Congress Creates New "T" and "U" Visas for Victims of Exploitation

IMMIGRATION LAW & POLICY

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Congress creates new "T" and "U" visas for victims of exploitation
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 14, No. 6, October 19, 2000

By passing the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, which includes the Violence Against Women Act of 2000, Congress created two new categories of nonimmigrant visas, the "T" and "U" visas.

T visas are available to individuals who are victims of "a severe form of trafficking in persons." Severe forms of trafficking include sex trafficking of persons under 18 years of age, or recruiting or obtaining persons 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." Nearly all grounds of inadmissibility may be waived in these cases, and individuals granted T visas may adjust to LPR status three years after they are granted the T visa. There is a limit of 5,000 T visas that may be issued in one year, and 5,000 adjustments of T-visa holders that may be granted. This numerical restriction applies only to principals and not to spouses, sons, daughters, or parents of the principal immigrant.

The other visa created by the act is the U visa, which is available to immigrants who are either victims of or who possess information concerning one of the following forms of criminal activity: rape, torture, trafficking, incest, domestic violence, sexual assault, abusive sexual contact, prostitution, sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, hostage holding, peonage, involuntary servitude, slave trade, kidnapping, abduction, unlawful criminal restraint, false imprisonment, blackmail, extortion, manslaughter, murder, felonious assault, witness tampering, obstruction of justice, perjury, or attempt, conspiracy, or solicitation to commit one of these offenses. A federal, state, or local official must certify that an investigation or prosecution would be harmed without the assistance of the immigrant or, in the case of a child, the immigrant's parent. Nearly all grounds of inadmissibility may be waived in these cases, and individuals granted U visas may adjust to LPR status three years after they are granted the U visa. There is a limit of 10,000 U visas that may be issued in one year, applicable only to principals and not to dependents.

Applicants for the T visa will be granted expanded access to government benefits regardless of their immigration status. To qualify, a trafficking victim must either be under 18 years old or obtain certification from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) that

she is willing to assist in every reasonable way in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking perpetrators (neither actual cooperation nor even the existence of an investigation is required; the victim must merely show willingness to cooperate); and
she has made a bona fide application for a T visa that has not been denied (or she has been granted permission by the attorney general to stay in the U.S. to assist in a prosecution of traffickers).

Although the language of the act is somewhat imprecise, it appears that those who meet the conditions listed above will be eligible for all programs funded or administered by federal agencies (including HHS, the U.S. Dept. of Labor, and the Legal Services Corporation) to the same extent as refugees. In the case of food stamps and Supplemental Security Income, trafficking victims will be eligible to an even greater degree. As a practical matter, qualifying trafficking victims should be eligible for refugee-specific programs (such as those administered by HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement) and for all non-refugee-specific federal programs on the same basis as U.S. citizens.