Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program (IWP) in concert with the National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women won an important victory on May 25, 2006. The Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill that would legalize an estimated 8 to 8.5 million undocumented immigrants and their close family members. The Senate also passed the Biden amendment to preserve access to immigration relief for victims of domestic abuse, sexual assault, or human trafficking. Finally, the Senate passed the Feingold-Brownback amendment which preserves access to temporary judicial stays of removal so that immigrant women and children are not deported and delivered into the hands of human traffickers, batterers, and persecutors. In his speech on the Senate floor Sen. Feingold (D-WI) quoted the National Network's letter and read verbatim several paragraphs describing real-life immigrant women and children who obtained temporary judicial stays of removal and were thus spared illegal deportation.
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