It has been seven years since Congress provided legislative protection from deportation to illegal immigrants who are victims of atrocious crimes and who have cooperated with investigating authorities. It is only now that illegal immigrants from this category have obtained the right to apply for U visas and that Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has begun issuing these visas.

Mary Lou Cabrera, a spokesperson for the USCIS, explained that the seven-year delay was the result of technical issues. To begin with, the immigration service underwent a major overhaul when it became part of the Department of Homeland Security. Then it had to coordinate its activities with the Department of Justice.

“In sum,” she said, “a whole range of subordinate legislation was needed to make this a reality.”

Now the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act is in full force. It will encourage illegal immigrants to report incidents when they are victims of a crime. The visa that they will receive in exchange for testifying will give them the right to apply for permanent residence.

The law states that 10,000 U visas can be issued every year. These visas will be valid for a period of four years. While the act was winding its way through the governmental bureaucracy, over 8,300 applicants and their families received temporary protection from deportation. These applicants now have 180 days to apply for a U visa.

Who are these people? The Associated Press filed a report on 30-year-old Eleuterio Rodriguez Ruiz, who lives in the suburbs of Sacramento and harvests fruit. When he crossed the border into Arizona with another Mexican family, he was found by an Army reservist named Sergeant Patrick Haab, who held the group at gunpoint. Investigators classified Sergeant Haab’s actions as aggravated assault. Mr. Rodriguez Ruiz testified against Sergeant Haab and received protection from deportation, even though Sergeant Haab’s case was dismissed. The law does permit citizens to arrest people who have committed crimes, which is exactly what the families who crossed the border illegally did.

This is what upsets critics of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act and U visas.

“These people are in our country illegally, which means that they themselves are criminals," said Ed Hayes, director of the Kansas-based Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. "Naturally I feel sympathy for them when they become crime victims, but they should just testify and then go home." He added that illegal immigrants are more frequently criminals than victims.

Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, put it somewhat more gently. “I would prefer if illegal immigrants who are crime victims and have agreed to testify were granted temporary visas, not visas that lead directly to green cards."

None of this sits well with immigrant rights advocates, who filed a lawsuit against the USCIS and Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff in 2005 in connection with the years-long delay in issuing U visas.

“We will continue to fight for the rights of immigrants who are crime victims because they have no one else to stand up for them," stated Peter Schey, the lead lawyer on the case.

He is calling for extending the deadline to apply for a U visa from six months to a year and for compensating for the seven-year delay by issuing an additional 10,000 visas.

The main concern of human rights advocates is that by law illegal immigrants requesting a U visa must be officially declared crime victims. Only law enforcement agencies or a DA’s office has the authority to do this. Human rights advocates believe that few police departments, FBI agents or DA's offices will take the time to investigate these cases.