Saturday, June 30, 2007
WIA & Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996
Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA II)
The first reauthorization of VAWA built upon the immigration provisions included in the 1994 bill by improving access to cancellation of removal, suspension of deportation and other immigration protections for victims of domestic violence. VAWA II also allowed funding in VAWA grant programs to be used for immigration assistance. VAWA II removed the U.S. residency requirement and "extreme hardship" requirements for immigrant women to receive VAWA protections; allows battered immigrant women to obtain lawful permanent residence without leaving the country; restores access to VAWA protections for immigrants regardless of how they entered the country and creates a new type of visa, the U-visa, for victims of serious crimes that will allow some to attain lawful permanent residence.
Immigrants who are victims of certain serious crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking are eligible for the U-Visa created in VAWA II providing that the victim has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of the crime, the victim has information about the crime, and a law enforcement official or a judge certifies that the victim is or is likely to be helpful in investigating or prosecuting the crime.
Setbacks:
In the late 1990s, a combination of legislative reforms targeting poor people and immigrants produced dangerous results that threaten crucial legal and financial remedies previously available to battered immigrant women. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act ("IIRIRA") were passed within months of each other in 1996.
These laws cut off access to the public benefits safety net for many immigrants and imposed significant new legal and procedural barriers upon immigrants seeking lawful immigration status. Although these laws were not specifically written to address cases of battered immigrants, and although IIRIRA explicitly contains provisions that offer battered immigrants some protections, other provisions of these laws erode the progress gained in protecting the rights of battered immigrant women just two years earlier with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), also known as welfare reform, was a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s welfare law enacted in 1996. PRWORA created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which ended the federal entitlement to assistance for poor families with children and replaced it with a "work first" approach. TANF requires recipients to work in exchange for assistance and seeks to, among many things, reduce caseloads and limit the time during which a person can receive aid.
In general, TANF narrowed immigrant eligibility for federal and state benefits, such as Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC). It also made it much more complicated to understand what assistance is available, which immigrants qualify, and how these immigrants can access the benefits for which they are eligible.
While the widespread, erroneous impression among providers, community members and even governmental agencies is that "immigrants aren't entitled to any benefits anymore," this is not the case, thanks to significant gains and improvements won by advocates nationwide. The regulations and procedures for implementing public benefits policy are extremely complicated - particularly when they intersect with immigration policy. Applicants require the assistance of advocates who have been trained in the dynamics of domestic violence in immigrant families, who understand VAWA's immigration provisions, and who are knowledgeable about immigrants' rights to access benefits under welfare reform.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996
Another piece of legislation, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), severely restricted the legal rights of most immigrants, with particularly harsh provisions affecting undocumented immigrants. IIRIRA contains several provisions aimed at protecting battered immigrants. IIRIRA partially preserved access to VAWA immigration relief for battered immigrants; expanded public benefits access to certain undocumented battered immigrants; and created "deeming" exceptions for battered immigrants. IIRIRA recognized that many VAWA eligible battered immigrant women are undocumented as a direct result of domestic abuse. IIRIRA exempts some battered immigrant women from many of the harsh penalties that it directs at other undocumented immigrants.
The overlapping nature of these two welfare and immigration reform policies has exacerbated the complex intersection of domestic violence and immigration status. The reforms ushered in by these legislative changes are vast and represent a radical departure from the past, affecting nearly every arena of public and private social service delivery, in which some immigrants are aofforded greater access to benefits and services, and others are cut off altogether. Clearly, new collaboration and alliance building have to be forged to respond to the very intricate problems of abused immigrants seeking ways to create violence-free homes.
The first reauthorization of VAWA built upon the immigration provisions included in the 1994 bill by improving access to cancellation of removal, suspension of deportation and other immigration protections for victims of domestic violence. VAWA II also allowed funding in VAWA grant programs to be used for immigration assistance. VAWA II removed the U.S. residency requirement and "extreme hardship" requirements for immigrant women to receive VAWA protections; allows battered immigrant women to obtain lawful permanent residence without leaving the country; restores access to VAWA protections for immigrants regardless of how they entered the country and creates a new type of visa, the U-visa, for victims of serious crimes that will allow some to attain lawful permanent residence.
Immigrants who are victims of certain serious crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking are eligible for the U-Visa created in VAWA II providing that the victim has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of the crime, the victim has information about the crime, and a law enforcement official or a judge certifies that the victim is or is likely to be helpful in investigating or prosecuting the crime.
Setbacks:
In the late 1990s, a combination of legislative reforms targeting poor people and immigrants produced dangerous results that threaten crucial legal and financial remedies previously available to battered immigrant women. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act ("IIRIRA") were passed within months of each other in 1996.
These laws cut off access to the public benefits safety net for many immigrants and imposed significant new legal and procedural barriers upon immigrants seeking lawful immigration status. Although these laws were not specifically written to address cases of battered immigrants, and although IIRIRA explicitly contains provisions that offer battered immigrants some protections, other provisions of these laws erode the progress gained in protecting the rights of battered immigrant women just two years earlier with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994.
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), also known as welfare reform, was a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s welfare law enacted in 1996. PRWORA created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which ended the federal entitlement to assistance for poor families with children and replaced it with a "work first" approach. TANF requires recipients to work in exchange for assistance and seeks to, among many things, reduce caseloads and limit the time during which a person can receive aid.
In general, TANF narrowed immigrant eligibility for federal and state benefits, such as Food Stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, public housing, and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (formerly called Aid to Families with Dependent Children, AFDC). It also made it much more complicated to understand what assistance is available, which immigrants qualify, and how these immigrants can access the benefits for which they are eligible.
While the widespread, erroneous impression among providers, community members and even governmental agencies is that "immigrants aren't entitled to any benefits anymore," this is not the case, thanks to significant gains and improvements won by advocates nationwide. The regulations and procedures for implementing public benefits policy are extremely complicated - particularly when they intersect with immigration policy. Applicants require the assistance of advocates who have been trained in the dynamics of domestic violence in immigrant families, who understand VAWA's immigration provisions, and who are knowledgeable about immigrants' rights to access benefits under welfare reform.
Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996
Another piece of legislation, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), severely restricted the legal rights of most immigrants, with particularly harsh provisions affecting undocumented immigrants. IIRIRA contains several provisions aimed at protecting battered immigrants. IIRIRA partially preserved access to VAWA immigration relief for battered immigrants; expanded public benefits access to certain undocumented battered immigrants; and created "deeming" exceptions for battered immigrants. IIRIRA recognized that many VAWA eligible battered immigrant women are undocumented as a direct result of domestic abuse. IIRIRA exempts some battered immigrant women from many of the harsh penalties that it directs at other undocumented immigrants.
The overlapping nature of these two welfare and immigration reform policies has exacerbated the complex intersection of domestic violence and immigration status. The reforms ushered in by these legislative changes are vast and represent a radical departure from the past, affecting nearly every arena of public and private social service delivery, in which some immigrants are aofforded greater access to benefits and services, and others are cut off altogether. Clearly, new collaboration and alliance building have to be forged to respond to the very intricate problems of abused immigrants seeking ways to create violence-free homes.
Labels: Americano, Domestic Violence, End Child Abuse, La Ley, Law, Mary Cano, TANF, TWC, WIA
