The Hill News

The bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) faces a likely vote in the Senate next week, but its provisions that would assist immigrant women who are victims of violence have drawn some inexplicable opposition. The country’s single most important law for addressing domestic abuse, sexual violence, and stalking has offered life-saving protections to immigrant women since it first passed in 1994.
 
Leaving a violent relationship is not easy for anyone. Abusers may threaten death or harm to children. For some women, escaping violence means risking poverty and homelessness.  Immigrant women who lack authorization to live in the US face additional threats. Before VAWA, abusers were able to manipulate immigration law and make it into an unwitting accomplice to acts of violence against thousands of immigrant women every year.

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