The Trump Administration is making it harder for immigrant survivors of domestic violence to get visas or green cards

New sweeping changes to federal immigration policy will make it more difficult for hundreds of thousands of immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking, and other forms of abuse to obtain visas and green cards, according to lawyers and advocates.

The new rules — which U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) says are designed to root out “rampant fraud” —  raise evidentiary standards, documentation requirements and remove longstanding protections and practices that centered the realities and lived experiences of immigrant survivors.

Changes to the policy guidance will both make it more difficult for immigrant survivors to seek relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), advocates told Documented.

In particular, they raise concerns about three changes to the USCIS Policy Manual. First, USCIS will now permit and consider information from abusers (or, “adverse parties”) when evaluating VAWA self-petitions and visa applications, without need for independent corroboration. Second, USCIS has changed longstanding rules that previously guaranteed the confidentiality of survivors during the application process. Third, the agency has set stricter rules around documentation of abuse, placing a higher burden of proof on immigrant survivors.

These changes are unprecedented in the history of the VAWA program, advocates and lawyers said, adding that it forces testimony for survivors to undergo more scrutiny than information from their abusers, and removes some crucial confidentiality protections. They pointed out that providing extensive evidence can often be difficult for immigrant survivors given the realities of abusive situations, where evidence can often be lost, destroyed or left behind when a survivor flees for safety.

These new rules are a departure from the “more expansive” view that the agency has previously taken when evaluating immigrant survivors’ applications, said Kursten Phelps, a litigation counsel at the Tahirih Justice Center.

“It feels unsafe to even pursue these forms of protection and relief that bipartisan Congress created over 30 years ago and reauthorized multiple times,” she said, adding that the changes have created a backlog of visa applications.

The policy manual updates, which were posted on Dec. 22 and went into immediate effect, specifically impact individuals seeking relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which permits survivors to self-petition for a green card, as well as individuals applying for the U-Visa and T-Visa, which are granted to survivors of abuse and trafficking.

Some advocates are skeptical of the agency’s allegation that it received many fraudulent applications.

“But I think if you look at what was actually changed, it’s not clear how all of those changes relate to trying to stop fraud,” said Rebecca Eissenova, a senior staff attorney at ASISTA, a nonprofit advocacy group that helps immigrant survivors of violence.

USCIS Spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser told Documented in an emailed statement that the agency is “prioritizing rooting out fraud in these programs to help women and other alien survivors of abuse.” He also claimed that T-visa, U-visa and VAWA filings “exploded” under the Biden administration due to “rampant fraud.”

There are more than 245,000 U-Visas,  20,000 T-Visas and 180,000 VAWA petitions estimated to be in the agency’s backlog. Given the yearslong timelines for processing the petitions and visa applications, and the fact that USCIS’ policy changes will retroactively affect existing applications, their impacts have yet to be fully understood.

Accounts from abusers given broader consideration

Esther Limb, practice director of immigration at Her Justice, said she’s particularly concerned that USCIS has expanded the instances in which it will consider “adverse party information,” or evidence from an abuser or trafficker,  when evaluating immigrant survivors’ applications under VAWA.

“An abuser can say, ‘Oh this was a sham marriage,’ when it wasn’t a sham marriage. They can say, ‘Oh, this marriage was not in good faith, and therefore you shouldn’t approve this,’” Limb said. “And USCIS for years and years, have said ‘no, we’re not going to use adverse information like that.’ Now they’re saying, ‘no, it’s okay to use that, as long as it is credible.’”

Cecelia Friedman Levin, advocacy coordinator for the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors (AIS) explained that since 1996, USCIS has implemented protections to guard against unreliable information from abusers. And that when information from so-called “adverse parties” has been considered, it has required independent corroboration.

“There was an express recognition of the fact that these systems can be weaponized in a way that could harm survivors,” Levin told Documented.

The December guidance changes those longstanding protections, permitting input from alleged abusers if there is a deportable offense on an immigrant survivors’ record. In addition, the guidance also no longer requires the need to corroborate abuser-provided information when considering if a candidate is even eligible for a self-petition under VAWA.

“Allowing that unverified information provided by a prohibited source just really sort of jeopardizes the survivor safety in a way that has never been done before in the history of this program,” Levin said.

Advocates say some abusers have already been taking advantage of these changes.

In one instance Eissenova shared with Documented, an abuser allegedly lied about their partner’s sexual orientation and substance abuse, and said the individual had only married them for immigration purposes. Without need for corroborating those claims any longer, this individual will likely have their VAWA self-petition denied and they may be put in removal proceedings, she said.

“This is a really scary prospect they are facing. It used to be like, ‘we think you’ll be protected,’ and now it’s almost turned the tables, because they’re saying, basically, ‘we think that all VAWA is subject to fraud,’” Eissenova said.

Tossing longstanding protections

Another major change involves confidentiality protections enshrined for immigrant survivors in the United States Code.

“Our clients do come in and say, ‘will my husband or the abuser know I filed this?’” Limb told Documented. “And we say ‘no, because the government is prohibited from sharing information from your abuser. They’re prohibited from doing that.’ That was the precedent all the way until Dec. 22.”

That precedent was specifically created by Congress to protect the information survivors provide when applying for immigration benefits under VAWA or for U-Visas and T-Visas.

That protection may be endangered now, advocates and lawyers say, because the agency has changed the requirement around disclosing survivors’ physical addresses. In the past, applicants could leave that part of the application blank, without concern that it would endanger its success. For immigrant survivors who are unhoused, or living in safe houses unknown to their abuser, that confidentiality guarantee was pivotal to their safety.

But advocates and lawyers are now concerned  that a blank physical address could invalidate an application and writing “confidential” won’t be enough.

“There is a nonzero chance [USCIS] will be sending documents to that address instead of to the safe address,” Eissonova said. “And if you’re residing with your abuser or your perpetrator has access to your mailbox for any reason, then they can find out about that application, and they can use that to harm you.”

A ‘chilling effect’ on applications

Other small, technical changes could undermine efforts to assist survivors. Eissenova pointed out that USCIS removed language that survivors and advocates found helpful in illustrating what might qualify as “battery” or “extreme cruelty,” replacing extensive definitions with terms that may raise the evidentiary burden on survivors.

Another change is that applicants for VAWA benefits must prove they resided with their U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse when the abuse occurred. Previously, the requirement was to prove abuse happened at some point in the past during the relationship — not strictly during a marriage or partnership.

While the impacts of the USCIS policy changes are unfolding, advocates and lawyers predict that fewer applications will be approved going forward, and immigrant survivors will be more reluctant to seek relief.

Limb said some of her clients have been deterred by the policy changes, but most are still willing to apply, even with the increased risk factors.

“We are telling all of our clients from here on out that this is what we have to do, and then it’s going to be up to the client whether they want to file or not,” she said.  “It’s a mixed bag, and it will, I think, continue to have a chilling effect depending on how we see this play out.”