Before the Violence Against Women Act was adopted in 1994, Catholic Immigration Services had limited ways it could help certain abused women get their paperwork to become legal permanent residents.
The problem occurred because the men who are helping them attain legal status are also abusing them physically or emotionally. After marrying the women, they tormented the women and threatened to get them deported if they didn’t remain silent about the abuse.
“We didn’t have a way of assisting immigrant women of domestic violence because there wasn’t a way to help them get legal status,” said Sheila Gomez, director of Catholic Charities who founded the Catholic Immigrations Services office in 1993.
Most of the women enter the country illegally. Some women who enter this country with “fiancé visas” and are supposed to get married within 90 days. These women are often from Mexico, Central America, Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia.
“After they get married the spouse is supposed to apply for legal permanent residency,” Gomez said.
“Sometimes the men want to remain in control in the relationship and choose to not take the extra steps needed for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The spouse refuses to marry them,” Gomez said.
Gomez said these abused immigrant women stay in this legal limbo. The visa has expired, but the men who are abusing them are their sponsors and won’t follow the steps necessary for the women to get a green card.
“This is part of the abuse, the control,” Gomez said. “They are told they are out of legal status and they are told they will get arrested if they go to the police (about the abuse) because they are here unlawfully.”
The situation is even worse, Gomez said.
“She often has no friends,” she said. “She hasn’t learned the language. She can’t work. She can only go out of the house when the husband drives her. The women are far away from any support.”
Lyn Vaughn, a lawyer who has worked for Catholic Immigration Services in Little Rock as an immigration specialist since April 2005, said for a case to be considered under VAWA the woman must be married to a legal permanent resident or U.S. citizen. There are other laws that can help people who are engaged and a relative of the abuser.
Over the past 15 months, Vaughn has seen some similar characteristics of “predatory men.”
“Once they were the most charming and romantic, and then they start changing,” she said. “Once she is there (in the United States), out comes the controlling behavior.”
These special immigration cases were particularly interesting to Gomez. Things began to change once VAWA was enacted by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton.
VAWA became law to provide a wide variety of assistance to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. One part of the legislation addresses the legal problems immigrants face and allows them to self-petition for legal status without the knowledge of the abuser.
A majority of the cases involved domestic violence. Sexual assault and kidnapping cases have also been handled.
Even after VAWA became law, the problem was Catholic Immigration Services didn’t have enough staff and time to devote to these cases, which require extra documentation to show the abuse occurred and some written statements must to be translated into English.
In 2004 Catholic Charities was awarded a $225,000 two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Legal Assistance to Victims to hire two immigration specialists for the Little Rock and Springdale offices to focus only on VAWA cases. The grant, which expired this summer, also allowed Catholic Charities to educate domestic violence shelter workers and advocates around the state about the needs of immigrant women and the legal assistance available to them. Shelter workers also now have materials in Vietnamese and Spanish about domestic violence.
“Some of the strongest women I have met are these women,” Gomez said. “They are not weak.”
“The most vulnerable people are undocumented women survivors of domestic violence,” she added. “They have no voice and they are powerless. … Normally we have rights under the law. These are people in the shadows.”
Maria Miller, an immigration specialist at Catholic Immigration Services in Springdale, has worked with VAWA cases since 2000. She said when she first meets a client she is often depressed and isn’t taking care of herself. After applying for legal status for her and she gets away from the abuser, things change.
“In my five years working with these cases, I can see that we give them the power to be free … to have a good life, for their kids have better opportunities. … You can see they have pride in themselves. They are loving themselves much more. That is the best reward. It is a blessing for me to do this job. It is a gift.”
Vaughn said most of the cases are between women and their boyfriends or husbands. She has also been involved in two cases where a father or stepfather abused their child or stepchild and one case involving a maid at a Little Rock hotel who was abused by a stranger.
“It is pretty much always someone close to the victim,” Vaughn said. “You would expect the person would be protecting instead of abusive.”
Vaughn is working with 57 clients, including three men, and Miller is currently working with 66 clients, including nine men who were abused.
The typical client is a Hispanic woman between 25 and 59 years old. They also file cases on behalf of the children of the women.
One example Vaughn detailed was a Mexican woman who came to Arkansas to marry her boyfriend that she had known a longtime in her hometown. She entered the country illegally and found out her boyfriend and his parents only wanted her to be a servant. They married and had several children. The husband ordered the children to call their mother “the maid.” With assistance from her local Catholic church, the woman met with Vaughn and now has authorization to work in the United States, one of the first steps toward becoming a legal permanent resident.
Vaughn said she sees a lot of pain, but the “success stories” give her hope to continue working. Of one woman she helped get legal status, she said, “When we first met her, she was like a crushed flower. Now she blooms.”
Gomez said she knows VAWA has had a big impact on immigrant women.
“It gives them freedom and the avenue to rebuild their lives and help them create the lives God created them to do, which was robbed from them,” she said.
