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Immigration
| Victim Services Home |
Many batterers use the immigration status of their partners as another way
to control them. Abuse may come in the following forms:
- Burning or stealing your papers or your children's papers.
- Refusing to help you gain legal status.
- Calling you names, like "illegal".
- Threatening to have you deported
- Reporting you to Immigration.
Many victims of domestic violence are afraid to report or leave their abuser
because they are "undocumented". Although the threat of deportation
is real, your safety is most important.
Although your immigration status may present certain risks, you still have
many rights.
- You do not have to reveal your immigration status.
- You do not need to be a citizen or have papers to get a restraining order.
- If you go to a battered women's shelter, you have the right to keep your
immigration status private. Some battered women's shelters may be able to
provide information and referrals for immigration issues.
- You are entitled to receive emergency medical care, regardless of your immigration
status.
- As a crime victim, you are not required to report your immigration status
to the police.
- Your immigration status does affect your eligibility for government assistance
and benefits.
- It is important to collect documentation of immigration status for you,
your children, and the batterer.
If you are not a permanent resident and are married or formerly married to
a U.S. citizen or permanent resident or are applying for residency through a
spouse, contact an immigration attorney. Your immigration status could be jeopardized
by a divorce or separation. An annulment, dissolution, or divorce could terminate
your immigration status.
If you have already received a conditional residence permit and you
are a victim of battery or extreme cruelty, you do not need the cooperation
of your spouse to change the conditional status to "permanent resident".
Texas Legal Aid Offices
The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 allows for victims of
trafficking to be eligible for legal services without regard to their
immigration status. Legal Aid agencies can use Legal Services Corporation
(LSC) funds to provide legal services, including assistance with the certification
and T Visa application process to victims of trafficking. Therefore legal
aids offices throughout Texas are permitted to serve these victims without
having to charge funding streams other than LSC.
The decision to take a case representing a trafficking victim is dependent
on each office’s method of prioritizing cases and the office's capacity
to take such a case. The following information includes the office location
and website of the local Legal Aid agency in El Paso, Texas: Texas Rio
Grande Legal Aid.
The Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Service office assists clients who
are crime victims to apply for a U Visa. The Elderly & Domestic Violence
Prevention Unit provides confirmation that those applying are “identified
as victims of crime”. The statute helps law enforcement agencies
serve immigrant communities by providing safety to undocumented victims
who otherwise might be deported if they reported the perpetrators.
Please call the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Service office
in El Paso, Texas at 532-3975 . |
Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid:
Texas Access to Justice Hotline:
1-888-988-9996
http://www.trla.org/
Diocesan & Migrant Refugee Service, Inc.
El Paso Office
2400-A E. YandellEl Paso, Texas 79903Phone: (915) 532-3975
http://www.elpasodiocese.org/dmrs/dmrs.htm |
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