U visas exist to protect undocumented victims of crime who help authorities in the investigation or prosecution of the crime. But attorneys say shifts in immigration enforcement and a lack of cooperation by law enforcement have driven these victims back into the shadows out of fear that reporting the crime will land them in deportation.

For this feature story, I talked to immigrant advocates about the problems with the system. I also spoke to a state lawmaker with a proposal to make the first steps of the U visa process easier. While the bill didn’t pass in 2020 due to the pandemic’s disruptions, a resurrected version of the measure was signed into law in 2021. Read the story here.