‘Will I Be Detained?’ Immigrants Fear ICE Arrest If They Report Domestic Violence

USA Today spoke with Women’s Refugee Commission’s Zain Lakhani about domestic violence survivors avoiding police, courts, and shelters out of fear that ICE will deport them:

Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said the long backlog of U visas can take between 10 to 20 years before an immigrant survivor is given protection. While survivors can be protected from ICE while they are in the process of obtaining a U visa, Lakhani said “it’s a very arduous process in terms of what you have to demonstrate and what you have to prove in order to get a U visa.” The long wait and time for a U visa can impede a survivor from getting the resources to be able to safely leave an abuse situation and begin rebuilding their lives.

“That leaves survivors who are waiting for those visas just anxiously, kind of in the pipeline, not able to really access the benefits that they need in order to rebuild their lives, to protect themselves and their children,” Lakhani said.