“I welcomed the chance to be a complete family, and I was very hopeful for our future together.”
Blanca* left Mexico for Long Beach in hopes of building a better life for her three young children. Being a single mother in a new country was challenging, but she worked hard to support her family. When she first met Leonardo, she couldn’t believe her luck: He was respectful, good with the kids, and could contribute to the household. “I welcomed the chance to be a complete family, and I was very hopeful for our future together,” she said.
But when she became pregnant, Leonardo changed. Like many abusive partners, he became obsessed with the idea that Blanca had been unfaithful and that the baby wasn’t his—so he started monitoring her phone and got his family to report on her daily movements. When he didn’t find anything incriminating, he only got angrier. One night, in a fit of rage, he ripped the couch to pieces with a kitchen knife, destroyed Blanca’s phone, and punched her in the face. Blanca didn’t know it, but Leonardo was using crystal meth.
“Following the abuse I suffered from Leonardo, I was too afraid to go out. I was scared that Leonardo was stalking me or that he would take vengeance on me.”
Fearing for the safety of herself and her children, Blanca called the police, who arrested Leonardo. Blanca felt terrified and alone. She couldn’t afford a new phone, which she needed to communicate with her children’s schools, for medical appointments, and now, for her immediate safety. She changed the locks and added locks on the windows. Her children, too, were constantly vigilant in fear that Leonardo would appear.
Shortly after Leonardo’s arrest, a social worker visited Blanca’s apartment and advised her to apply for a Domestic Violence Restraining Order (DVRO). She visited LAFLA’s domestic violence clinic at her local courthouse, where Special Counsel on Family Justice Paula Savage helped her draft the petition. After a hearing, the court granted Blanca the restraining order and sole custody of her children, which she said “gave us all peace of mind.”
“The restraining order and custody order…gave us all peace of mind.”
To ensure she could continue to support her children alone, legal secretaries Rosa Velazquez and Melanie Young worked with Blanca to secure benefits. Meanwhile, Paula discovered that Blanca qualified for a U-Visa—a type of visa specially designed for victims of crime and abuse. Like many U.S. immigrants, Blanca was nervous about filling out the extensive immigration forms, which would disclose her presence here to authorities. She also faced financial, language, and logistical barriers that made her case more challenging.
With LAFLA’s help, Blanca was able to overcome these challenges, and she was recently awarded her visa! “I didn’t know anything about the U-nonimmigrant visa before all of this happened to us,” she said. After a long journey to safety, Blanca can support herself and her children here in the U.S. without fear of deportation—or abuse.
Photo: Blanca (center) proudly holds up her U-visa with Paula Savage and Melanie Young, part of her LAFLA team.
*Names and details have been changed to protect the client’s privacy. This story is shared with permission.
