By Kasey Husk

For many clients at Eagan, violence has been a part of their lives for as long as they can remember. They’ve often suffered horrific abuses throughout their lives at the hands of their parents, siblings, husbands, wives, and even their own children. This is no mere coincidence. Individuals who are abused as children are statistically more likely to end up in abusive relationships; one study found than 51 percent of childhood abuse victims suffer from domestic abuse as adults as well.[1]

At Eagan Immigration, we hear all too many stories from individuals who believe that how their life has gone so far is how it will always be. However, we have a message for you: it doesn’t have to be.

Abusers use many tactics to keep their victims under their thumbs, and when one partner has status in the United States and the other does not, that power differential often becomes a powerful weapon for the abusers. All too often, the abuser uses threats of using the legal system against their undocumented partner. They convince them that reporting the abuser’s crimes will be useless because they are undocumented, or that the court will always give custody of a couple’s children to the individual with status. They offer or withdraw offers to petition for their spouse depending on their mood. When angry, they threaten to have the undocumented partner deported.

That’s where Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Self-Petitions come in. VAWA self-petitions allow the spouses of abusive U.S. citizens or LPRs or of abusive adult U.S. citizen children to petition for status in the United States without their abuser even knowing. Want to learn more? Check out our previous blog posts here and here.

VAWA self-petitions are one of Eagan Immigration’s chief areas of expertise. Since 2014, we have filed more than 1500 VAWA petitions for our clients. New approvals for our clients turn up in the Eagan Immigration mailbox every week. Today, we would like to share one of our most recent victories, a client we will call “Jazmin.”* Jazmin’s courage in seeking help in the face of terrible threats and extreme violence means that as of today, both she and her young son are lawful permanent residents of the United States!

*Names and some details have been changed to protect the privacy of our client.

Jazmin’s Story

When she looks back at her life, 30-year-old Jazmin cannot remember a time before the people around her were hurting her. She was born in . Her mother, a single parent, was a vicious woman who beat her regularly, taking the frustrations of her life out on her young daughter. Her cruelty meant that when Jazmin’s brothers started molesting her as a young child, Jazmin felt she had no one to turn to. Three of her brothers consistently sexually assaulted Jazmin until she fled the family home at age 15.

Jazmin was robbed of her opportunity to finish her education by a teacher who attempted to rape her and caused her to flee school. As a result, she struggled to support herself after leaving home. She was alone and impoverished. She thought her life had changed forever when she met “Nelson,” a man who promised to love and care for her if she would only be with him. For the first time in her life, she felt loved. However, Nelson soon showed his true colors. He regularly beat Jazmin and raped her frequently. Most frightening of all, Jazmin learned that Nelson was a member of a violent gang operating in her community. When she confronted Nelson, he threatened to cut out her tongue if she ever spoke of it. Jazmin, newly pregnant with her first child, was trapped and terrified. Her son, “Ricardo,” was born when she was 20 years old, but Nelson’s abuse only escalated. Jazmin soon realized she had no other choice: she took Ricardo and fled to the United States, where she prayed that they would be out of the reach of Nelson’s gang.

In the United States, Jazmin started to make a life for herself and Ricardo. She struggled financially and to adjust to her new country, but she relished going to sleep at night without fear for the first time in her life. When she met the man who would become her husband, Johnny, she felt like everything was falling into place. Johnny was loving and respectful during the early months of their relationship. And when Jazmin and Ricardo unexpectedly had to find a new living situation, Johnny was her knight in shining armor, swooping in to offer her a place to live. She was swept off her feet.

Once Johnny had Jazmin under his control, however, history repeated itself. Johnny became highly jealous, and constantly accused Jazmin of encouraging other men’s interest in her. When drunk, he called her horrifying names and accused her of being a prostitute. He demanded to know where she was at all times and refused to allow her to leave the house without permission. He went through her phone regularly, and when he found a greeting from someone he assumed to be a man, he ran her phone over with a car. Yet Jazmin had no experience of healthy relationships. When Johnny broke down and told her he only acted this way because he loved her so much, she believed him. Jealousy, to her, seemed a sign of love.

