The Sad Story of Juana Venada

Texas Civil Rights Projects filed suit against the state’s
Department of Public Safety over restrictive requirements to obtain
valid driver’s licenses. Among the plaintiffs in the case was Juana
Venada, a Mexican national and single mother of three children, who was
victimized under punitive Texan rules when she attempted to obtain a
driver’s license.

Juana Venada is a Mexican national residing legally in the United
States with her three children, the eldest aged ten. The sole caretaker
of her children, she lives in Austin, Texas.

In April and May 2009, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) twice
refused Ms. Venada’s application for a driver’s license. DPS first
denied her application on the basis that her USCIS Employment
Authorization Document and social security number were insufficient to
establish her legal presence in the United States, and then denied her
on the basis that her documents may have been falsified. Without a
valid driver’s license, she has been forced to drive illegally to
maintain employment and support her family.

She had been married to a U.S. citizen who subjected her to years of
physical and emotional abuse. In February 2009, she filed for U.S.
immigrant benefits herself, under the federal Violence Against Women
Act, which was approved; thus, granting her legal status in the United
States while she awaits the opportunity to become a legal permanent
resident.

As the spouse of an American citizen, Ms. Venada was eligible to
become a legal permanent resident. But her vindictive spouse used his
legal status as a domination tool; having the sole power to submit a
petition for her, he refused. He further threatened to have Ms. Venada
deported and separated from her children, and in September 2006, he
followed through on that threat, leading to Ms. Venada’s arrest,
incarceration, and near-deportation.

Following two additional years of emotional turmoil and difficulties
engendered by her abuser’s actions, she followed the advice of her
attorney, and applied for a valid Texas driver’s license – only to be
denied due to restrictive rules established by the Department of Public
Safety.

The rules involved for granting licenses to foreign nationals who
are in Texas on a temporary, legal basis are stamped on a special
vertical small document and assigned a “temporary visitor”
classification that appear to be discriminatory without bolstering the
document’s validity or protecting against fraud – ostensibly the
reasons for the special treatment being meted out.

Ms. Venada, both in the United States legally and authorized to work
by USCIS, now faces a new challenge to continue to support her family:
getting a state-issued driver’s license. The pending litigation against
the Texas Department of Public Safety will one day provide Ms. Venada
her day in court, and it is hoped, relief from the state’s restrictive
driver’s license rules.

Stewart Rabinowitz is President of Rabinowitz & Rabinowitz, P.C.
Mr. Rabinowitz is Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by
the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. To contact a Dallas immigration lawyer or Dallas immigration attorney visit Rabinowitzrabinowitz.com