The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), signed in 1994, gave immigrant survivors of domestic violence a path to legal status in the United States — one they could pursue on their own, without relying on an abusive spouse. For 30 years, this protection has helped survivors escape dangerous situations and rebuild their lives.

In December 2025, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced policy changes that are now making it far harder for survivors to qualify. The new rules narrow the legal definition of abuse, require survivors to prove they lived with their abuser during the marriage, and demand documentation — shared leases, joint bills, bank accounts — that abusive partners often deliberately withhold as a form of control.

Michigan attorney Ruby Robinson has seen this firsthand. His client, a woman whose husband choked her, shoved her, and controlled her finances, had her VAWA application denied despite a marriage certificate, photographs, and four single-spaced pages of testimony from a witness who had known the couple for three decades. Her name was never put on the lease. "VAWA was designed to create protections for survivors of intimate partner violence and domestic violence," Robinson said. "These protections are essentially falling apart."

Many survivors are also staying silent out of fear. Abusive partners routinely threaten undocumented victims with deportation to maintain control. When filing paperwork feels dangerous, survivors have no safe way to ask for help.

USCIS says the changes prevent fraud. But as Cecelia Friedman Levin, director of the Alliance for Immigrant Survivors, put it: "A few bad actors are not an excuse to punish survivors for whom the program was designed to rely on."

Congress and USCIS must reverse these changes and restore VAWA's original protections. Sign this petition to demand that immigrant domestic violence survivors keep their path to safety.