JUSTICE AND SAFETY FOR IMMIGRANT SURVIVORS
AIS 2025 Year in Review: looking back & moving forward
As we close out the year, we are deeply grateful for the strength, partnership, and commitment of the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors (AIS) community.
This may have been one of the hardest years this movement has faced, but we have been sustained by one another and all of you. Together we rose to meet the moment and made a meaningful impact defending and advancing safety, dignity, and justice for immigrant survivors.
Take a look at just a few of our favorite highlights from 2025.
Thank you for being a part of this community and for all you do every day to support immigrant survivors.
We look forward to continuing our work together in the year ahead.
AIS STATEMENT: Halting benefit processing for some countries means prolonged danger, instability, and trauma, not safety
The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors strongly opposes the Department of Homeland Security’s recent decision to halt immigration benefit processing following the tragic shooting over the Thanksgiving holiday. While violence must always be taken seriously, the agency’s imposition of blanket interruptions to immigration benefit processing in response to the actions of a single individual is a sweepingly reactive measure that will not improve public safety.
Instead, it places immigrant survivors of gender-based violence, including asylum seekers fleeing gender-based persecution, at heightened risk by cutting off timely access to protection, stability, and due process.
AIS Report Reveals Why Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are Fearful of Police and Courts
Our report, Fear and Silence: 2025 Insights from Advocates for Immigrant Survivors of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking, provides insights into what advocates are reporting and witnessing while working with immigrant survivors this year.
“What we heard was clear and alarming: immigrant survivors are deeply afraid to seek help from the police or the courts,” said AIS Advocacy Coordinator Cecelia Friedman Levin. Seventy-six percent of advocates reported that immigrant survivors have concerns about contacting the police to report domestic violence and sexual assault.
The report includes targeted recommendations for Congress, the administration, state and local government, and advocates.
ais #DVAM Statement: Together, our movement is powerful.
This Domestic Violence Awareness Month (#DVAM), AIS is celebrating the survivors, advocates, organizations, policymakers, and allies who make this movement possible.
And there is hope. We are making progress, step by step. Coalitions are in courts, fighting for our right and duty to serve all survivors by challenging unlawful grant restrictions, and they are winning. Leaders across the political spectrum are listening and pushing to strengthen emergency resources. We are seeing support for harmful bills that scapegoat immigrants and criminalize survivors wane as more lawmakers understand these proposals will not make communities safer.
These are not small things - they are proof that when we fight together, our movement is powerful, and change is possible.
ALERT: VAWA, U and T visa programs have NOT been cancelled or terminated! These bipartisan protections were created by Congress and the Administration cannot unilaterally take them away. While there is news that ICE has changed its guidance on enforcement actions related to potential or actual beneficiaries of victim-based benefits, we want to be VERY clear that the VAWA, U and T visa programs have NOT been cancelled or terminated. Please consult with a trusted immigration attorney in your area with any questions. You can find a qualified immigration attorney at the National Immigration Legal Services Directory. AIS will put out more information on this guidance soon.
ALERTA: ¡Los programas de visa VAWA, U y T NO han sido cancelados ni eliminados! Estas protecciones bipartidistas fueron creadas por el Congreso y la Administración no puede eliminarlas unilateralmente. Aunque hay noticias de que ICE ha cambiado su orientación sobre las acciones de cumplimiento relacionadas con posibles o actuales beneficiarios de programas de ayuda a víctimas, queremos dejar MUY claro que los programas de visa VAWA, U y T NO han sido cancelados ni eliminados. Consulte con un abogado de inmigración de confianza en su área si tiene preguntas. Puede encontrar un abogado calificado en el National Immigration Legal Services Directory. AIS publicará más información sobre esta nueva orientación pronto.