Say "No" to the Homeland Security Department's attempt to corrupt the 1994 Violence Against Women Ac

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is re-examining a longtime policy to let immigrant spouses remain here when their abusive U.S. citizen or permanent-resident spouses refuse to help them obtain legal status.

Ana Bertha Arellano, who runs her own Sacramento restaurant and cleans offices all night as a janitor, fears a change in that policy would destroy the safe life she's been struggling to build for herself and her children.

Without that protection, Arellano could end up deported by the same U.S. officials who agreed to shelter her from abuse six years ago and legally stay here on a special provisional visa.

"I have my own health insurance. I don't take any aid for anything. I don't want anything else but a chance to have some stability for my family," said Arellano, 37, one of the thousands of immigrants, many mothers of U.S.-born children, who could be affected if the policy shifts.

Arellano's story, like many, begins with marriage to a husband she loved and with whom she had two children, both born here. But her husband, a permanent resident of the United States, never filed papers to sponsor her for permanent residency, she said.

After they were married, she said he told her to cross the border from Mexico illegally in 1997, saying he would submit their application once she got here.

Instead, she said, he used her undocumented status to prevent her from complaining about his subsequent beatings and verbal taunts.

Arellano, who agreed to tell her story publicly, thought she had no alternatives until she found a lawyer who helped her apply in 2001 for a temporary Violence Against Women Act visa.

With affidavits and other evidence, she proved to an immigration official that her husband had abused her and failed to sponsor her for a green card, and that her marriage had been in good faith and she was of good moral character.

She was granted a Violence Against Women Act visa and a work permit so she could support herself and her children by working legally. She started her own business and got health insurance through her janitor job, and based on that success used her temporary visa to petition, without her husband, for permanent residency %u2013 a green card.

When Arellano applied six months ago, she felt optimistic. With a green card, she would be able to travel freely and seek U.S. citizenship. With the temporary Violence Against Women Act visa, she can't travel to see her mother back in Mexico, she can't apply for citizenship, and the visa, she feared, could be revoked at any time.

Today, Arellano's fear is approaching panic. With the new policy pending, her green-card request has been put on hold at the Sacramento office of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of Homeland Security.

Although the agency declined to reveal details, it is considering whether to reject green-card petitions for immigrant abuse survivors if they entered the United States in the past illegally, according to Sharon Rummery, San Francisco-based spokeswoman for Citizenship Services.

Immigration-rights advocates suspect the policy is under consideration to bring it into line with other immigration laws, which have been tightened since the mid-1990s and make it harder for someone to obtain a green card if they ever entered the United States illegally.

But victims of domestic abuse, whose spouses deliberately refused to sponsor them for legal status, continued to fall into a special group %u2013 at least until now.

"In this climate, everything is being interpreted really restrictively," said Sacramento immigration attorney Marien Sorensen, referring to the mounting public pressure to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Sorensen has four clients, including Arellano, whose bids to move up from Violence Against Women Act visas to green cards are on hold. She has represented dozens of immigrants in the past who have made this transition to green cards with ease.

Since 1994, more than 30,670 immigrants married to U.S. spouses have been granted Violence Against Women Act visas. Across the country, lawyers and others representing these immigrants are reporting that green-card bids are in limbo, said Ellen Kemp, coordinator of the National Lawyers Guild's Immigration Project in Boston.

This policy allowed them to remain in the United States and seek citizenship, is being reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security, the Sacramento Bee reported Jan. 7. Although the government has declined to explain why the policy is being reconsidered, women's rights activists said the move is part of a larger effort to crack down on immigrants who first entered the country without documentation.

Anti-violence advocates say that many women who seek the special visas are prevented by their abusive partners from obtaining legal immigration status, and their "illegal" status is often used as a means to threaten them. Ellen Kemp of the National Lawyers Guild's National Immigration Project in Boston said her organization is hearing from attorneys around the country that their clients' visa requests are being held up.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., criticized Homeland Security for reinterpreting a visa policy that was ordered by Congress in 1994 as part of the Violence Against Women Act. "We're against illegal immigration," Lofgren said of Congress. "But we're against domestic abuse and murder, too."

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Gov. Mitt Romney said during a campaign appearance that he is against violence toward all people but is "not familiar" with the Violence Against Women Act. Romney's statements came to light after blogger Jessica Valenti posted a video clip on The Nation's Web site. The law authorized $3.4 billion in funding to fight domestic and sexual violence over five years when it was reauthorized in 2005.