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I want to tell you about a case that still sits with me. I am going to protect my client's identity because her safety matters more than any story I could tell. But I am sharing this because there are women out there right now in situations just like hers, and most of them believe no one can help them. I want them to know that is not true. Where Her Story Started She came to this country years ago, hoping for a better life. She had already been through more than most people face in a lifetime. Married at the young age of 15 in her home country, she had three children. Two of them have autism and require extra support every single day. The youngest was extremely close to his father, who passed away. After her husband died, she was devastated. She was raising three children alone, two of them with significant needs, and she was grieving deeply. It was in that vulnerable place that she met someone new. He presented himself as a support system. He pursued her. What she did not know was that he was manipulating her from the start. She became pregnant. They had a child together. And then, once that baby arrived, everything changed. He cheated on her. He became verbally and physically abusive. She tried to leave him. On the night she finally attempted to end the relationship, he called the police and told them a story that was not true. He presented himself as the victim. He was calm, articulate, and looked like a devoted father. She was the one who ended up being detained. Because she was not in the country lawfully, that night did not end with her going home to her children. It ended with her in immigration detention. What Nobody Told Her Here is something most people do not know, including many immigration attorneys. You do not have to be in the country legally to be protected under the Violence Against Women Act. VAWA exists specifically for situations like hers. It was designed to protect immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and abuse, including people who are undocumented, because Congress understood that abusers frequently use immigration status as a weapon. They threaten to call the police. They threaten deportation. They use their partner's fear of the system to keep them trapped. That is exactly what happened here. And it is why I took this case. What the Case Actually Looked Like I want to be honest about something. This was not a clean, simple case with months to prepare. I had two weeks. Two weeks to gather evidence, work through the domestic violence charges that had been filed against her the night she tried to leave, coordinate with a criminal attorney to have those charges addressed, locate witnesses, and build a full immigration trial case from scratch. Then I walked into that immigration courtroom and the judge gave me 60 minutes. 60 minutes to present an entire VAWA defense, put four witnesses on the stand, and ask a judge to release a mother back to her children. 60 minutes. I am not telling you this so you feel sorry for me. I am telling you this so you understand what these cases actually look like. The people who end up in this situation rarely have time on their side. The system does not slow down because the facts are complicated. You either show up ready or your client loses. What We Had to Prove A VAWA defense in immigration court requires showing several things. You have to establish that abuse occurred. You have to show that the person facing deportation was the victim, not the perpetrator. And you have to do all of this against someone who, in this case, had already successfully convinced law enforcement, prosecutors, and other attorneys that he was the one who had been wronged. He was good at it. I will give him that. My job was to show who she actually was. A mother. A woman who had already survived an enormous amount of loss before this man ever entered her picture. A person who had done nothing wrong except trust someone who exploited that trust at the worst possible moment in her life. We worked with a criminal attorney to address the charges that had been filed against her. Getting those handled was critical to building the immigration case. This is something I see all the time -- a criminal charge that looks minor on its face becomes the thing that closes every immigration door. You cannot ignore one side of a case and expect the other side to succeed. Then we built the VAWA case. Witness by witness. Document by document. All of it pulled together in two weeks. What Happened in That Courtroom I put four witnesses on in 60 minutes. I presented evidence of abuse. I told her story clearly and completely and I let the facts speak. The judge ruled in her favor. She went home to her children. I am not going to pretend that every case ends this way. They do not. I have lost cases that I believed in completely, and those losses follow you. But this one ended the way it should have ended, and I think about it when cases feel impossible. What I Want You to Take From This If you are a woman in an abusive situation and you are afraid that your immigration status means you have no options, please read this carefully. Your status does not disqualify you from protection. It does not mean you have to stay with someone who is hurting you to avoid deportation. It does not mean the courts will automatically side with a citizen or a person with papers over you. There are legal tools designed specifically for your situation. VAWA is one of them. The U-Visa is another. What determines whether you can use them is not your immigration status. It is the facts of what happened to you and whether you have an attorney who knows how to present them. What I would also say is this: if you are in an abusive relationship and your partner has ever threatened to call immigration on you, or has used your status to control you, that threat itself is evidence of abuse. Document it. Write it down. Tell someone you trust. And call an attorney before anything is filed. Before you accept any plea deal. Before you sign anything. The moment criminal charges or immigration proceedings begin, the clock starts moving, and in this world it moves fast. A Note on VAWA and the U-Visa People often ask me what the difference is between these two forms of relief. The short answer is this, VAWA is for survivors whose abuser is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, and the relationship must be a qualifying one -- spouse, parent, or child. It allows you to petition for immigration status on your own, without involving your abuser in the process at all. The U-Visa applies to a broader range of situations. It covers survivors of many types of crimes, not only domestic violence, and does not require the abuser to have any particular immigration status. It does require that you cooperated with law enforcement in some way during the investigation. In some cases, a person may qualify for both. In others, only one applies. The only way to know which path is right for your situation is to sit down with an attorney and go through the facts. If you are in a situation like the one I described above, please do not wait. For Attorneys Reading This If you are a criminal defense attorney with a noncitizen client, please do not finalize any plea without consulting an immigration attorney first. A disposition that looks clean on the criminal side can permanently close immigration doors. This happens constantly and it is almost always preventable. I work with criminal attorneys on cases like this regularly. Call me before you advise your client to accept anything. Attorney Arzoo Connor is the founder of ARC Legal Services in Fort Worth, Texas. She practices immigration law and estate planning and works with clients across the country. She is an immigrant herself and a veteran of the U.S. military. Her entire team has personally navigated the immigration process. ARC Legal Services: 469-200-0158 Consultations are $50. Same-day response is standard. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.

A practical guide to emergency preparedness from an immigration attorney who has been through the process herself