Media Release: Government Audit Mischaracterizes USCIS’ U Visa Program, Ignores Challenges Facing Immigrant Survivors of Violence

January 15, 2022 - In its recent report, USCIS’ U Visa Program Is Not Managed Effectively and Is Susceptible to Fraud, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) characterizes management by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of its U visa program as inadequate and failing to ensure that the program meets its intended purpose. The OIG’s assessment, however, ignores one of the major purposes of the U-visa program, which is to provide stability and protection for victims of trauma and abuse. From the very first bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) over 25 years ago, Congress created immigration protections, like VAWA self-petitions, U and T visas, so that survivors do not have to choose between living with abuse and risking deportation or separation from their families. 

“The OIG’s insinuation that the U visa program is rife with fraud because victims are seeking assistance after their criminal cases have been resolved not only ignores the barriers that victims face in reaching out for help, but also ignores the reality of how the adversarial criminal legal system treats victims,” said Grace Huang, Co-Chair of the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors and policy director at the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence. “The U visa program must be structured to help victims who often are isolated, don’t speak English, and may be unaware of the availability of help from victim services programs, law enforcement, the courts, or the immigration laws. The OIG draft report not only erases the lived experience of immigrant survivors of violence, but fails to consider an essential purpose of the program that Congress intended from day one: assistance to victims of crime.”

The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors (AIS) along with a diverse, national community of survivor advocates, has experience working in a multi-disciplinary fashion with law enforcement and court system partners that is inconsistent with OIG’s characterization that the U visa program is not furthering its purpose in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting serious crimes. While we recognize there are agencies that are resistant to immigrant victims having access to protection, the U visa program has served to provide law enforcement agencies a way to connect with reluctant victims who fear threats from their abusers that they will be deported if they reach out for help. The value of the U Visa program to immigrant victims of crime, lawyers, experts, and law enforcement officials has been reported on extensively, including this Human Rights Watch report. 

“In order for USCIS to successfully implement the program, it is critical that USCIS increase their capacity and that the Administration and Congress provide sufficient staffing and resources for training of adjudicators,” said Archi Pyati, AIS Co-Chair and Executive Director at The Tahirih Justice Center. “The Alliance for Immigrant Survivors has long advocated for improvements to the U visa program, including calling to lift the U visa cap and fully fund USCIS to ensure timely work authorization for applicants with pending cases. Given the upcoming appropriations process and reauthorization of VAWA 2022, Congress has the opportunities and must act immediately to ensure that immigrant survivors of violence have real pathways to safety and justice. We urge Congress and the Administration to prioritize resources for USCIS to meet the urgent and critical needs of immigrant survivors at a time when survivors and their families are even more vulnerable.” 

“The last administration was rife with anti-immigrant sentiment which was characterized by intentionally underfunding and impairing certain programs that supported our immigrant communities, including the U visa program, which meant even longer delays in processing,” said Kirsten Rambo, AIS Co-Chair and Executive Director of ASISTA. “Our focus should be on making government work again and better, not attacking a valuable program that was deliberately sabotaged.”

There is indeed a growing backlog of petitions that undermines the U visa program. USCIS acknowledges this in its response to the OIG report, adding “the draft report fails to accurately identify that the root cause of the growing U visa backlog is in fact the statutory cap imposed by Congress.” Currently, survivors are experiencing extensive delays in the processing of their U visas. There are nearly 270,000 individuals with pending U visa matters and the processing time it takes just to place these cases on the waitlist is over five years. The report states that a victim petitioning in 2021 will likely wait 10 years or longer to receive a U visa. That is unacceptable – significant delays subject survivors and their families to additional risks of violence, exploitation, manipulation and trauma. An ineffective USCIS leaves survivors in danger. AIS is heartened that USCIS began implementing the U Visa Bona Fide Determination (U BFD) process in 2021 to provide victims with access to employment authorization and in an effort to reduce processing times and the time waiting for an initial review of petitions.

 Media Contact: Charlie McAteer, 917-696-1321, charlie@frontflipchange.com

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