Immigrant Women & Children Project Helps Reunite Trafficking Survivors with their Children – by Suzanne Tomatore

Angelica (names changed for privacy and safety) came to the City Bar Justice Center’s Immigrant Women & Children Project (IWC) in 2013 seeking legal assistance because she was a victim of international labor trafficking. IWC works with immigrant survivors of violent crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, hate crimes and human trafficking to secure immigration and other civil legal relief.

Back home in the Philippines, in 2006, Angelica had responded to a job posting seeking hotel workers in the United States. She applied for the job and was selected for an interview. Because there were fees to go through the process and additional fees if she were offered the job, she borrowed hundreds of dollars. She was offered the position and secured a visa to come to the U.S., eager to begin working and to send money home to her husband and children. She did some calculations and thought that she would be able to pay back the loans within a few months.

When Angelica arrived in the U.S., the job conditions were nothing like what she had been promised.  The recruiting agency in the Philippines and a labor agency in the U.S. worked together to force Angelica to work for over two years at upscale hotels in the U.S. for very little money and made her live in pre-arranged, crowded, and overpriced housing. Angelica worked at hotels in three different states before she realized that the agencies had defrauded her and that she would not be able to pay back her debt. She escaped and came to the City Bar for help.

Staff at the City Bar Justice Center helped her gather documentation and put together her application for T nonimmigrant status as a victim of trafficking. Angelica was able to include her husband in the petition, as well as her three children who were still living in the Philippines. In January 2015, Angelica’s application was approved and she got work authorization. Unlike the visa that she had when she worked for the hotel chains, the T status for victims of trafficking allowed her to find a job in any industry and did not tie her down to one employer. The City Bar Justice Center worked with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to help Angelica’s children travel to the United States, and they arrived here in June. They had been apart for eight years. Angelica is now reunited with her family and working to build a new life for them in the United States. Her children will be starting school in the fall and the family is looking forward to a new life together.

“It was very touching and I can’t help to shed tears,” said Angelica. “I am so proud of the story and the staff of the City Bar Justice Center who helped me accomplish my dreams of a decent and happy life together with my family….Thank you so much.” As a token of appreciation, her children brought with them a small gift for attorney Laura Berger, a model jeepney, a form of public transportation that has become a symbol of Filipino culture and art for its brightly colored decorations.

A few weeks later, another happy reunion between mother and child took place. Maria met Jose in 1993 in Tenancingo, Mexico, when she was twenty years old. They began dating and from the beginning he was very abusive.  He soon forced her into prostitution. When their son was born, he allowed her to take some time off to care for him. After a few months, Jose placed the child with his family and told her that they were going to the U.S. so that she could make more money. They went to the U.S. and he continued to demand that she work in prostitution and he took all of her earnings, which he sent home to Mexico. After a few years, she convinced him that their son would be better off helping her parents on their farm so she was able to move him to their home.

In 2010, Maria was finally able to escape Jose’s abuse and control when he returned to Mexico. She instructed her parents never to let Jose take their son or to let him into their home. Maria came to the City Bar Justice Center on the advice of a friend back in 2011. I prepared her application for T nonimmigrant status and included her son as a derivative. The case was approved in 2013 but there were challenges getting Jorge to the U.S. He had a visa, but he was not able to obtain a passport without the permission of both parents. Maria had not been in touch with Jose for several years and wanted to keep it that way.

I contacted a Mexican human rights organization called IMUMI that works to support the rights and safety of migrant Mexican women. I had met their staff a few years ago at the Freedom Network conference (a national network of service providers who work with survivors of human trafficking) and was impressed by their anti-trafficking work. They put me in touch with an attorney who agreed to bring a case in Family Court in Mexico to allow Maria’s sister to petition for her nephew’s custody, which would allow her to help him apply for a passport. The process took more than a year and a half and had many roadblocks. During this time we reached out again to the IOM to see if they could help coordinate Jorge’s travel to the U.S. and accompany him throughout the process.

Maria’s son wanted to finish out the school term and flew to the U.S. in July. He is finally living with his mother again and his two-year-old half brother. Maria is overjoyed at having her family finally living safely with her and she is optimistic about their future.

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IWC leverages additional resources through pro bono support from the private bar. To make a donation to the City Bar Justice Center’s programs, please click here.

Suzanne Tomatore is director of the Immigrant Women and Children Project at the City Bar Justice Center.