The protective visas that may never come

Immigrant women were facing high rates of domestic violence, and yet the fear of deportation and lack of trust in police was so pervasive it kept many of them from reporting the crimes to law enforcement. That made it “virtually impossible” to hold many perpetrators accountable, Congress found. 

In response, lawmakers from both parties created two new visas: U visas for victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes, and T visas for victims of human trafficking. About 3 in 5 U and T visa applicants are immigrant women.

Twenty-five years later, the programs are bogged down by lengthy wait times, which have grown to over a decade. Now, with President Donald Trump back in office, they’re also facing an existential threat. 

At the center are thousands of immigrants who have been trafficked or have been the victim of a violent crime, who reported that crime to law enforcement, and who bear the physical or mental scars of that crime — all requirements to obtain one of these visas. Their lives remain stuck in limbo as they await a decision, now more vulnerable to detention and deportation due to Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. 

Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s second term and whose architects hold high-ranking roles in his administration, calls for the total elimination of the two visas, concluding that “victimization should not be a basis for an immigration benefit.” 

Until then, the blueprint calls on the president and federal agencies to use their power to “significantly restrict” access to the programs. Data from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), lawyers working with crime victims and gender-based violence advocates say that work toward that goal is already underway. Similar efforts were undertaken in Trump’s first term, when, for example, a new policy was quietly rolled out that rejected any application with a blank space — even if it was something simple, like a middle name section left blank because the applicant didn’t have one. The policy was used to deny more than 12,000 U visa applications before it was blocked in federal court.  

Since Trump’s second inauguration, the administration’s close cooperation with local police to help with immigration enforcement, layoffs at the agency that handles visa applications and the stripping away of policies that protected applicants from deportation have all had a chilling effect on new applications and could be exacerbating processing delays for new applications.

“I’m concerned that what we’re seeing is the early days of a multifaceted effort to chip away at these programs — make them less accessible, less desirable, less functional,” said Kursten Phelps, a lawyer with the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit that offers legal and social services to immigrant women and girls.

Data from January through March published by the agency that handles these visas, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), shows a sharp drop off in U visa applications, which are granted to immigrant victims of domestic violence and other crimes who cooperate with police. The data shows that while T visa applications for human trafficking victims remained steady, the agency approved far fewer applications than it had previously, despite a growing backlog. 

Advocates for immigrant victims of crime say the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to immigration enforcement makes it easy for abusers to use the fear of deportation as a tool for coercion. That, said Jean Bruggeman, a longtime expert in immigration, human trafficking and domestic violence, was one of the original problems Congress set out to solve with these visas.

“I would love a world in which we don’t need the T and the U visa. That is the world I am working towards, where we have a fair and honest immigration system that … can’t be used as a weapon against immigrants,” said Bruggeman, the executive director of Freedom Network USA, a nonprofit focused on human trafficking. 

Until then, she said, “we at least have to protect the brave victims and survivors who come forward and ask for our help.”

Reporting crimes and applying for a visa is riskier under Trump

Denisse, now 40, immigrated from Mexico in the mid-1990s seeking safety and better work opportunities. She met her future partner while working at a restaurant in New York City. The pair dated and eventually welcomed two daughters. Her first pregnancy,  Denisse said, marked the beginning of years of beatings, verbal abuse and rape. Once, Denisse said, her partner threatened to kill her with a screwdriver. On another occasion, she found he had taken photos of her undressed; he threatened to distribute them to friends and family, which left her with a lasting fear of hidden cameras. 

After a night of beatings and strangulation in 2015, Denisse decided to call the police. “I just thought, ‘No more. He’s going to kill me.’” The 19th is not publishing Denisse’s last name out of concern for her safety.

She was hesitant to press charges — Denisse had little support or financial stability, was not authorized to live or work in the United States, and was afraid of losing custody of her two daughters. Eventually, she decided to help the authorities prosecute her former partner, and was counseled by social workers about the U visa. She submitted an application in 2018, and by 2023, had received a “bona fide determination” — an acknowledgement that Denisse had met the basic criteria for the visa. 

That determination came with a work permit and deferred immigration enforcement while she waits for a final decision on her case. The long wait times have taken a toll. 

“I’m living in the in-between,” she said. With Trump’s inauguration, that limbo has become scarier: She fears that she is no longer safe from being detained, deported and separated from her children, especially since her pending application makes her visible to federal immigration officials. 

“I’ve heard of people being detained, even having a work permit like me,” she said. “I can feel the fear creeping in.”

