This past year I worked at Sanctuary for Families' Center for Battered Women's Legal Services, providing legal assistance to many victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.

Domestic violence is an alarmingly widespread problem in our society. Approximately one out of four women will experience domestic violence during her lifetime and domestic violence results in nearly two million injuries and 1,300 deaths across the United States every year. Victims of domestic violence often feel that they cannot leave their batterers because of fear for their safety, shame, economic dependence, religious or cultural pressure and many other reasons. Immigrant victims of domestic violence face even greater challenges to leaving their abusers because of a fear of deportation and separation from their children, reliance on the abuser as an immigration sponsor and lack of knowledge about the remedies available to them. Often immigrant victims come from cultures where domestic violence is seen as a personal problem and authorities do little to protect women who are abused.

Another growing and pervasive global issue is human trafficking. Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It is a fast-growing criminal enterprise which affects nearly every country in the world. It is estimated that between four and twenty-seven million adults and children are trafficked each year into forced labor or commercial sex. These numbers do not include "disguised trafficking," such as the internet bride trade. Immigrant victims of human trafficking in the United States face similar challenges to victims of domestic violence. Fear of deportation prevents many victims from seeking help. Victims of sex trafficking often believe that they will be arrested if they come forward to the police.

At Sanctuary for Families, I primarily worked on obtaining immigration remedies for victims, but also assisted in Family Court proceedings such as getting victims orders of protection and helping them fight for custody of their children.

One client, a woman from Kazakhstan, had been beaten by her husband for ten years, including an incident in which he threw a wine bottle at her while she held the couple's one-year old child. A client from Turkmenistan suffered extreme physical abuse at the hands of her husband. During the short time that they were married, he broke a bone in her neck and in her jaw, causing severe neurological damage and requiring surgery. Another client was frequently beaten and emotionally abused by her husband. Most frightening was the fact that he was able to persuade my client that the abuse was entirely her fault. Finally, as she ran down the street escaping from an attack, she was able to point him out to a police officer. The next day, while her husband was in jail, the client and I went to her apartment to pack her things so that she could go into hiding. Other cases involved child abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional cruelty. The details are too horrifying to discuss.

I prepared a Violence against Women Act (VAWA) Self-Petition for all of these clients and others, a remedy that enabled them to apply for lawful permanent resident status (a "green card") without having their husbands serve as sponsors. In order to apply for a VAWA Self-petition, the woman needs to be married to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. In cases where a woman does not fall into this category, she can apply for a U-visa, an immigration remedy for victims of crimes, including domestic violence, who cooperate with authorities. I was able to prepare U-visa applications for many clients who would not otherwise have been eligible for immigration relief. After holding U-visa status for three years, they are eligible to apply for lawful permanent residency status. In both U-visa and VAWA cases, a person who holds lawful permanent residency status for five years can apply for US citizenship.

I was also able to do a great deal of trafficking work during my time at Sanctuary. Trafficking victims are eligible for T-visas. T-visa holders can apply for lawful permanent residency either after three years or at the completion of the investigation or prosecution of the trafficking. I was able to work with immigrant victims of both labor and commercial sex trafficking, all of whom were deceived and coerced into their situations. Russia and Eastern Europe are among the biggest sources of trafficking victims into the US However, there is a lack of legal services for Russian-speaking victims and because of cultural attitudes, many people do not realize that they are victims. I did outreach into this community, writing an article identifying factors of trafficking which was published in 14 Russian language newspapers across the country. I also met with several social services agencies to educate them about trafficking, participated in a panel discussion on global women's issues at a local charter school, and conducted immigration training sessions at Midtown Community Court and the Kings County District Attorney's Office.

Hopefully, through more advocacy and outreach work, more people will begin to understand how widespread domestic violence and human trafficking are. It seems that only through education of social service providers, law enforcement agents, immigration officials, and others who might come in contact with victims that we will be able to confront these issues properly.

"Our Lawyers Reflect" is a series or articles published on the White & Case pro bono website.