Removing Barriers for Battered Immigrant Women: A Comparison of Immigrant Protections Under VAWA I & II
Author: Kwong, Deanna
Date Published: 2002
In August 1994, Congress enacted the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA I), the first comprehensive federal legislation to address specifically the issue of violence against women. VAWA I improved greatly the availability of overall support and resources for domestic violence survivors through (1) the creation of new criminal enforcement authority and enhanced penalties to combat domestic violence in federal courts and (2) the authorization of grants to fund programs to fight violence against women. Its implementation during the late 1990s, however, revealed the existence of legislative gaps that inhibited the full effectiveness of many VAWA I provisions. Especially inaccessible and ineffective were the Protections for Battered Immigrant Women and Children. Although the goal was to remove immigration laws as a barrier to protection, these protections merely extended many of the preexisting legal impediments that immigrant survivors of domestic violence faced. In 2000, Congress enacted VAWA II to reauthorize grants and programs established under the original Act and, even more importantly, to attempt to remedy loopholes and inefficiencies inherent in the original VAWA.