NOTE: Gail Pendleton created this document for civil and criminal court judges, but it should help advocates working in those courts as well.



Useful Protection Orders

Judges may use the catch-all provision, the “other” check box on standard forms, to require abusers to provide information their immigrant victims need to get status. The court can order the abuser to provide documentation necessary for the victim’s application to DHS and sanction the abuser’s attempts to manipulate the victim’s immigration status by controlling her documents or interfering with her DHS application.

Helpful evidence includes (see sample provisions at the end):
Abuser’s status
• Copies of the abuser’s immigration documents (lawful permanent residence card or naturalization certificate), U.S. passport, or birth certificate;
• Copies of documents relating to children that might indicate his status, such as children’s birth certificates, baptismal certificates, registration for school, etc.; and
• Anything relating to military service (only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents may serve in the U.S. military).

Legal Marriage
• Copies of the abuser’s prior divorce agreements and the couple’s marriage certificate and marriage license;

Family Members’ Documents
• Family members’ immigration documents in their control or copies of any immigration applications he has filed on their behalf;

Residence/Good Faith Marriage
• Copies or evidence of bills, mortgages, tax forms, bank accounts, leases/rent payments, mail to both parties, school records, work records, any documents that show the couple resided together (shows co-residence and good faith marriage);
• Children’s documents that show co-residence, such as birth certificates;
• Wedding and vacation pictures, insurance policies listing victim as beneficiary; and
• Letters from the abuser to the noncitizen or her family demonstrating they had a real marriage.

Sanctioning Immigration Status Manipulation
• Prohibit the abuser from contacting DHS to undermine the victim’s current status or application for future status;
• Require abusers to pay the fees for his victim’s application for status;
• Require abusers to pay the costs for replacement identification and travel and immigration documents;

Other Creative Remedies
Judges may modify normal check boxes to meet the needs of immigrant applicants, for instance, allowing them to continue to living together but requiring that the abuser attend an intervention program (in his language) and to refrain from threatening, assaulting, or harassing her.

Sample provision:
Respondent shall not molest, assault, harass, or in any manner threaten or physically abuse the petitioner or the minor children; respondent shall not enter the family residence during working hours (9-5, Monday to Friday); respondent shall not enter the bedroom occupied by the petitioner and the parties’ children.

Track compliance
Subsequent acts could serve as basis for victim’s U Visa, so it may be particularly helpful in cases involving immigrants to track and sanction abuser non-compliance.

Other Resources
Contact the Immigrant Women’s Project of Legal Momentum for their latest materials. Send your query to iwp@legalmomentum.org.

Sample Provisions Helpful to Immigration Documentation
Respondent shall relinquish possession and/or use of the following personal property as of [date/time]:

Petitioner’s birth certificate, passport, and any documents relating to petitioner’s immigration status (i.e., lawful permanent resident card, approval notices from Citizenship and Immigration Services or the Executive Office for Immigration Review)

Children’s birth certificates, passports, and any documentation relating to their immigration status (see above)

Marriage certificate issued to petitioner and respondent

Other documents demonstrating good faith marriage (leases, joint account records, utility bills, wedding pictures, joint tax filings, etc.)

Documents showing respondent’s previous marriages and dissolutions thereof

Respondent’s immigration documents (lawful permanent resident card, naturalization approval) or US birth certificate

Any immigration documentation filed with or received from the Department of Homeland Security (or the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for papers dating before the establishment of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services of the Department of Homeland Security).

Respondent shall not contact any agency regarding the petitioner or the petitioner’s children’s immigration status, including the Department of Homeland Security (Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection), the Executive Office for Immigration Review (the immigration court system) or the Department of State.

Respondent shall pay all fees relating to petitioner’s or petitioner’s children’s applications for immigration status.

Respondent shall not take the children out of the United States. Respondent shall turn over the passports of the parties’ minor children to the court and shall refrain from applying for new passports. (Court may notify the U.S. State Department that such an order has been issued, submit a copy to the State Department, and ask that no new passports be issued to the respondent