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EspañolHow does USCIS determine if I am a victim of a "severe form of human trafficking"?
When deciding whether someone is a trafficking victim for purposes of a T visa, the government looks at whether the traffickers used or threatened to use force, coercion, or fraud to control the victim. Here are some examples of what this means:
- Force: Traffickers may physically take people and force them to provide sex in exchange for something of value, or labor they don’t want to do. “Force” includes abduction and using physical violence or restraint.
- Coercion: Traffickers may persuade people to provide sex in exchange for something, or labor they don’t want to do, because they threaten to harm or misuse the law against them or people they care about. “Coercion” includes direct and implied threats of harm or abuse of the legal system.
- Fraud: Traffickers may promise people freedom and legal work but in reality, they make victims provide sex to get that freedom or legal job, or they make them do unpaid work against their will “Fraud” includes deception and false promises.
Many traffickers keep their victims in their control by threatening to hurt or punish them. The threat could be made to the victim directly or actions can be taken against another trafficking victim as a warning of what could happen. For example, a trafficker may rape a fellow worker to show that “this is what will happen to you if you don’t do what I want.” Traffickers may also make threats to harm the victim’s family members and loved ones, such as threatening to send someone to the victim’s homeland to rape, kill, or harm his/her family. Traffickers often threaten to call the police or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to get victims who challenge them deported. Threats to report the victim to the police are known as “abuse of the legal process.”1
For more information, you can read our section on Proving your case: T visa requirements, Requirement 1: You are or have been the victim of a “severe form of trafficking,” or go to the website of the government agency that decides T visas, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
1 22 U.S.C. § 7102(3)
