Speech #1090100854

Speaker. I rise today in support of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. All women and families should be free from fears of violence. but immigrant women face particular problems in confronting this crisis. That is why I am so pleased that provisions of my bill. H.R. 3188. the Immigrant Victims of Violence Protection Act. are included in this legislation. These immigrant provisions reflect hard bipartisan work of many members of Congress. I especially thank Representatives JOHN CONYERS. Jr. and SHEILA JACKSONLEE for their leadership on this issue. While VAWA 1994 and 2000 made significant progress in reducing violence against immigrant women. there are still many women and children whose lives are in danger today. Many VAWAeligible victims of domestic violence. sexual assault. child abuse or trafficking are still being deported. Congress must remain vigilant in the fight to preserve basic due process rightsthe right for immigrants to have a hearing before being deported and the right for battered immigrants to seek protection under VAWA. I want to highlight three concerns that this bill addresses: stopping the practice of immigration agents arresting and deporting battered immigration victims who may be eligible for VAWA relief. allowing the VAWA unit within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use its expertise and specialized training to grant. deny and revoke deferred action. and encouraging DHS to use its existing parole authority to allow approved VAWA selfpetitioners who are abroad to enter the U.S. and receive VAWA relief. A battered immigrant woman was arrested at the steps of a courthouse and detained by immigration enforcement officers. She was on the way to a custody hearing. and the officers had acted upon a tip by her abuser who wanted her deported. She was in fact an approved VAWA selfpetitioner and should have been neither detained nor deported. I am very concerned about this and other reported cases where immigrant victims are arrested by immigration enforcement officers at a domestic violence shelter or at a protection order courtroom. This undermines the purpose of VAWA. which is to protect battered immigrant victims. Section 825(c) of this bill establishes a system to verity that removal proceedings are not based on information provided by the abuser. When any part of an enforcement action was taken at certain places. DHS must disclose these facts and certify that such an enforcement action was not based on the information provided by the abuser. The list of locations includes: a domestic violence shelter. a rape crisis center. and a courthouse if the alien is appearing in connection with a protection order or child custody case. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must stop relying on information provided by an abuser to track down. arrest and deport an immigrant victim or to deny an immigration case she has filed because of the information provided by her abuser. This would protect battered victims from unjust immigration enforcement actions and allow them to protect their children and themselves from further abuse. Currently. a speciallytrained VAWA unit exists within DHS that adjudicates all VAWA immigration cases nationally. Because ICE off icers often do not have the expertise and training in domestic violence that this VAWA unit does. the VAWA unit is best equipped to assure consistency of VAWA adjudications. effectively identify eligible cases and deny fraudulent cases. This unit should have exclusive jurisdiction to grant. deny and revoke deferred action.