A visa program created to support victims of crimes has become a breeding ground for “fraud,” a new Republican-sponsored bill seeking to end the immigration program argues.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced the “End U Visa Abuse Act” Thursday, saying that the U visa program has become “a magnet for fraud, allowing illegal aliens to game the system, avoid deportation, and secure work permits they were never meant to have in the first place.”
“This broken program undermines the rule of law and encourages further illegal immigration by allowing immigration lawbreakers to claim they are crime victims to potentially qualify for the visa,” Roy told The Daily Wire. “Alleged victimization should not be a basis for securing a green card — it’s time we end the fraud-ridden U visa program once and for all.”
The United States began handing out U visas in 2000 “for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Roughly 400,000 petitions for U visas are pending approval, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The United States caps yearly approvals at 10,000, which doesn’t include the spouses, children, or parents who the primary applicant can sponsor.
One major issue with the program is that the applicant’s reported crime doesn’t need to have yielded any arrests, charges, formal investigation, prosecution, or conviction, as USCIS states on its website in its instructions to law enforcement signing off on an alleged victim’s petition.
While awaiting the outcome of their application, immigrants can avoid deportation, which is put on hold while a decision is pending. That’s a massive incentive, leaving the program vulnerable to abuse, Roy’s bill argues.
Between 2012 and 2018, roughly 22% of U visa applicants were previously in removal proceedings, while about 13% said they were in deportation proceedings when they applied, according to a 2022 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal article. In 2018 alone, 33% of applicants were in removal proceedings before and 15% had ongoing deportation cases when they applied.
Managing Attorney of Codias Law Cody Brown, who represents American citizens who are victims of immigration fraud, called the U visa “the most absurd immigration program ever conceived.”
“The federal government hands illegal aliens — and their entire extended families — a path to U.S. citizenship simply for accusing an American of a crime,” Brown told The Daily Wire. “No investigation, no prosecution, no conviction required.”
“The accused citizen gets no notice, no hearing, and no right to defend themselves. Worse: federal law actually forbids USCIS from denying the visa based solely on the accused citizen’s evidence,” he said.
Several recent cases shed light on how foreigners have attempted to fraudulently obtain U visas.
Federal authorities charged a group of ten Indian nationals in March for allegedly staging armed robberies of convenience stores so the clerks could falsely claim to be crime victims in order to apply for U visas, according to USCIS.
In a separate case, five current and former law enforcement officials in Louisiana allegedly produced police reports for illegal immigrants to pose as victims of robberies in order to apply for U visas, according to a July indictment.
Meanwhile, Roy’s bill argues that if an immigrant “is a crime victim and is actively cooperating with law enforcement as a witness” that they should pursue obtaining an S visa.” The proposed legislation also states that the Homeland Security secretary “can grant humanitarian immigration parole to purported alien crime victims or witnesses on a case-by-case basis if they are needed by law enforcement or are required to testify.”
S visa applications are submitted by a law enforcement agency for a witness or informant. U visas are submitted by the foreigner and are signed by a law enforcement official who “must confirm that you were helpful, and currently being helpful, or will likely be helpful in the investigation or prosecution of the case,” according to USCIS.
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