The Biden administration announced this week that it’s expanding access to work permits for some immigrants who are in the process of applying for a U-visa, which aides the undocumented victims of crime who work with law enforcement. Due to a huge backlog at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), waits to gain permission to work legally while cases are reviewed have bloated from 11 months in fiscal year 2015 to at least five years, The New York Times reports.
The Times reports that while Congress allows the federal government to issue about 10,000 U-visas a year, some 270,000 applications are currently in the backlog. While Reuters reports that it’s unclear how many work visas the Biden administration will make available to eligible applicants, immigrant rights advocates are hopeful following the announcement.
Dream Big Nevada deputy director and U-visa recipient Dulce Valencia called the administration’s expansion of work permits “tremendous news,” citing the long process she endured. “My U-Visa has been life changing but the process itself took many years. This news renews my faith that times are changing for the better and gives me hope that the hundreds of thousands of immigrants currently waiting will soon be able to benefit from this life changing programs,” she said.
NBC Philadelphia reported last month that Carmela Apolonio Hernandez, an undocumented mom who was in sanctuary in a local church for more than three years, was recently approved for a U-visa. “She and her children are protected from deportation and can apply for work authorization. She and her children are now on a path to citizenship,” her attorney said in a statement reported by NBC Philadelphia. “This result is very important for the family’s long-term stability, safety, and freedom.”
While the Biden administration has paroled into the U.S. a number of parents who were ripped from their children at the southern border by the previous administration, families have not yet been able to win permanent relief. Some policy experts have suggested that family separation victims who are willing to assist in probes “undertaken by inspectors general within the federal government or by congressional committees” could possibly apply for a U-visa. The Center for American Progress (CAP) also noted the significant backlog, but said that the federal government “could adopt policies to ensure that individuals with pending U visa applications who appear prima-facie eligible are not threatened with arrest and deportation while those applications remain pending.”
“The government provided U visa certifications, for instance, to more than a dozen undocumented family members of individuals who died in the 9/11 attacks for their willingness to cooperate in the penalty phase of the Zacarias Moussaoui trial or subsequent criminal trials,” CAP said. The United Nations slammed the previous administration’s family separation practice as illegal, saying it “amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child,” The Times reported in 2018.
“It is unfortunate for anyone to have suffered or witnessed criminal activity, but even more so when they are not familiar with the country and lacking necessary support in their quest for justice,” acting USCIS Director Tracy Renaud said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “This bona fide determination process will allow U visa petitioners to work and remain safely in the United States while they provide valuable support to law enforcement to detect, investigate or prosecute the serious crimes they have survived or witnessed.”