Update: Family Courts Must Stop Enabling Abuse, Including Immigration-Based Coercion

Family courts are meant to protect children and survivors. Too often, they instead enable abuse—especially when domestic violence intersects with immigration status, economic power, or reputation.

This issue affects immigrants and U.S.-born citizens alike.

Domestic-violence prevention fails when systems operate in silos. Survivors and children are placed at serious risk when domestic-violence hotlines, law enforcement, Child Welfare, family courts, and immigration authorities do not communicate, verify information, or coordinate responses.

In my case—and in countless others—critical information was fragmented or ignored. Reports made to domestic-violence hotlines were not meaningfully integrated into police response. Law-enforcement actions were not fully considered by Child Welfare. Child Welfare involvement was not disclosed to or consulted by the family court. Immigration-related coercion and threats were never examined in context.

This systemic failure allows abusers to manipulate one system against another—gaining custody, silencing survivors, and avoiding accountability.

Immigration-Based Coercion Is a Form of Abuse

In many cases, an abusive parent obtained lawful residency, a green card, or citizenship through the marriage and family they later destroyed. After securing legal status, the abuser then misuses the family-court system to discard the victim—weaponizing TROs, ex parte hearings, and custody proceedings to remove children from the protective parent.

Survivors may face:

Threats tied to immigration status or international child removal

Retaliation through emergency or secret court filings

Pressure to remain silent out of fear and dependency

At the same time, U.S.-born citizen survivors experience the same pattern of post-separation abuse—punished for reporting violence, having trauma or disability used against them, and losing their children to a parent with more money or influence.

This is about power and control, not citizenship.

How Family Courts Harm Victims and Children

Too often, family courts minimize domestic violence by labeling it “high-conflict divorce” or a “parenting dispute.” Abuse, coercive control, retaliation, and immigration-based threats are dismissed.

Victims—citizens and non-citizens alike—are punished for trauma responses. Disabilities and mental-health histories are weaponized against them. Children are separated from their protective parent and taught that abuse and control are normal. Reputation, income, and appearances are prioritized over safety, caregiving history, and a child’s bond with a loving parent.

This is not neutrality.

This is not fairness.

This is systemic harm.

What Needs to Change

We demand:

Mandatory coordination between domestic-violence hotlines, law enforcement, Child Welfare, family courts, and immigration authorities

Required information-sharing so verified reports, arrests, and safety concerns follow the family across systems

Judicial accountability to confirm Child Welfare involvement before issuing ex parte or emergency custody orders

Trauma-informed policing that recognizes coercive control, retaliation, and immigration-based threats

Safeguards against immigration-related and post-separation legal abuse, regardless of citizenship

Training for judges, attorneys, and agencies on domestic violence, coercive control, disability rights, and immigration-based abuse

No survivor—citizen or non-citizen—should be forced to navigate multiple systems alone while abusers exploit gaps in accountability.

Children’s safety depends on communication, verification, and accountability across all systems.

Thank you to everyone who continues to sign and share. This petition is about protecting all families and ensuring courts stop rewarding abuse.

— Sally Vatte

Petition Starter