{ "id": "R42477", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R42477", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 423086, "date": "2013-08-09", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T23:18:58.544488", "title": "Immigration Provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)", "summary": "The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) includes provisions to assist foreign nationals who have been victims of domestic abuse. These provisions, initially enacted by Congress with the Immigration Act of 1990 and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, afford benefits to abused foreign nationals and allow them to self-petition for lawful permanent resident (LPR) status independently of the U.S. citizen or LPR relatives who originally sponsored them. Congress reauthorized VAWA with the Battered Immigrant Women Protection Act of 2000, which also created the U visa for foreign national victims of a range of crimes\u2014including domestic abuse\u2014who assisted law enforcement. A second reauthorization in 2005 added protections and expanded eligibility for abused foreign nationals. Authorization for appropriations for the programs under VAWA expired in 2011.\nThe 113th Congress passed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 in February. The bill was signed into law (P.L. 113-4) by President Barak Obama on March 7, 2013. \nAmong the immigration provisions, P.L. 113-4 includes \u201cstalking\u201d in the definition of criminal activity covered under the U visa. It increases the number of reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must submit each year to Congress. It extends VAWA coverage to derivative-status children of deceased self-petitioning parents. It allows abuse victims to petition to waive their being classified as an inadmissible immigrant because of a disadvantaged financial position that otherwise might classify them as a \u201cpublic charge.\u201d It includes protections for children who are included in their parents\u2019 U visa petitions but who \u201cage out\u201d of eligibility by turning 21 before their parents\u2019 petitions have been adjudicated. The bill also extends protections to unknowing victims of bigamous marriages and to foreign nationals under age 18. \nP.L. 113-4 requires more extensive background checks and demands more consistent self-disclosures for U.S. citizen petitioners of alien fianc\u00e9s or fianc\u00e9es to provide the latter with greater information about potential abuse. It imposes additional penalties for marriage broker violations as well as false or incomplete representations by U.S. clients to foreign nationals to foster dating or matrimonial relationships. It permits information sharing of VAWA data by DHS for national security purposes and maintains the annual number of U visas at 10,000.\nOn June 27, 2013, the Senate approved S. 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act. S. 744 includes the following VAWA-related provisions. It would expand the annual number of U visas from 10,000 to 18,000. It would grant protection against aging out of status, deferred status eligibility, and work authorization eligibility to any child included on a VAWA petition. It would grant work authorization to VAWA petitioners no later than six months after they filed their petitions. It would allow VAWA petitioners to adjust status without being subject to numerical limits found in the INA. Finally, S. 744 would permit battered immigrants access to assisted housing.\nDuring the debate of the VAWA reauthorization in 2013, two potential concerns for Congress were emphasized regarding the immigration provisions of VAWA. The first was whether the VAWA reauthorization would provide sufficient relief to foreign nationals abused by their U.S. citizen or LPR sponsoring relatives. Advocates for battered foreign nationals suggested that additional provisions were needed to assist this population in obtaining legal and economic footing independently of their original sponsors for legal immigrant status. Critics of expanding immigration, however, questioned the extent to which the provisions would increase the number of legal immigrants, thereby incurring costs to U.S. taxpayers. \nThe second related concern was the degree to which VAWA provisions unintentionally facilitate immigration fraud. Critics of VAWA argued that such fraud might be occurring through what some perceived as relatively lenient standards of evidence to demonstrate abuse; as the unintended result of processing procedures between the District Offices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which adjudicate most immigration applications, and the USCIS Vermont Service Center, which adjudicates VAWA petitions; or as an unintended consequence of the structure of current law. While some have suggested that VAWA provides opportunities for dishonest and enterprising foreign nationals to circumvent U.S. immigration laws, the available empirical evidence offers little support for these assertions. \nWhile addressed to some extent in the VAWA reauthorization of 2013, these two issues remain ongoing and reflect the tension found in other provisions of U.S. immigration policy. Such policies often involve balancing the granting of immigration benefits with adequate enforcement to reduce fraud and ensure intended eligibility.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R42477", "sha1": "68a2d1ca846318976557740d5125689d4a57b2d0", "filename": "files/20130809_R42477_68a2d1ca846318976557740d5125689d4a57b2d0.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R42477", "sha1": "1021228e8101a270475f945ad89ee16aad811f9a", "filename": "files/20130809_R42477_1021228e8101a270475f945ad89ee16aad811f9a.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [ { "source": "IBCList", "id": 3241, "name": "Global Health, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Policy" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc806945/", "id": "R42477_2012Jun07", "date": "2012-06-07", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Immigration Provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120607_R42477_a21c9d2fc20be1713f8dff895f0d0bfa933e22e4.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120607_R42477_a21c9d2fc20be1713f8dff895f0d0bfa933e22e4.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc85403/", "id": "R42477_2012May15", "date": "2012-05-15", "retrieved": "2012-06-06T14:34:05", "title": "Immigration Provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)", "summary": "This report discusses the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA, P.L. 103-322) that congress passed in 1994. This legislation created new programs within the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services that aimed to both reduce domestic violence and improve response to and recovery from domestic violence incidents.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120515_R42477_ac1d279082478fec4d613cc6672be6d18a16a7ab.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120515_R42477_ac1d279082478fec4d613cc6672be6d18a16a7ab.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Family violence", "name": "Family violence" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Wife abuse", "name": "Wife abuse" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Violence", "name": "Violence" }, { "source": "KWD", "id": "Violence Against Women Act", "name": "Violence Against Women Act" }, { "source": "KWD", "id": "immigration provisions", "name": "immigration provisions" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc86627/", "id": "R42477_2012Apr10", "date": "2012-04-10", "retrieved": "2012-06-15T10:07:48", "title": "Immigration Provisions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)", "summary": "This report describes how the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provisions work in practice. It discusses improvements suggested by immigration attorneys and law enforcement observers to increase the utilization of VAWA provisions by abused foreign nationals as well as ways to reduce immigration fraud. The report closes with possible immigration-related issues that Congress may choose to consider should it reauthorize VAWA.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20120410_R42477_cec2152bd0b3f03a892b1c998f8d902320801658.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20120410_R42477_cec2152bd0b3f03a892b1c998f8d902320801658.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Violence", "name": "Violence" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Family violence", "name": "Family violence" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Crimes against women", "name": "Crimes against women" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Women", "name": "Women" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Appropriations", "Immigration Policy" ] }