New Rules to Help Immigrants Deal With Domestic Violence

Declaring that immigrants victimized by domestic violence should not have to suffer in silence, the Clinton administration eased the way Tuesday for battered spouses and children of legal U.S. residents to obtain authorization to live in this country without relying on their abusers.

The new Justice Department guidelines allow domestic abuse victims whose spouses are U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents to “self-petition” for residence status. Previously, victims often had no choice but to wait until the abusers filed on their behalf, a predicament that authorities said led many batterers to use the threat of deportation as a sinister means of control.

“Victims of domestic violence should not have to fear deportation because of their relationship with an abuser,” Doris Meissner, U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner, said at a Washington news conference unveiling the new rules, enacted as part of the Violence Against Women Act passed by Congress in 1994.

Advocacy groups in California and other states with large immigrant populations had long lobbied for a rule change to ensure that no immigrant had to choose between abuse and deportation. Activists say thousands of immigrant families live in constant fear of domestic violence, but are unable to speak out.

“This will remove another tool from the batterer’s arsenal to control and manipulate the abused spouse,” said Rosa Fregoso, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, who works with dozens of immigrant women trapped in abusive marriages.

It is not uncommon, Fregoso noted, for abusers to evoke the prospect of deportation for a dual purpose: to prevent their wives from reporting abuse and to force them to remain in a harmful relationship. The specter of deportation may be particularly fearful, Fregoso said, because it can often mean separating the mother from her children.

Despite safeguards contained in the new rules, Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, expressed fears that the move could lead to increased fraud by spouses alleging abuse. Stein, whose group seeks to curtail immigration, also said victims who have only been in the United States for a short time do not necessarily deserve to remain here permanently.

But Fregoso said forcing victims back to their homelands would be inhumane and could subject them to retribution in nations where police protection is problematic.

The new protections come almost a year after the administration issued controversial guidelines to evaluate political asylum claims by women alleging persecution based on gender. Supporters called that move a recognition of widespread abuse, but Stein and other critics called it a backhanded way to increase immigration.

U.S. officials say the new protections for abuse victims should not affect overall levels of immigration to the United States. About 200 to 300 petitions have already been received, but were held in abeyance pending release of the guidelines.

The law requires that abused spouses or children petitioning under the law be of “good moral character,” demonstrate that deportation would cause extreme hardship, and provide police or hospital records, affidavits or other proof to substantiate abuse.