Highlights of USCIS's January 2022 Webinar, "Immigration Options and Resources for Victims of Trafficking"
On January 27, 2022, USCIS’s Public Engagement division held a webinar entitled Immigration Options and Resources for Victims of Trafficking with representatives from the USCIS Office of Policy & Strategy (OPS), the Service Center Operations Directorate (SCOPS), and the Ombudsman. A copy of the webinar presentation is available in USCIS’s Electronic Reading Room, along with answers to pre-submitted questions.
Main take-aways for T visa practitioners are as follows:
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2021 T nonimmigrant (I-914) AAO decisions
CAST conducted a wrap-up of 2021 T nonimmigrant (I-914) AAO decisions that have been uploaded to AAO’s non-precedent decision repository as of December 29, 2021.
(Note: New cases are uploaded daily/weekly on the USCIS website, so this data may not be complete for AAO appellate adjudications in 2021 as of date of this posting.)
You can view the 2021 decisions, along with prior AAO decisions, via CAST’s Airtable.
Read moreUSCIS Issues First Ever T Visa Policy Manual Sections
On October 20, 2021, USCIS released the T visa section (Volume 3, Part B) of the Policy Manual, as well as Volume 9, Part O for Waivers of Inadmissibility. CAST and ASISTA collaborated to produce an advisory discussing notable highlights from the Policy Manual (hereinafter “the Manual”) for practitioners representing survivors of trafficking in their immigration matters. The advisory serves as a brief update of the changes and useful guidance now available in the new sections; it does not, however, provide a comprehensive analysis of the changes and does not replace a thorough reading of the Manual, regulations, and relevant statutes.
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Recent Amendments to and Expansion of California’s Vacatur Law Benefit Victims of Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, and Sexual Assault
On September 22, 2021, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 262, which amended PC 236.14, California’s Vacatur law. PC 236.14, which went into effect January 1, 2017, allows any person who “was arrested for or convicted of any nonviolent offense committed while he or she was a victim of human trafficking” to petition to have records of those arrests sealed and records of those convictions vacated. This law has been crucial in addressing the criminalization and stigma that follow survivors even after they escape their trafficking situation and in helping improve access to housing, employment, financial support and other resources that are essential for survivors as they work to move forward with their lives. However, PC 236.14 as originally written created some unnecessary challenges for survivors seeking relief; AB 262 sought to remove some of those barriers.
The following highlights the key amendments to the law:
Read moreSix Principles of Trauma-Informed Practice
Within a trauma-informed response, there are six guiding principles, rather than a prescribed set of practices or procedures, that are applicable across multidisciplinary settings.
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