Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Helping Immigrant Victims of
Domestic Violence Access Federal
and State Public Benefits
Victims of domestic violence who are also noncitizens face special constraints on
their ability to leave their abusers. For those whose immigration status is
uncertain, there is the constant fear that immigration officials will discover their
presence and deport them, perhaps forcing them to leave their US-born children
behind in the hands of their abusive spouses. Language barriers, economic
dependence on the abuser, and fear of the very law enforcement services they must
turn to for help strengthen the hold abusers have over their noncitizen spouses.
Adding to these difficulties are the complicated immigrant eligibility rules of
the benefit programs that are so critical to a victim’s ability to escape the abusive
household. These rules, largely by their sheer complexity, erect what often appear
to be insurmountable barriers to the achievement of economic independence.
In fact, there are special eligibility rules for victims of domestic violence
without legal immigration status but who are married to a US citizen or lawful
permanent resident (LPR). These victims have access to benefits that would not
otherwise be available to undocumented noncitizens. Nevertheless, these rules
are often poorly understood and inadequately implemented by the very agencies
whose responsibility it is to provide the benefits. 1 It is therefore critical that
lawyers and advocates providing assistance to immigrant victims of domestic
violence understand these rules sufficiently to assure that their clients receive
the benefits to which they are entitled and which are critical to their clients’
ability to leave their abusers.
Immigrant Benefits Eligibility Rules in General
by Barbara Weiner
In 1996, Congress passed welfare reform legislation, the Personal
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which sharply
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