Domestic Violence Laws & the INA: How Domestic Violence Perpetrators Attain Immigration Benefits

• Author: George T. Emmons III
• Position: George T. Emmons III, a 2019 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law, is now an attorney in California. His Article won third place in the 2019 Howard C. Schwab Memorial Essay Contest.
• Pages: 51-69

51

Domestic Violence Laws & the INA:

How Domestic Violence Perpetrators



GEORGE T. EMMONS III*

Introduction

Every twenty-four minutes, someone is the victim of domestic violence.1

Even more shocking is that one in four women and one in seven men

have been victims of severe physical abuse by an intimate partner in their

lifetime.2 More than four thousand women each year are killed by their

partners.3 Domestic violence also takes a toll on children. Often, 30 to 60

percent of children in violent households are also the victims of domestic

violence, and one in four has witnessed physical violence of his or her

mother, father, and their intimate partners.4

Domestic violence is a serious problem for our country. Domestic



likely than other violent offenders to be re-arrested for violent offenses

against the original victim.5 There are several reasons for this high level

1. Statistics, NAT’L DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE, https://www.thehotline.org/resources/

statistics/ (last accessed Nov. 29, 2018).

2. Id.; see also Naomi R. Cahn, Civil Images of Battered Women: The Impact of Domestic

Violence on Child Custody Decisions, 44 VAND. L. REV. 1041, 1046 (1991).

3.

NAT’L DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE, supra note 1; see also Cahn, supra note 2, at 1046.

4.

NAT’L DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE, supra note 1

5. Richard R. Johnson, Correlates of Re-arrest Among Felony Domestic Violence

Probationers, 72 FED. PROB., no. 3, Dec. 2008, at 42 (discussing levels of recidivism in felony

domestic violence probationers).

* George T. Emmons III, a 2019 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law,

is now an attorney in California. His Article won third place in the 2019 Howard C. Schwab

Memorial Essay Contest.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 53, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2019. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

52 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 53, Number 1, Spring 2019

of recidivism. According to a 2004 Canadian study analyzing recidivism

 

instability were some of the factors that led to higher recidivism rates

among domestic violence perpetrators.6 Also, a study conducted in Federal

Probation found that 41 percent of domestic violence perpetrators that

were assigned to domestic violence counseling and probation reoffended

before the end of their twenty-four-month probation term.7 This study

also found that domestic violence counseling has had limited success in

deterring domestic batterers.8



society, our laws do not hold domestic violence perpetrators accountable



been convicted of domestic violence crimes are not removable from the

         

9

Domestic violence perpetrators are allowed to escape the immigration





of crimes of violence and domestic violence.10 To be removable, a state

   

these statutes to ensure that their elements match.11 Courts use a categorical

approach to determine whether convictions match and whether the state

conviction carries immigration consequences.12

 



number of court documents in the record of conviction to determine if

   13

       

does not guarantee that domestic violence perpetrators and the domestic

violence crimes they commit are removable offenses or bars to certain



6. Id.

7. Id.

8. Id.

9. See, e.g., In re Sanudo, 23 I. & N. Dec. 968 (B.I.A. 2006); Matter of Velasquez, 25 I. &

N. Dec. 278 (B.I.A. 2010); Fernandez-Ruiz v. Gonzalez, 466 F.3d 1121, 1125 (9th Cir. 2006);

Cisneros Perez v. Gonzalez, 465 F.3d 386, 388 (9th Cir. 2006); see also 8 U.S.C. § 1229(b)

(2018) (cancellation removal for certain nonpermanent residents).

10. Compare CAL. PEN. CODE § 243 (2019), with 18 U.S.C. § 16 (2018).

11. See Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 599–601 (1990).

12. See Cisneros Perez, 465 F.3d at 388.

13. Taylor, 495 U.S. at 602.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 53, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2019. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.