U-VISA CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENT IS BLOCKING CONGRESSIONAL INTENT CREATING THE NEED FOR A WRIT OF MANDATE AND TRAINING - UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT FEMALE FARMWORKERS REMAIN HIDING IN THE FIELDS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT

摘要

Patricia M.1 was born in Mexico and came to the United States when she was twenty-one years old. Even though Patricia did not have a work visa, she was able to find work as an undocumented immigrant farmworker harvesting almonds in California. The foreman at the almond farm would constantly offer Patricia food and drinks, and she believed these offers were not made innocently. The foreman would pick up the farmworkers in the morning at a gas station, drive them to the farm, and drop them off at the gas station when the day's work was over. After the third day of work, the foreman dropped off the farmworkers and would not let Patricia out of the vehicle. He instead drove her to a se-eluded field, used her bandanna to tie her hands to the truck, tookoff her clothes, and raped her. Patricia felt alone and helpless. She had to continue harvesting almonds at the same farm due to the lack of work opportunities and her desperate need for money, which led to continuous abuse from the foreman, eventually resulting in her getting pregnant. Patricia feared that reporting the crime would result in her either being put in jail or sent back to Mexico since she was in the United States illegally. As human beings and regardless of citizenship status, the type ofpain and suffering Patricia endured, along with many other female farmworkers who bore the same fate, should not be tolerated. Fortunately, Congress recognized these humanitarian issues and addressed them by implementing the U-nonimmigrant visa ("U-Visa") as a form of protection for victims such as Patricia.