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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Mon May 18, 2015, 02:42 PM May 2015

Latino Discrimination: Prosecutor Won't Sign Document For Domestic Violence Victim Visa

Latino Discrimination: Prosecutor Won't Sign Document For Domestic Violence Victim Visa
By Cedar Attanasio | May 12 2015, 03:33PM EDT

As a victim of domestic violence who cooperated with police to put her assailant behind bars, Evelin is likely eligible for the U visa, a special form of deportation relief. An undocumented Honduran immigrant in her mid thirties, she was surprised last week when Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell grounded her U visa application with the rationale that she and her attacker are both Latino. Fred Clasen-Kelly of the Charlotte Observer broke the story, and confirmed the North Carolina prosecutor’s legal view, which some might call perverse.

“Assault on a Latino by a Latino is not the rationale for the statute,” Bell wrote in his rejection. “In my position, I have to make decisions that people don’t like (....) This is one of them,” Bell told the Observer.

One of the people who doesn’t like Bell’s decisions on U visas is Michael Moore, a fellow prosecutor from Beadle County South Dakota and President of the National District Attorney's Association (NDAA). Moore was shocked to learn that one of his colleagues would consider race for a U visa. He described them as a key tool for protecting victims, and stressed that applications routinely receive prosecutors’ stamps of approval.

“I’ve had 100 (U-Visa) applications in my 20 years as prosecutor. I’ve signed off on (virtually) all of them. It’s just a matter of understanding domestic violence and sexual assault,” Moore told the Latin Times. “DAs shouldn’t make determinations based on race. Not in plea bargain negotiations, not in U-Visas. Nothing.”

More:
http://www.latintimes.com/latino-discrimination-prosecutor-wont-sign-document-domestic-violence-victim-visa-315966

[center]



District Attorney Locke Bell[/center]
May 8, 2015

Gaston prosecutor denies aid to Latino victims
By Fred Clasen-Kelly
[email protected]

Evelin was pregnant when she says her boyfriend assaulted her by punching her in the stomach. She was living in the United States illegally but went to police in Gaston County and pressed charges.

Her actions made her eligible for a U visa, which grants immigrants living here illegally the right to remain in the country for four years and seek permanent residence. Federal lawmakers created the program 15 years ago to encourage immigrants in the country without permission to report crimes to police.
But Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell refuses to let crime victims such as Evelin receive the visas, even though the program was meant to help them.

Bell said that if a crime victim is Latino and the accused is also Latino, he will not certify visa applications that come through his office. Evelin came to North Carolina from Honduras, and her ex-boyfriend is from Mexico.

Without confirmation from Bell, Evelin and other victims of domestic violence, rape, human trafficking and about two dozen other serious crimes cannot obtain U visas.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article20464203.html#storylink=cpy

[center][/center]
Prosecutor Admits To Discriminating Against Latino Abuse Victims In Visa Applications
by Esther Yu-Hsi Lee Posted on May 9, 2015 at 11:06 am

A North Carolina county prosecutor won’t certify visa applications for Latino domestic violence victims if their assailants are also Latino. In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said that he would only certify U visa applications, designated for victims of domestic abuse or violence, for Latinos if their abusers are non-Latino.

“It was never intended to protect Latinos from Latinos,” Bell told the Charlotte Observer. “It was designed to protect them from high-crime areas.”

Congress created the U visa program through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 to encourage victims of violence to assist in the investigation or prosecution of a crime. After three years of continuous presence in the United States, U visa holders can apply for lawful permanent resident status. Law enforcement officials and prosecutors cannot confer legal status by signing the I-918B application needed for a U visa petition, but their signatures are needed as part of a victim’s petition to meet eligibility requirements.

In March, Bell rejected certifying an U visa application from an immigrant named Evelin whose boyfriend allegedly punched her in the stomach when she was pregnant. She went to the police to press charges, an action that made her eligible for the visa. In documents obtained by the Charlotte Observer, Bell wrote, “Assault on a Latino by a Latino is not the rationale for the statute.”

Theodore Maloney, a Charlotte-based immigration attorney representing Evelin said, “Race is never mentioned in the statute. It’s offensive someone with this much power has chosen this response.” Evelin recently said that her ex-boyfriend came back to the United States to abuse her, but she said that she wasn’t sure whether she would file another police report because Bell rejected her initial U visa application. Evelin said, “It’s unjust. He needs to remember we are all humans.”

More:
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/05/09/3657080/north-carolina-district-attorney-u-visa-latino/

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