The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was signed into law on September 13, 1994.

VAWA was created to officially recognize the severity of the crimes associated with domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.

VAWA was also created to raise public awareness on matters concerning violence against women, to reinforce and build partnerships with  federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement along with victim services communities, and most importantly, to work towards ending domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking for men, women and children across the United States.

VAWA was reauthorized by Congress in 2000, again in December 2005, and is currently scheduled for reauthorization in 2011.  

In the immigration context, the passage of VAWA has created specialized units within the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) with officers who process applications for lawful permanent residence based on a Battered Spouse petition.  They also process applications for T and U visas for victims of Human Trafficking and victims of Domestic Violence respectively.

For the past 15 years, the DOJ reported that VAWA has made a significant difference in the number of victims who have been protected.  For example, in 2007, over 505,000 victims were served in some capacity or another, over 1,201,000 types of services ranging from counseling, shelters, job training, among other programs were provided to victims and, more than 4,700 individuals were arrested for violations of protection orders.

VAWA is a work in progress and so far many victims have been saved and protected, but we must all keep in mind that there is plenty of more work to be done to bring an end to these types of violence.