In the months that followed, however, Johnny’s “love” grew ever more terrifying. She saw no one without him and talked to no one without him talking. If he demanded sex, she gave in because the alternative was being accused of not being interested because she had another lover. He hit her for the first time about six months after they got together. Jazmin immediately thought of leaving, but she had no friends and no family, and thus nowhere to turn. When Johnny apologized, she believed him. He vowed that he wanted to marry her. Johnny even told Jazmin that he would help her find an attorney to file a petition for asylum, which she believed would allow her to and her child to remain in the United States, far from Ricardo’s terrifying father. She stayed and hoped for better days to come with Johnny.

In the year that followed, Johnny continued his endless cycle of loving behavior and horrifying cruelties. He played mind games and punished her not only for defying him, but also for not accurately understanding when he wanted her to do the opposite of what he said. He frightened her by taking her child and hiding him for an entire day, leaving her terrified that he was doing something horrible to Ricardo, yet overcome with gratitude when the child came home the next day, happy and oblivious to his stepfather’s threats. He regularly hit and slapped her, or dragged her by her hair around the room. Soon enough, he had started lashing out at Jazmin and choking her when angry. He once strangled her until she was unconscious, then left her lying in their bed. Yet between incidents that left her fearing for her and her son’s very lives, he professed great love. He even convinced Jazmin to marry him and start trying to have a baby. Jazmin convinced herself that making that final commitment to one another would end Johnny’s jealous behavior and made him a better man, just as he always promised. They married. Jazmin became pregnant soon after. The abuse grew even worse.

Like so many abusers before him, Johnny used Jazmin’s lack of status as a way of controlling her. He constantly told her that if she did not have rights in the United States, and said he could have he deported if she made him angry enough. For Jazmin, this was terrifying because it meant both she and her little boy would be at the mercy of Nelson and his gang. Deportation felt like a death sentence. He told her, moreover, that the police would never believe her if she reported his abuse. Her only choice, she believed, was to appease Johnny as she waited and hoped for her asylum case. Then, one night, Johnny came home drunker than ever and started beating Jazmin. He screamed that he would kill her. Then, he held a knife to Jazmin’s throat and ordered her to contact her lawyer and cancel her asylum petition. He was interrupted only by the sound of the landlord coming to check on her. He took her phone and fled. The knife left a cut on her neck from where he held the blade to her throat, only inches from end her life. Jazmin knew he would want to keep her undocumented and powerless for as long as he could.

This is where Eagan Immigration came in. The firm was already working with Jazmin on her asylum petition when Jazmin confided that her relationship was not in a good place. Eagan Immigration let Jazmin know about the possibility of seeking a VAWA self-petition without her husband even knowing, an option that could be a quicker and safer route to gaining status. While the asylum documents would continue going to their shared residence, Eagan would provide a safe mailing address and carefully worded communications to ensure that Johnny never knew what was happening. Jazmin, knowing she had to protect her son as well as herself from being deported to their home country, agreed.

With Eagan staff helping and advising her every step of the way, Jazmin secretly filed for VAWA petition with her son as a derivative in 2019. She was approved less than two years later. Just recently, she received the most exciting documents of all: green cards for herself and Ricardo. For the first time, she need not fear going to the police or being sent back to her home country. The United States will be home to her, her son and her new baby forever.

Are you or someone you know in an abusive relationship? Please know you do not have to live like this. Eagan Immigration is prepared to help you not only resolve your immigration issues, but point you to resources that can help you leave your situation safely.

Not sure if you qualify for VAWA? Not all abuse is physical. Financial, psychological or sexual abuse can also qualify you for a VAWA self-petition. The expert attorneys at Eagan Immigration can help you determine whether you can qualify for this or another type of visa.

Reach out to an immigration specialist today at 202-709-6439 for a free, confidential phone evaluation.

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/peoplewhowereabusedaschildrenaremorelikelytobeabusedasanadult/2017-09-27