Violence Against Women Act of 2000

The Violence Against Women Act of 2000 (VAWA 2000) (Pub. L. No. 106-386), enacted on October 28, 2000, and funded at $3.3 billion, improves legal tools and programs addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The VAWA 2000 (1) reauthorizes for five years critical grant programs created by the original VAWA and subsequent legislation, (2) establishes new programs, and (3) strengthens federal laws. It also expands emergency jurisdiction under the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act to include domestic violence cases.

With regard to full-faith-and-credit enforcement of protection orders issued by a court of another state, the VAWA 2000 prohibits states and tribes from requiring notification (to the perpetrator) of the registration of an out-of-state or tribal protection order unless the victim requests the notification. The VAWA 2000 speci­fies that registration or filing or both may not be a prerequisite for enforcing out-of-state or tribal orders of protection; it also clarifies that tribal courts have full civil jurisdiction to enforce orders of protection.

The VAWA 2000 reauthorizes for five years the Grants to Combat Violent Crimes Against Women Program (which includes the STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women Formula Grants Program). It expands the purposes for which money may be used to include assisting vic­tims of domestic violence and sexual assault in immigration matters.

The Act authorizes the U.S. attorney general to make grants to provide civil legal assistance for victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault at $40 million for the 2001–2005 fiscal years. Among the grantees are programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation. Grantees also may include nonprofit enti­ties, Indian tribal governments, and law school clinics. The Act defines legal assistance to include family, administrative agency, housing, protection orders, and immigration matters.

The VAWA 2000 establishes various new protections for battered immigrants. It expands battered immigrant’s access to immigration relief and removes abusers’ ability to use immigration laws as a means of control over immigrant victims. For example, it allows a battered immigrant who was divorced from the abuser within the previous two years to file for VAWA relief, provided that the divorce was connected to the abuse. It grants new and improved waiver authority for the attorney general to assist battered women and their children in accessing lawful permanent residence. The law makes clear that battered immigrants’ use of public benefits specifically made available to VAWA self-petitioners under the welfare law does not make them ineligible for their green cards on the ground that they are likely to become a public charge. Self-petitioners may adjust their status to lawful permanent resident in the United States rather than having to go abroad to do so. The Act also creates a new nonimmigrant “U” visa for those who are victims of cer­tain serious crimes, including domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and trafficking crimes, and who meet certain requirements.

[Editor’s note: This summary was adapted from material on the U.S. Department of Justice Web site, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/vawo/laws/vawa_summary2.htm.]

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