CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Steps in place to protect illegal immigrant victims

The Jonesboro Sun - 1/7/2018

JONESBORO - A woman who had just finished telling Jonesboro Police Department officers about the months of torture and sexual assault she faced at the hands of her boss made two calls once investigators left the room.

One was to her cousin, and the second one was to an immigration lawyer.

The lawyer out of Little Rock gave her name and told police she would be the one helping the woman apply for a U Visa application.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website, the U visa is set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.

Congress created the U nonimmigrant visa with the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act in October 2000. The legislation was intended to strengthen the ability of law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute cases of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking of aliens and other crimes, while also protecting victims of crimes who have suffered substantial mental or physical abuse due to the crime and are willing to help law enforcement authorities in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity.

The victim did this because even in the most dire of situations immigrants always live in fear of deportation.

Ariel Snyder, an immigration attorney with Womack Phelps Puryear Mayfield and McNeil, said this feeling is a part of life when you are a potentially illegal immigrant.

"Always afraid," Snyder said. "More times than not you are afraid to do a lot of things. Until they have legal status then yes they can always be deported."

Snyder seems to be the only listed immigration lawyer in not only Jonesboro, but most of Northeast Arkansas.

"I really don't have an answer for why that is," Snyder said with a chuckle. "I guess there are not a lot of attorneys who have interest in it."

According to attorneys.com, immigration lawyers do much more than help people become citizens of new countries. They can defend a person's case and prevent them from being deported. A lawyer may provide legal advice about a person's ability to obtain a work visa and in this particular case help them get access to government aid during a time of crisis.

Even without the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, Snyder said most departments don't arrest victims even if they are illegal immigrants.

"It's not something I have ever seen before," Snyder said. "At least not here."

Public Information Officer David McDaniel said their department follows the same unwritten rule.

Our No. 1 priority when contacting someone that has been a victim of a crime that is not a citizen of The United States is to assist them in any way that we can," McDaniel said. "When a victim reaches out to this department for help we do not check their citizenship status or report that status to any type of immigration service. We treat that person as we would any citizen."

McDaniel said he wants to make sure every immigrant is aware of the community resources available to them and take appropriate law enforcement actions when needed to assist them in pursuing criminal charges against those who have victimized them.