The Wyoming Office of the Attorney General, Division of Victim Services again contracted with the JCVVS to offer the "Foundations in Victim Services" course March 23-27, 2009 at the Wyoming Law Enforcement Training Center. Wyoming has contracted with the JCVVS to offer this program as basic academy since 2001 and Division Director Julie Tennant-Caine has continued to contract with the JCVVS since she assumed the position six years ago.

The course provides core instruction and application on content considered essential for anyone working with victims of crime. On a scale of 1 to 5 with the high score representing very good, the average overall rating for the course was a 5 - with one person giving it a 6! Mandy Moffat from the Sublette County Sexual Assault Family Violence Task Force stated "This has been the most beneficial training I have been to so far in my career" and Dee McGirr from the Crook County Victim-Witness Program noted "This foundation should be a prerequisite for all victim coordinators and advocates - I appreciated the professionalism and expertise of [the] instructors."
Contact Thomas Underwood for more information about the program.

Academic courses offered by the three JCVVS academic institutions related to victim issues for summer 2009 are posted on the JCVVS web page. Many of the courses are offered online.

Proposals are still being accepted for the Responding to Crime Victims with Disabilities National Training Conference scheduled September 30-October 2, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. Content tracks for the conference include foundations, individual responses, systems and community responses, and innovative collaborative efforts.

JCVVS e-newsletter reviews offer a brief synopsis of research and programs relevant to violence and victim studies. Brevity does not allow for comprehensive analysis, rather key points and observations for further review and consideration. Reviews are provided by persons affiliated by the JCVVS and do not necessarily reflect the position of the JCVVS or the affiliate Universities.

Authors: Moynihan, Barbara, Gaboury, Mario T., and Onken, Kasie J.,

Title: Undocumented and Unprotected Immigrant Women and Children in Harms Way: Protections for Undocumented Victims of Crime

Date: 2008

Publisher: Journal of Forensic Nursing, Volume 4 (Issue Number 3), pp. 123-129

Reviewer: Mario T. Gaboury, Ph.D.

There continues to be great concern about undocumented immigrant women and children who are in violent situations at the hands of a spouse, partner or parent. These helpless victims are further compromised due to cultural and language barriers and an inability to access resources that may be available to them because many times they are not aware of these resources. Research demonstrates that immigrant women are particularly vulnerable to abuse (Bhuyan and Senturia, 2005). They have fewer resources, stay longer in the relationship and sustain more severe physical and emotional abuse (Abraham, 2000; Ammar, Orloff, Dutton et al., 2004). They suffer more intense isolation and experience obstacles to accessing services that are exacerbated by language difficulties, cultural norms and traditional gender roles, and by severe economic deprivation (Bhuyan and Senturia, 2005; Bhuyan, Mell, Senturia, Sullivan and Shui-Thornton, 2005; Sullivan, Senturia, Negash, Shui-Thornton and Giday, 2005). Additionally, studies report that immigrant and refugee women who are battered are often very unaware of the domestic violence services in their communities (Blum, Heinonen, Migliardi and White, 2006; Sullivan, Senturia, Negash, Shui-Thornton and Giday, 2005), or have had negative experiences when attempting to access domestic violence services (Crandall, Senturia, Sullivan & Shui-Thornton, 2005).

Further exploration of the plight of immigrant women and children found that abusers use their power and control to influence the victim's immigration status and often use threats of deportation to prevent their victims from seeking help (Abraham, 2000; Ammar, Orloff, Dutton et al., 2004). Help seeking is also limited by the systemic biases and discrimination often faced by these individuals who are embedded in and exacerbated by the challenges they face as refugee and immigrant women (Sullivan, Senturia, Negash, Shui-Thornton and Giday, 2005, p. 937). According to Hass, Ammar and Orloff (2006), domestic violence rates in relationships between U. S. citizen men and immigrant women are higher then domestic violence rates in the United States population. Immigrant Latinas who reported being married or having been married reported both sexual and physical abuse and were found to have a lifetime prevalence of 59.5% (Haas, Ammar & Orloff, 2006). The abuse continues in spite of the spouse obtaining legal status in the United States. The rates of sexual and physical abuse ranged from 30-50 percent among Latin American, South Asian and Korean groups (Raj & Silverman, 2002). The fear induced by the relationship results in the victims continuing to have difficulty in seeking help and calling the police (Ammar & Orloff, 2006).

