She Helped Convict Her Rapist. ICE Deported Her Anyway.

Nancy applied for a visa designed for undocumented victims of crimes, but that couldn’t keep her in the US.

By Isabela Dias APRIL 1, 2019

Nancy did not expect to be deported after she reported her rape to the police. The mother of four from Mexico thought she had done everything right: She had helped US authorities prosecute and expel a convicted criminal, even testifying in court against her former partner responsible for the assault.

She was a survivor, not a perpetrator. Moreover, the longtime Michigan resident had applied for legal status through a visa designed specifically for people like her: undocumented victims of crimes in the United States.

But protection never came. Instead, amid a years-long backlog in processing applications and Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, Nancy was made a priority for deportation as a result of a misdemeanor conviction—prompted, Nancy says, by a false accusation by her attacker—and a separate charge for illegal reentry.

And so, after 18 years living in the United States, Nancy, 39, was forced to return to Mexico last April. Her children, who are all American born, followed her a couple of months later to a country they barely know. “They have killed my children’s future, the life they had, and the dreams I had for them,” Nancy said recently from Mexico. “My children are not to blame for any of that.”

Nancy’s case is now in limbo, one in an ever-growing pool of pending U-visa applications. ...

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