Legal Momentum to Protect Abuse Victims in Lawsuit Against SB1070
By Steve Nunez | KGUN 9
June 18, 2010
TUCSON (KGUN9-TV) - SB1070 faces another legal challenge. Legal Momentum, the women's legal defense and education fund, claims Arizona's immigration law will force victims of domestic violence to confront what they call an impossible choice: risk deportation to report a crime.
Alma Mendoza, an illegal immigrant and former victim of domestic violence, testified in Congress last week that SB1070 will discourage women, just like her, from reporting crimes.
Now Legal Momentum has joined other national groups in a class-action lawsuit. Leslye Orloff, V.P. and Director of Immigrant Women, says SB1070 puts victims at even greater risk.
But under federal immigration law, the violence against women's act, already has provisions that immediately stops deportation for victims of serious crimes.
Nine On Your Side's Steve Nunez asked: "What's to keep an illegal immigrant woman from claiming she's been a victim of domestic violence just to get that added protection?"
Orloff responded, "There are real dangers to victims talking about it. But to get more precisely to your question the abuse by itself isn't sufficient under any of the forms of immigration rules available to get immigration relief."
That's because under the Violence Against Women's Act, an illegal immigrant victim must provide proof of a police report, medical reports that document injuries and court case records involving an abuser. Homeland security conducts the investigation.
Jennifer Allen, Executive Director of Border Action Network, has helped several victims get relief from this same federal law. Nunez asked, "Why is SB1070 a threat?" Allen said, "The problem is that SB1070 is in direct conflict in many ways to the Violence Against Women's Act in that SB1070 requires local law enforcement and, in fact, threatens them if they don't immediately notify immigration."
Allen goes on to say that under SB1070, victims face immediate deportation and, therefore, can not testify as witnesses against their abuser.
According to Legal Momentum, since 1994 the federal government has granted legal permanent residency to about 13,000 illegal immigrant crime victims.
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