Woman deported straight into arms of violent husband

Carmen's abusive husband came home drunk one night last summer.

- By RACHEL URANGA

Los Angeles Times illustration; Photos by GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times, MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO Getty Images.

He pounded and kicked the door. He threatened to kill her as her young son watched in horror. She called police, eventually obtaining a restraining order. Months later he returned and beat her again. Police came again and he was eventually deported.

Thinking she had finally escaped his cruelty, Carmen applied for what is known as a U-Visa. The visa provides crime victims a way to stay in the United States legally, but the Trump administration has routinely ignored pending applications.

During a regular immigration check-in in June, Carmen was detained. Two months later, she was put on a plane with her 8-year-old son, who just completed second grade. She was headed to her home country, terrified her husband would find her.

Lawyers for Carmen along with several immigrant victims of human trafficking, domestic violence and other crimes last month sued the Trump administration in the Central District of California for detaining and deporting survivors with pending visa applications, some of whom have been granted status to stay and sometimes work.

They argue that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement implemented a policy in the early days of the administration that upended decades-long standards aimed at protecting victims with pending applications for a class of visas known as survivor-based protections.

Congress created those visas to ensure immigrant victims would report crimes to law enforcement and be safe, but lawyers for the victims argue the administration has reneged on those promises.

"These laws have existed because they keep us all safe, and there is a process and legal rights that attach when you seek out those protections," said Sergio Perez, executive director of the Center for Human Rights Constitutional and Law, who is one of the lead attorneys on the case.