A program that provides special visas to immigrant crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement is being undermined by lengthy wait times, keeping applicants from accessing protections from deportation and legal work authorization.
Delays in issuing U visas—or even adding applicants to a wait list that comes with those interim benefits—leave victims vulnerable to deportation and workplace exploitation while they wait.
By the end of December, the backlog of applications surpassed more than 189,000 petitions for crime victims alone, not counting their dependents, according to the latest data released by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. That number has more ...
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