Speech #1090099672

Violence against women can occur at any point in a womans life. beginning in childhood and taking place in a wide variety of circumstances and settings. Its essential for any bill on such violence to include girls and young women as well. and this bill does that. Another important section of the bill provides greater help to immigrant victims of domestic violence. sexual assault. trafficking and similar offenses. This section will remove the obstacles in our current immigration laws that prevent such victims from safely fleeing the violence in their lives. and help dispel the fear that often prevents them from reporting their abusers to appropriate authorities. Eliminating domestic violence is especially challenging in immigrant communities. since victims often face additional cultural. linguistic and immigration barriers to their safety. Abusers of immigrant spouses or children are liable to use threats of deportation to trap them in endless years of violence. Many of us have heard horrific stories of violence in cases where the threat of deportation was used against spouses or children-"If you leave me. Ill report you to the immigration authorities. and youll never see the children again." Or the abuser says. "If you tell the police what I did. Ill have immigration deport you." Congress has made significant progress in enacting protections for 51. Pt. 21 28853 these immigrant victims. but there are still many women and children whose lives are in danger. Our legislation does much more to protect them. and I commend the sponsors for making domestic violence in immigrant communities an important priority. The improvements in immigration protections in the bill are designed to help prevent the deportation of immigrant victims who qualify for immigration relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). It will consolidate adjudications of such immigration cases in a specially trained unit. enhance confidentiality protections for victims. and offer protection to vulnerable immigrant victims who had been left out of the protections in current law. Overall. the bill represents major new progress in protecting women from violence. and I look forward to early action by the House in this important reauthorization. I ask unanimous consent that a more detailed summary of the provisions on immigrants be printed at this point in the RECORD.