Trump administration policies have made it easier to detain and deport immigrants who have been victims of domestic violence, human trafficking and other crimes — and who have pending visa applications based on their cooperation with U.S. law enforcement. A lawsuit filed Tuesday says those policies violate federal law.

The lawsuit was filed by Public Counsel on behalf of a coalition of immigrant rights groups and eight immigrants who were targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite pending applications for U and T visas. Those visas were created by Congress to encourage immigrant victims of crime, particularly women, to come forward. 

About 3 in 5 U and T visa applicants are immigrant women.

As The 19th reported last month, the programs are bogged down by lengthy wait times that can stretch for more than a decade, leaving victims in limbo. With President Donald Trump back in office, these immigrants are more vulnerable to being detained or deported. Early data published by the administration and anecdotes from victim advocates suggest that the administration’s policies are having a chilling effect on crime reporting and new visa applications and may also be exacerbating wait times.

In the lead up to the 2024 election, high-ranking officials now working in the Trump administration proposed in Project 2025 to do away with the visa programs altogether. 

Tuesday’s lawsuit argues that the Trump administration is illegally targeting victims whom Congress intended to protect when it created the two visa programs, as well as a third program for the battered spouses and children of U.S. citizens. With the passage of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, including the Battered Immigrant Women’s Protection Act, Congress created U visas for victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes, and T visas for victims of human trafficking.

“Congress has enacted special protections for immigrant survivors who report their crime to the police and come forward and take the brave step of coming out of the shadows,” said Kathleen Rivas, an attorney at Public Counsel whose work focuses on immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. “ICE is ignoring Congress’s intent to protect immigrant survivors, and so, our lawsuit challenges recent changes in practices at ICE regarding this particularly vulnerable population.” 

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, specifically targets a new Trump administration policy that tells ICE officers that they don’t have to actively check if someone has a pending U or T visa while carrying out arrests. Many of these immigrants have been granted what is called “deferred action” — a formal pause on any deportation proceedings while their visa application is decided. A detention automatically revokes this status without a hearing, which the lawsuit argues is a violation of the law. Lawyers say the administration is also violating federal law by deporting immigrants with pending applications without launching required inquiries into whether the applications meet the basic eligibility requirements or can be decided on an expedited basis. 

“Many folks who apply, particularly for U visas, are going to wait decades until they get a final adjudication on their case. And so the framework always intended that there should be temporary protections while the application is pending,” Rivas said. 

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its policies or the complaint.

The 19th documented the case of a Salvadoran immigrant, Yessenia Ruano, who was forced to self-deport in June after filing a T visa application for victims of human trafficking in February. Ruano is now a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Despite showing proof that her application was being processed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), ICE agents told her to leave the country or face detention. She is now living in El Salvador with her husband and two U.S. citizen daughters. 

Another plaintiff, who is only identified by the pseudonym Lupe A., had received deferred action and a work permit in 2022 when USCIS said her U visa application filed in 2017 had met the basic requirements. According to the complaint, Lupe A. was a victim of domestic violence; the lawsuit describes a brutal beating by her ex-partner after she tried to stop him from hitting one of their children. She was detained outside of her Los Angeles home in April and, despite attempts by her lawyer to intervene, was deported to Mexico a day later after three decades in the United States. 

The groups involved in the lawsuit include the Immigration Center for Women and Children, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, La Raza Centro Legal and the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. 

Rivas said such actions go against the protections Congress sought to provide immigrants in exchange for their trust and cooperation with public safety officials, after finding that it was “virtually impossible” to hold perpetrators accountable when immigrant victims refused to cooperate out of fear of deportation.  

“That was the problem that Congress intended to solve when they created these forms of relief. They were very clear: It was to entice our undocumented neighbors to come forward and report crime when they have become a victim of it, with the promise that if you do this and you cooperate with law enforcement, then there will be protection for you,” Rivas said.