Advocates for immigrant victims of crime say that the Trump administration’s policies are making it riskier for victims to reach out to law enforcement and submit visa applications, challenging the goals of a program approved by Congress with bipartisan support. 

Kinda Velloza, an immigration attorney based in the Atlanta metro area, said reaching out to law enforcement — already a difficult task for many victims — has become a scarier proposition since the Trump administration began working with local police to enforce immigration laws. That’s especially true if immigrants perceive their locality as being hostile to immigrants.

“If they are victims of crime, they’re not calling law enforcement — they’re not going over there to report anything,” Velloza said. “So, I think we’re going to see a decline in new visa filings because nobody’s just voluntarily putting themselves in the U.S. immigration system right now.”

A spring 2025 survey of 170 advocates and lawyers for immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence and human trafficking, conducted by the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, found that more than three-quarters said their clients had concerns about contacting the police. Victims have long been hesitant to contact law enforcement, but Trump’s immigration agenda is challenging advocates’ long-held advice to always seek help.

One advocate in the report said they watched a human trafficking victim with no criminal record be detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE). The incident has made them question whether it is advisable to tell victims that it’s safe to seek help from law enforcement.

Data from DHS confirm applications for U visas have slowed. In the first three months of the year — a window that includes the last three weeks of Biden’s term — applications for U visas fell by almost half from the previous three months. Approvals and denials continued at a similar rate.

The data is an early glimpse into the program under Trump. Advocates for immigrant victims point to two policy changes that could contribute to the chilling effect. First, the Trump administration rolled out new guidance in February telling ICE officers that they don’t have to actively check if someone has a pending U or T visa while carrying out arrests — meaning that they could be more easily detained and deported by ICE. 

The administration also reinstated a policy from Trump’s first term that allows ICE to immediately start deportation proceedings against people who are denied a U or T visa. Phelps said the policy is already leading to arrests of U and T visa applicants, and complicates an immigrant’s decision to apply for the program in the first place. 

That deportation policy was shown to have a particularly strong impact on human trafficking applicants. A 2022 report out of Boston University based on DHS data and a survey of close to 200 legal experts working with T visa applicants found that while applications under the program had been rising since 2008, they decreased dramatically after the new deportation policy went into effect. Between 2019 and 2021, DHS sent “Notices to Appear” — the letter that triggers deportation proceedings — to nearly 2,000 U and T visa applicants.

Wait times have long plagued the programs

Luz, an immigrant from Ecuador with two children born in the United States, has waited nearly five years for the initial determination in her case and accompanying work permit — just the first step in a long journey to possibly obtaining a U visa. 

USCIS estimated last year that the median wait time for a U visa was over six years; for a T visa, it was about 15 months. But lawyers who file these applications say the waits can be much longer. The Domestic Violence Project at the Urban Justice Center, which regularly helps victims file applications, projects that someone who filed in 2020 should expect to get a final decision in 2033, while someone who files this year could be waiting nearly two decades at the current rate.

Luz had been married as a teenager in rural Ecuador and eventually followed her partner to New York City in the mid-1990s. When she arrived, she found poor living conditions, low-paying work and spousal abuse that began almost immediately. She lacked family or community support and spoke little English. 

One night, when her partner came home intoxicated and violent, hurting Luz and one of their daughters, Luz called the police. 

After the arrest, a law enforcement official encouraged Luz to take her claims to court, instead of dropping the charges, which victims of domestic violence often do. Years later, a mental health counselor urged Luz to apply for a U visa; she filed for it in October 2019. The 19th agreed not to publish Luz’s last name out of concern for her safety.

Luz works at a grocery store under conditions that have exacerbated her asthma — extreme cold and heat, and dust. The pay is also low, which has put strain on her family as food costs rise. She has not received a work authorization, which she said has kept her from pursuing work in health care. She’s interested in working for a pharmacy or a lab, a desire born out of her being a caregiver decades ago for her brother during a battle with liver disease. 

“Well, that’s my dream,” Luz said. “And at the same time, I think about how many women like me are sitting, waiting with frustration, wondering if they’ll accept my application or not — if I’ll wind up in the same or a worse situation.” 

A 2022 USCIS Inspector General’s report flagged the backlog facing U visas and said it was putting victims at risk. Mismanagement of the program, the report found, was leaving “legitimate victims waiting more than 10 years to receive U visas.” 

Some visa applicants are also experiencing longer waits for the immigration agency to even acknowledge their applications. During the Biden administration, that acknowledgement often spared someone from deportation. That’s no longer the case.

