Webinar Description:
Parents have a constitutional right to care and custody of their children regardless of the parent’s or the child’s immigration status. Despite this, perpetrators of domestic and sexual violence against immigrant victims with whom they have children in common frequently raise immigration status-related issues and provide courts with legally incorrect information to gain advantage in custody litigation. This webinar discusses the most common immigration status-related myths that parties raise in contested custody cases. It provides legally correct and up-to-date information on immigration laws, and policies that counter abuser’s allegations and evidence-based research findings demonstrating how immigrant victims and their children thrive as victims receive the benefits of VAWA and U visa immigration relief.
Presenters also discussed the best interest of the child in custody cases involving domestic violence survivors and how the trauma of domestic violence impact the health, wellbeing, and brain development of children who witness domestic violence in their homes. In addition, it offers strategies to help immigrant survivors prevent parental kidnapping, provide for safer visitation, obtain custody orders in protection order cases, and secure child support orders.