[2]

Rather than turn away, Gonzalez tried to stop the crime. When he confronted the robbers, one pointed a fully loaded 9 mm handgun at his forehead and told him not to call the police. Gonzalez told the robbers repeatedly to calm down. Eventually the gunman and his accomplice fled, but Gonzalez ran after them to prevent their escape. He quickly caught the gunman and put him into a headlock. During the ensuing struggle, Gonzalez was shot twice. He nonetheless continued to wrestle with the gunman. After Gonzalez was shot a third time, the gunman was able to run away—but Gonzalez was so determined to stop the suspect that he chased him until he realized he was covered in his own blood and collapsed on the sidewalk.

At the hospital, doctors found Gonzalez had been shot through his hand, his armpit, and very close to his heart. Miraculously, he survived and became a star witness for the prosecution. The prosecutor said had Gonzalez not chased down the robbers, they might never have been caught. Moreover, Gonzalez was able to identify and testify against not only the shooter, but three others who had been involved in planning what turned out to be a failed crime spree. Approximately a half hour before robbing the Gypsum store, the suspects had attempted to rob a check cashing store in the neighboring town of Eagle. Police had been unable to identify one of the suspects in the video from that robbery. While attending a sentencing hearing for the Gypsum case, Gonzalez happened to see the video of the Eagle robbery and, to the prosecutor’s surprise, identified the third person who had assisted in the planning and commission of the robberies.

Gonzalez is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been working in the United States for a year at the time of the robbery. At any time, he could have decided it was in his best interest to disappear rather than draw attention to himself by trying to stop a crime. Yet he chose to stop a robbery and cooperate with law enforcement, putting his own life, and his life in the United States, at risk.

Gonzalez’s testimony ultimately resulted in the convictions of four defendants who were handed down prison sentences ranging from two to 42 years. The court and prosecutor hailed him as a “hero.”[3] The prosecutor who handled the case, Heidi McCollum, said of him: “Alan has all the respect in the world that I could have for another person. I am forever grateful he is a member of my community.”[4] Police in town nicknamed him “Superman” since he continued to chase the suspects after being shot in the chest.

McCollum has helped ensure that Gonzalez can stay a member of her community by certifying his application for a U visa. In the application for Gonzalez, McCollum wrote “I grew up in Eagle County and attended the high school two blocks from this shooting. My parents, ages 75 and 84, have been in this community for 49 years. I would be proud to have Mr. Gonzalez living next door to my parents, knowing that this young man is literally willing to take a bullet for a complete stranger he knows is being victimized.”[5]

Linda Mendoza

Linda Mendoza was 22 years old and four months pregnant when she fell victim to a crime in 2010. She was just opening her beauty salon in East Oakland when a gunman pointed his gun at her belly and demanded cash. Mendoza, who had been brought to the United States from Mexico when she was four and was undocumented, was terrified and called the police after the gunman took the money and fled. A customer in the salon at the time ran out before the police arrived. Her employee, who also witnessed the crime and was undocumented, was afraid to talk to police.

But Linda wanted the perpetrators off the streets and felt they should face consequences for their crimes. Her family and co-workers were skeptical and asked if she knew what she was doing. They were concerned that interacting with police would put her at risk.

Months later, her grandmother was on a bus and mentioned the robbery to someone who told her to go to a women’s legal center for advice, which is where Mendoza found out about the U visa. With U visa in hand, Mendoza has since encouraged other crime victims to come forward and continues to assist law enforcement herself.

Due to Mendoza’s testimony in her own case, not only was the gunman arrested and convicted, but so was his accomplice; both had previously robbed several other stores in the neighborhood but people had been too afraid to report them. When Mendoza later witnessed the robbery of an ice cream cart outside her salon, she chased the robber down the street in her car until he ran into a McDonald’s. She provided a description to police and awaited their arrival so she could identify him. He was arrested.

Since obtaining the U visa, Mendoza has earned a degree in psychology. Before this happened, she did not think it was worth it to study because she would not have been able to practice as a therapist without legal status. She is “so grateful that something so bad was able to bring something positive to her.”[6]

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Protecting people like Alan Gonzalez and Linda Mendoza from deportation benefits everyone in the community, citizens included. Prosecutors and police officers have many other stories of courageous undocumented immigrants whose testimony has ensured that murderers, rapists, human traffickers, and armed robbers were prosecuted successfully. Often perpetrators were repeat offenders only apprehended because undocumented witnesses were willing to come forward, despite personal risks.

As Denver Chief Deputy Prosecutor Song said: “The people who come forward to cooperate with law enforcement to make their communities safer are exactly the kind of people we want to protect and keep in the country.”[7] Additionally, protecting people like Gonzalez and Mendoza from deportation sends a message to the immigrant community that they can come forward to assist in the investigation or prosecution of crimes without fear of being turned over to immigration authorities for deportation. It also sends the message to would-be criminals that they cannot prey on undocumented immigrants with the expectation that these victims will be too afraid to intervene or report crime to authorities.

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