The 19th documented the case of a Salvadoran immigrant, Yessenia Ruano, who was forced to self-deport in June after filing a T visa application in February.  At the time, the wait for a receipt number was around four weeks. That same month, the Trump administration fired 50 employees from USCIS. By early May, an agent told Ruano that the wait had grown to four months. 

By the time Ruano could show the proof of her T visa application in May, ICE agents said it wasn’t enough and told her to leave the country or face detention.

In August, Democratic Reps. Gwen Moore and Jimmy Panetta introduced legislation that would protect most U and T visa applicants from immigrant detention and deportation. Moore cited Ruano’s case. 

“By subjecting these vulnerable individuals to immigration enforcement, the Trump administration is helping create a two-tiered justice system that empowers criminals and discourages certain victims from coming forward,” Moore said. “Congress created these visas as a tool to make our communities safer and support the flow of critical information during criminal investigations. This legislation creates stronger T and U visa protections, helping victims and law enforcement.”

The Protect Immigrant Witness and Victim Protection Act would also lift the cap on U visas and require USCIS to issue work permits to applicants if their cases are pending for over 180 days.  

Visas for victims of human trafficking have slowed 

Advocates who fight human trafficking say the T visa plays a critical role for victims of sex trafficking, overwhelmingly women and girls.

During the first two months of the Trump administration, USCIS denied more T visa applications than it approved, a first in the history of the program.

Between January and March — a window that includes the last three weeks of Biden’s term and the first two months of Trump’s second term — USCIS approved 430 applications and denied 497. Taken altogether, the agency decided 927 cases — a number advocates say is strikingly small next to the backlog. 

“There is a significant slowing down of adjudications of these applications,” said Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center, a nonprofit that connects victims of human trafficking with pro-bono legal representation. 

“It’s troubling to see the numbers dropping. You could understand the lack of approvals without the backlog, but there’s no excuse for not adjudicating,” Vanderberg added. 

DHS did not respond to a request for comment on the decline in adjudications of T visa applications. 

The Human Trafficking Legal Center and other groups had advocated for more resources to speed up decisions in T visa cases during the Biden administration. In 2023, for the first time in history, the number of T visa applications exceeded Congress’ 5,000 visa cap. 

Despite the growing number of applications, USCIS has never reached that cap. Between October 2023 and September 2024, the agency received a record 15,332 T visa applications and approved 3,786. About 600 applications were denied, and the backlog grew from about 9,000 applications the year prior to more than 20,000.

This year, Vanderberg said the organization has no hope that USCIS will meet the cap. “I think we’ll be lucky to see 2,000 approvals.” 

The role of the visas in maintaining public safety 

Last month, the Justice Department said it uncovered a decade-long scheme that resulted in hundreds of fraudulent U visa applications. Three small-town police chiefs in Louisiana took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for false reports of armed robberies.

A federal prosecutor on the case who has worked at the agency for over 20 years said in a news conference that the scheme exposed flagrant abuse of the program — but that the visas are an important law enforcement tool. 

“These visas are designed to help law enforcement and prosecutors prosecute crimes where you need the victim or the witness there, ” U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said last month. “U visas serve a valuable purpose, and this is a case where they were abused.”

Other law enforcement officials agree that the visas are essential to public safety. 

“If they don’t have to worry about the fear of being deported, they’re more likely to report a crime to law enforcement, and that’s important to us,” said Captain Jeffrey Bunge, the director of the special victims investigations division at the Montgomery County Police Department in Maryland. 

In an interview with The 19th, Bunge described U visas as critical to the work of law enforcement — from building trust with immigrant communities to report crimes to mounting strong cases for prosecution that may involve several victims.

Bunge runs the office that issues law enforcement certifications for his police department and described a careful process in which officers work to link the certification request to a crime report and ensure that the agency gets the cooperation of the victim. Not every jurisdiction has a dedicated office like Montgomery County’s.

The U visa program isn’t without criticism. The 2022 USCIS watchdog report found that the program was mismanaged, susceptible to fraud and that better data was needed to understand whether it was meeting the goals that Congress laid out — protecting victims and helping law enforcement. 

The report argued that USCIS could do a better job making sure that it wasn’t approving cases using fraudulent law enforcement certifications and that the agency could take a closer look at how it defines whether a victim was helpful to a law enforcement case. 

Experts in the visa programs agreed that while improvements could be made, their existence continues to play an important humanitarian and public safety role. 

“It does us no good if there are serious crimes that are taking place in the community, and we can’t investigate and charge and arrest those individuals. Particularly for the U visa, [these] are some of the more serious crimes,” Bunge said. “We want to get the bad guy or the bad girl off the street so that overall makes the community safer.”