Recognizing the special needs of this population Congress included protections for immigrants in the 1994 VAWA Act based on findings that identified the magnitude and extent of domestic violence in marriages where one spouse is not a citizen and depends on the citizen's legal status for continued residence in the United States (Hass, Ammar & Orloff, 2006). These special needs continue to create almost insurmountable barriers for undocumented abuse victims, however, early legal protections were not fully implemented. In order to overcome the problems encountered when trying to implement VAWA 1994, Congress reauthorized VAWA 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000. This act included the Battered Immigrant Women Protection Act (BIWPA) of 2000 "which established special rules for non citizen victims of family violence with respect to cancellation of removal and suspension of deportation, eliminated time limitations on motions filed by them to reopen removal and deportation proceedings, and made battered alien spouses and children eligible for adjustment of status" (Bruno & Siskin, 2001, pg. 18).

An important part of BIWPA is the creation of the U- Visa. "This U visa is offered to a limited group of immigrant crime victims who have suffered substantial physical or emotional injury as a result of being subjected to specific crimes committed against them in the United States" (Shetty & Kaguyutan, 2002, pg. 5). Under this legislation, the Attorney General has been allowed to grant 10,000 U-Visas each year to immigrants who are victims of many different types of crimes and who are able to help in the investigation or prosecution of the crime (Shetty & Kaguyutan, 2002). However, it most be noted here that despite the enactment of these protections and legislative provisions for the U-Visa being in place for several years, apparently no U-Visas had actually been issued through most of 2007 (see, e.g., Bernstein, 2007). In January 2006, the federal government was still continuing its policy of "interim" relief for victims (see: http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/Unonimms01 0606.pdf). It can be argued that despite the limited benefits afforded by several years of interim relief, literally tens of thousands of eligible undocumented victims of crime have been effectively denied the much preferred status afforded by the U-Visa since the legislation was enacted.

Publication of an interim rule provides a beginning regulatory framework to commence the issuance of U- Visas, and the accompanying Forms and Instructions (see below) provide advocates for undocumented crime victims a process for securing U-Visa status and protection. Although these early steps toward full implementation are not without critique (see, e.g., American Immigration Lawyers Association's comments at: http://www.usvisa.com/aila_comment_on_u_noni mmigrant_status_interim_rule.shtml), the current tools do allow for some additional protections for undocumented battered women and children and those who serve victims should take full advantage of these while also continuing to improve the effectiveness of this approach for these most vulnerable victims.

Press Release: http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/U- visaFS2_05Sept07.pdf

Form: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-918.pdf Instructions: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I- 918instr.pdf

Interim Rule: http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/uscis_u_nonim migrant_status_interimrule_2007-09.pdf

Fact Sheet: http://povertylawsection.com/uploads/U_Visa_Bull eted_Summary.pdf

Full References from Original Article

Abraham, M., (2000). Speaking the unspeakable: Marital violence among South Asian immigrants in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

American Nurses Association. (2000). Position statement on violence against women. (Electronic Version). Retrieved June 5, 2007, from http://nursingworld.org/readroom/position/social/scviol. htm

Ammar, N. & Orloff, L. (2006). Battered immigrant women's domestic violence dynamics and legal protections. In Muraskin, R.(Ed). It's a crime: Women and justice. (pp430-443) New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Ammar, N., Orloff, L., Dutton, M.A. & Hass, G.A., (September 2004). Children of battered immigrant women: An assessment of the cumulative effects of violence, access to services and immigrant status. International Family Violence Conference, San Diego, CA.

Ayuda, Inc., (2004-2005). Retrieved June 5, 2007, from http://www.ayudainc.org.

