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Another would-be U-visa applicant, Myriam Florez, 36, of Colombia, credited the New York City police with saving her life when her abusive husband broke into her apartment in violation of an order of protection in 2001. But she said that many women like her were afraid to complain for fear of deportation.
Ms. Florez, a nurse’s aide with two children in New York and one, a 15-year-old daughter, in Colombia, said she was unable to attend her brother’s funeral in Colombia last year. On Sunday, she said, her daughter called her, crying, to say “I can’t make it any more. I want to be with you.”
“Many days, many months, many years I was crying for her,” said Ms. Florez, who left when her daughter was a year old. “I say, how much time, God, how much time do I have to wait to see my daughter?”
The charged debate over immigration since 9/11 has undoubtedly complicated the politics of devising regulations for U-visas. Supporters of more restrictions on immigration and stricter enforcement of immigration laws call the “alphabet soup” of special visas enacted by Congress loopholes that do more harm than good. Other critics of immigration policies say the visas are no substitute for comprehensive overhaul.
But Peter Schey, a lawyer at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles, one of the organizations that filed the suit yesterday, said the failure to issue rules for U-visas was unlawful and had discouraged hundreds of thousands of crime victims from coming forward.
He said that after a similar suit was filed in federal court in Los Angeles in October 2005 , Congress gave the Department of Homeland Security until last July to issue U-visa application forms and regulations.
Originally, he said, “the intent of Congress was to help put violent criminals behind bars, and for this to sit there for six years without action is outrageous. It not only thwarts the will of Congress, it helps violent criminals stay out of jail.” Discussion thread can be found here.
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