After being criticized in online publication, Mount Prospect police change visa policy
Mount Prospect police will change their policies for helping crime victims obtain temporary visas if they are in the country illegally, after a recent national news publication criticized the department's handling of such cases.
Police Chief John Koziol announced the changes in a letter published on the village's website Monday, indicating he would sign forms seeking visas for four people who previously were denied.
The department's handling of such cases was highlighted in an April 14 story in the online news publication Slate. Titled "When It's Up to the Cops if You Get Your Visa," the story alleges several departments in Illinois and nationwide, including Mount Prospect's, were failing to follow the law when it comes to what are known as "U visas."
A U visa grants temporary relief from immigration enforcement, such as deportation, to a person who is the victim of a qualifying crime, has information about the crime or can help police investigate the crime. There are dozens of qualifying crimes, from murder and rape to prostitution and perjury.
One way to obtain a U visa is to get the police agency investigating the crime to sign what's called a 1-918 form confirming the person is eligible.
According to the Slate story, Mount Prospect police rejected seven out of the 10 requests that it received in 2019 and 2020. Among those denied, according to Slate, were a woman who suffered a miscarriage due to domestic violence, a woman who was raped in her sleep and the mother of a child who was sexually abused.
Those denials, according to the Slate story, violated Illinois' 2019 Voices of Immigrant Communities Empowering Survivors Act, which requires police to approve all eligible U visa certifications for victims of qualifying crimes.
Koziol said that based on a review of requests since the beginning of 2019, as well as a review of state law, he will sign the forms for four applications that previously had been denied.
He wrote that the department had been following federal guidelines and was unaware of the changes required by the 2019 state law.
"After evaluating the 2019 Voices of Immigrant Communities Empowering Survivors Act with the village attorney, future 1-918 forms sent to this department by anyone will now be evaluated through the parameters of a generous reading of the Act," he wrote.
Koziol, however, took issue with portions of the Slate report. He said he has been unable to locate any denied case that either mentions a miscarriage or injuries remotely capable of causing one, and he said the case involving allegations of a woman raped in her sleep "had credibility issues regarding its validity, which was the reason for the denial."
"Based on the breadth of the Illinois law, however, this was one of the four cases mentioned above where I decided to issue the certificate," he said.
Regarding the mother of a sexually abused child, Koziol wrote that the crime did not occur in the village's jurisdiction and was transferred to the appropriate agency, which will determine whether to sign the form.