Bernstein, N. (2007) "Special Visas for Victims Remain Elusive Despite a Law". New York Times, Late Edition - Final, Section B, Page 1.

Bhuyan, R. & Senturia, K. (2005) Understanding domestic violence resource utilization and survivor solutions among immigrant and refugee women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20 (8), 895-901)

Bhuyan, R., Mell, M., Senturia, K., Sullivan, M, & Shui- Thornton, S. (2005) Women must endure their karma: Cambodian immigrant women talk about domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20 (8), 902-921.

Blum, E., Heinonen, T., Migliardi, P. & White, J. (2006) Openinghte floodgates: The aftermath of an immigrant women's action against violence project and its evaluation. Canadian Woman Studies 25 (1-2)

Bruno, A. & Siskin, A. U. S. Congressional Research Service. Immigration: Noncitizen victims of family violence (RL30559; May 3, 2001), by Andorra Bruno and Alison Siskin.

Conyers, J. (2007). The reauthorization of the violence against women act: Why congress acted to expand protections to immigrant victims. Violence Against Women 13(5), 457-468.

Crandall, M. Senturia, K., Sullivan, M. & Shui-Thornton, S (2005) No way out: Russian speaking women's experiences with domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20 (8), 8941-958.

Goldman, M. (1999). The violence against women act. Meeting its goals in protecting battered immigrant women? Family and Conciliation Courts Review 37 (3), 357-392.

Hass, G.A., Ammar, N., & Orloff, L. (2006). Battered immigrants and U.S. citizen spouses. Legal Momentum. Retrieved June 5, 2007, from http://legalmomentum.org/legalmomentum/files/dvusc. pdf.

Jontz, L. (2006). Eighth circuit to battered Kenyan: Take a safari-battered immigrants face new barrier when reporting domestic violence. 55 Drake L. Rev. 195.

Lynch, Virginia, A. (2005) Forensic Nursing, Elsevier Mosby, 3-12.

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild. Retrieved on June 5, 2007, from www.nationalimmigrationproject.org.

Pendleton, G. (2003). Ensuring Fairness and Justice for Noncitizen Survivors of Domestic Violence. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, Fall, 69-85

Raj, A. & Silverman, J. (2002). Violence against immigrant women: the roles of culture, context, and legal immigrant status on intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 8(3). 367-398.

Sheridan, D.J., Nash, C.R., Hawkins, S.L., Makely, J.L., Campbell, J.C. (2006). Forensic Implications of Intimate Partner Violence. In Hammer, R.M., Moynihan, B. & Pagliaro, E.M. (Eds.), Forensic Nursing A Handbook for Practice (pp. 255-278). Jones and Bartlett.

Shetty, S. & Kaguytan, J. (2002). Immigrant victims of domestic violence: cultural challenges and available legal protections. Retrieved April 12, 2007 from: http://www.vawnet.org/DomesticViolence/Research/VA WnetDocs/AR_immigrant.pdf.

Sullivan, M., Senturia, K., Negash, T., Shui-Thornton, S. & Giday, B. (2005) For us it is like living in the dark: Ethiopian women's experiences with domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20 (8), 922- 940).

Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, N. (2000). Full Report of the prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women. Report NCJ 83781. Washington D.C.: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

U.S. Department of State, Foreign Affairs manual Volume 9 (Visas), 9 FAM 41.84, retrieved June 5, 2007 from http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09FAM/0941084N.PDF

. Victims Protection Act of 2000 (Division A of Public Law 106-386, Section 108; 22 U.S.C. 7101 et seq.), as amended by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-193), and Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 H.R.972.

Weissman, D.M. (2000). Addressing domestic violence in immigrant communities. Popular Government 13(6). 13-18.

Womenslaw.org. (2006, Dec. 11). Retrieved on June 5, 2007 from http://www.womenslaw.org/immigrantsUvisa.htm.

email: jcvvs@washburn.edu

phone: 785-670-1399

web: http://www.washburn.edu/ce/jcvvs/