Useful New Publication on U Visas

Crime victims who aren’t citizens may be reluctant to come forward, particularly if they are in the United States illegally. Congress attempted to address this problem in 2000, by creating a special category of temporary visa for crime victims who assist authorities in investigating and prosecuting those who victimized them. These visas, called U visas, have not been widely used, as I noted in this blog post. I suspect that’s partly due to uncertainty about how the visas work and about who has the authority to certify that the non-citizen has been helpful to authorities.

I am therefore thrilled to announce that the School of Government’s immigration law guru, Sejal Zota, has published a new paper on U visas. It’s entitled Law Enforcement’s Role in U Visa Certification, and it’s available as a free download here. It’s a must-read for law enforcement officers and prosecutors who are involved in cases with non-citizen victims, as well as for immigration lawyers and others who might be called on to represent such victims.

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