In the United States, the T visa is a legal protection designated for immigrant survivors of trafficking. Despite the prevalence of trafficking as it is defined by the law, and the limited legal avenues available for immigrants, this protection is underutilized, with applicants facing bureaucratic burdens and high rates of denials. In the absence of data on the T visa process, Heba Gowayed, along with Julie Dahlstrom, a Law professor at Boston University and director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Program there, teamed up to conduct a survey and interviews with legal advocates, as well as to engage in a FOIA lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, to secure data on access to the T Visa. The data, outlined in the report ACCESS DENIED: Barries to Legal Protection for Immigrant Survivors of Human Trafficking shows that it was always complicated to secure this crucial legal protection, pathways got much more perilous under the Trump administration.
Along with Julie Dahlstrom, I am currently conducting interviews with survivors, and are in the process of drafting legal and sociological articles on their finding.