A group of Democratic lawmakers is demanding answers from the Department of Homeland Security about protections for certain visa applicants who are claiming to be victims of trafficking and abuse and are under threat of deportation.

In a letter first obtained by Spectrum News, the three House Democrats say they are concerned these immigrant survivors are being detained and even deported as part of the broader Trump administration crackdown on immigrants.

They are asking the Department of Homeland Security to release them from detention and not to deport them while their applications for refuge in the U.S. remain under review. Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove of California, Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, and Pramila Jayapal of Washington State led the letter, with 21 other members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus signing on.

“By arresting, detaining, and deporting survivors with pending applications, some of whom have been granted deferred action, DHS has disrupted the processes designed to keep women safe. Humanitarian safeguards — such as deferred action and work authorization — were explicitly authorized by Congress to allow survivors to remain in the United States safely while their immigration applications are under review, without fear of arrest, detention or deportation,” the lawmakers wrote. “Your actions now contravene the protections passed by Congress and exacerbate the underlying issues that caused us to pass these laws.”

The lawmakers are now asking for members of DHS to meet with them within the next 30 days to discuss the matter.

Hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have been victims of crimes — including domestic violence and human trafficking and other crimes — can apply for “T” or “U” visas if they cooperate with U.S. law enforcement. But it can take years to obtain the visas, and the Trump administration claims the program is rife with fraud. T and U visas provide a path to work authorization and legal status, and were originally intended to assist law enforcement agencies prosecute crimes by allowing reluctant witnesses who are in the U.S. illegally or on temporary status an opportunity to stay in the country. 

Spectrum News reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on how many U and T visa applicants have been detained or deported, but a number was not provided.

Kamlager-Dove, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs committee, said that the hundreds of thousands of applicants are generally women and “survivors of human trafficking and other kinds of sex crimes and violence.”

“I think we have an obligation to try to protect them while they move through our immigration process,” Kamlager-Dove said in an interview with Spectrum News. “Oftentimes, they’re showing up to court and then they’re being detained and deported — many times they are being deported right to the people who abused them in the first place that they were trying to get away from.”

A new report out this week from the Center for Immigration Studies suggests the U visa program is “rampant” with fraud and abuse, and that it has allowed “tens of thousands of illegal aliens to obtain deportation protection and work permits who would not otherwise qualify to stay.” The nonpartisan center generally takes a restrictive view of immigration. 

Each year, 5,000 individuals can receive T visa status, allowing trafficking victims to remain in the country for an initial period of up to four years if they aid law enforcement.

Up to 10,000 individuals can be accepted into the U.S. annually under U visa status, which is allocated for victims of physical and mental abuse who assist law enforcement when it comes to prosecuting said crime. Currently, there are more than 400,000 U visa applicants awaiting review. 

“The U Visa Program is a classic example of an immigration program created with the best of intentions that then goes off the rails,” said Jessica Vaughn, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It has turned into, really, almost an amnesty program de facto for anyone claiming to be the victim of a crime.”

Vaughn, who authored the study, told Spectrum News that loopholes created by the Obama and Biden administrations gave visa applicants protection from ICE detainment or deportation as well as access to work permits and potentially even green cards while their applications were under review. She suggested that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services should review cases currently on hold or in waiting to confirm their legitimacy.

“If there’s no prosecution, there’s not going to be a visa that is given out. This should only be offered to people who are victims of crimes that actually occurred, that are being investigated and prosecuted, and where the victim is being helpful to law enforcement agencies,” Vaughn said. “If that is not the case, if they can’t show that from the time of application, the case should not move forward, should not sit in the queue, should be refused.”

Vaughn’s study also says staged crimes have become a loophole that individuals are using to secure a U visa. She pointed to a case that the Department of Justice prosecuted last year in which two men were found guilty of staging 18 armed robberies at convenience stores, liquor stores and fast-food restaurants for the “victims” to later apply for U visas.

“This really saps the resources of law enforcement agencies, [and] it means that people get protection from deportation and work permits who shouldn’t. They’re doing it through fraud,” Vaughn said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told Spectrum News that “under the Biden administration, T visa applications exploded from 2,780 in fiscal year 2021 to 23,754 in FY24. That’s unacceptable.” The spokesperson added that “USCIS continually reviews its processes and works with Congress to strengthen safeguards, address concerns, and ensure the program serves its intended purpose of protecting crime victims and supporting law enforcement.”

Kamlager-Dove said that she would support Congressional oversight to improve the visa programs to ensure that those who truly qualify and should receive the protections the visas offer are able to attain them.

“If there are claims of fraud, the next step would be to have a hearing, to conduct oversight on the program and to talk about some of the findings or claims or allegations that are coming out of this report, but also to talk about, the purpose of the program, its intent, and who it has helped,” she said. “The American people need to know how their money is being used, but my concern is that we will continue to stop running these programs, we will be cutting services that eventually will actually make Americans less safe because when bad things happen abroad, those bad people do find their way to costing us money.”

Over the last several weeks, DHS and the Trump administration have touted their immigration crackdown as a success, reporting 100,000 visas have been revoked over the last year and at least 605,000 deportations by U.S. authorities, in addition to 1.9 million self-deportations.