U visa backlog is 270K+ deep with 5-year wait just for the waitlist

Immigrant survivors of intimate partner violence can apply for a U visa (for crime victims who cooperate with law enforcement) or self-petition under VAWA. But the U visa is capped at 10,000 per year, and the backlog has ballooned to nearly 270,000 pending cases. The wait time just to be placed on the waitlist exceeds five years. During that wait, survivors have no stable immigration status, limited work authorization, and live in constant fear of deportation. Abusers exploit this directly: 76% of immigrant advocates report that DV victims are afraid to call police for fear of ICE involvement. Half of immigrant advocates have worked with survivors who dropped criminal or civil cases against their abuser because of deportation fear. The abuser effectively weaponizes the immigration system — threatening to report the survivor, withdrawing sponsorship, or hiding immigration documents. The structural root cause is a statutory cap set in 2000 that Congress has never increased, despite the eligible population growing dramatically, combined with the absence of any interim protected status for applicants during processing.