By Kasey Husk
The words “human trafficking” rightly evoke horrible images for most, images of people transported in shipping containers and exploited by anonymous villains. Sometimes, this is the case. Every year, thousands of people are lured to the United States by individuals who promise them a better life and then use violence, threats, or other forms of coercion to force them to perform labor or commercial sex acts for the trafficker's benefit.
The United States seeks to combat this type of human trafficking by offering trafficking victims T nonimmigrant status (T visa) in exchange for help in finding their traffickers and bringing them to justice.
However, it is important to recognize that traffickers are not always strangers who take advantage of other strangers. Sometimes, traffickers know their victims as well as anyone; they can be spouses, parents, aunts and uncles, or even siblings of the victim. Every situation is different, but what these types of traffickers always have in common is that they use force, fraud, or coercion to force their victim to do what they want. That can mean demanding that the victim hand over all their paychecks, forcing them to work for free in a family business, or acting as a virtual servant in the family home.
At Eagan Immigration, we are experts in determining when a situation that others might consider “simple” domestic violence could actually qualify a client for a T Visa. We have helped dozens of people seek legal status in the United States based on labor they were forced to provide to a romantic partner, spouse, parent, or family member. This is a lesser-known pathway to obtaining a T Visa, the value of which is that clients can receive work permits and permission to remain in the United States for up to four years with this status. After three of those years, they can apply for lawful permanent residency. Even clients who would normally be inadmissible under other circumstances may qualify for this visa. Therefore, the T Visa is a pathway to citizenship even for those who otherwise would not have the opportunity to obtain legal status by any other means.
Why apply for a T visa instead of a self-petition under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)?
The abusive tactics traffickers use against their loved ones to force them to work often easily meet the criteria for extreme cruelty and abuse necessary for a VAWA self-petition. However, not all victims would qualify for VAWA, and that is where Eagan human trafficking-converted T Visa petitions come in. For example, a victim's spouse or parents may be very abusive toward them, but if the trafficker is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident, a VAWA petition is not an option. Similarly, for a case of spousal abuse, VAWA requires that the petitioner has been married (whether de facto or not) to their abuser or divorced from them within the last two years. The T Visa does not impose such a restriction.
Each and every case at Eagan is different. We have filed petitions for clients whose siblings lured them to the United States to make them unpaid domestic servants/nannies, and we have filed others for clients whose parents forced them to work for free for years in a family business. In each case, traffickers isolated their victims and used threats of deportation or violence to strip them of their autonomy and keep them working for the traffickers' benefit. Today, however, we look at an Eagan Immigration client who recently received approval for her T Visa petition just 13 months after Eagan filed her case.
*Note: The names and identifying details of this client have been changed to protect their privacy.
Sofia's story: domestic violence turns into human trafficking
“Sofía” first met the man who would become her trafficker when she was only 15 years old and living in her native Mexico. Sofía grew up in difficult and highly abusive conditions, where several members of her family physically, emotionally, and sexually abused her from childhood onward. Her trafficker, “Diego”—an adult man many years her senior—convinced the teenage Sofía that he would love and provide for her if she agreed to have a relationship with him. Diego’s kindness in those early days, combined with Sofía’s difficult home life, made moving in with his family seem like an easy decision. Then, he began to show his true colors.
As soon as Sofía was living under his roof, Diego took total control of her life. From the beginning, Sofía felt she had no escape. Diego terrorized her by shouting at her, beating her, and threatening her. He told her that if she left the house without his permission, he would “know” she was cheating on him and would kill her. He demanded that she do all the housework and cook his meals whenever he demanded. If she received money or gifts from her mother, she had to hand them over to him. He made her his driver and called her to pick him up from bars at all hours of the night when he finished hanging out with his friends. He even forced her to take care of his mother while she was in the hospital, sending her to perform various caregiving tasks in his place. Sofía knew she couldn't rely on her own family, many of whom had also abused her, to help her if she ran away. She was still a child, trapped in a situation from which she could not escape.
Diego forced.
Sofía's situation became even more desperate when her two children were born. Despite her long hours of work, Diego still expected Sofía to wait on him hand and foot as she had when they lived in Mexico. He refused to do housework or take care of the children, largely considering it to be “women's work.”.
He expected her to cook three hot meals a day for him, despite her crazy work hours. She lived in a perpetual state of exhaustion and terror.
Sofia hoped she had escaped from Diego when he was deported about ten years after his arrival, but he returned three years later and found her once again. He terrorized both her and the children, even setting things on fire in the house to punish her for infractions such as not giving him money to gamble. He continued to treat her like a servant,.
Given his negligent and abusive behavior toward the children, Sofia saw this as a deeply dangerous situation for them because they would then be under his care. Under these circumstances, Sofia felt her only option was to continue providing Diego with everything he demanded of her.
Even after Diego was deported for the second time, he continued to exert control over Sofia. He demanded that she give him money so he could open a business in Mexico, which she did because she hoped that this would prevent him from returning to terrorize the family once again.
However, Diego caused the business to fail within a few months and quickly demanded that Sofia send more money. This time, he threatened to murder her brothers and her mother if she didn't. She blocked his number, but a year later he returned to her doorstep. She had to give him money and important documents to make him leave.
An important factor in this case is that Sofia never reasonably had the ability to return to Mexico. If she had tried to flee from her trafficker at the beginning of the relationship, she would have had nowhere to seek refuge except with the family that abused her and told her that she had to remain committed to her partner.
Diego, originally from the same town, would have found her with her family and perhaps would have killed her. Once the first of their two children was born, when she was only 19 years old, she could not have left the United States with them without Diego's permission. Given his constant use of the children to force Sofia to work for him, he never would have agreed to this. Leaving the children with her abusive father was out of the question.
Ever since receiving her T nonimmigrant status in early 2024, Sofia finally has the relief of knowing she will not be deported or separated from her children. With her employment authorization card, she can look for a better-paying job that allows her to better support her children. If Diego reappears, she can call the police without fear of her status being discovered. Most importantly, she will be able to apply for legal permanent resident status in the coming years. With that, she will have the security she needs that she will never be separated from her US citizen children.
Do you think you or someone you know might qualify for a T Visa due to a situation of domestic violence?
The expert attorneys at Eagan Immigration can help you determine if you may qualify for this or another type of visa or immigration benefit.
Call us at 202-709-6439 o click here for a consultation directly with attorney Lauren Eagan.
This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.