{"id":263088,"date":"2026-08-11T06:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263088\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T06:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T06:18:09","slug":"advocacy-groups-call-on-reading-to-issue-u-visas-for-immigrant-victims-of-violent-crimes-reading-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263088\/","title":{"rendered":"Advocacy groups call on Reading to issue U visas for immigrant victims of violent crimes | Reading Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading City Council heard from two city attorneys Monday night requesting the adoption of an ordinance to address Reading police in certifying U visas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Attorney Bridget Cambria \u2014 who is also the executive director of ALDEA, the People\u2019s Justice Center \u2014 explained that a U visa is a specialized, federally-approved nonimmigrant status created for victims of specific crimes.<\/p>\n

Cambria said very often victims of a crime are afraid to report the crime because they fear testifying in court will result in their arrest and immigration detention.<\/p>\n

A certified U visa protects victims from that fear.<\/p>\n

City Council is being asked to adopt a proposed ordinance because Cambria said the Reading Police Department has not been signing off on the certifications.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years, the Reading police has not signed certifications, as far as I’m aware,\u201d Cambria said. \u201cAnd we had a very candid conversation with the city. Only three U visas have been certified in recent years. That is woefully low for a community that is almost 20% immigrant population. That makes no sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cambria said the Berks County\u2019s district attorney routinely signs the U visas for cases which have gone to prosecution.<\/p>\n

While the issuance of a U visa is handled through the federal government, the certification process is handled locally.<\/p>\n

Samuel Grimsley, an immigration attorney representing the Community Justice Project, said having an ordinance is just common sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the reason immigrants do not want to report crime, if they are hesitant to talk to the police, it is because they’re fearful of consequences and they see little benefit,\u201d Grimsley said. \u201cThis ordinance will promote more effective law enforcement, increase public safety, and immigrants will feel more secure in reporting crimes. This process will also allow us as attorneys to advocate and endorse cooperating with the police community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Councilmember Chris Miller said it is important for council to hear as much information to make an educated decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to try and get the big picture, and I’m wondering for our sake \u2014 and not that I’m discounting what you’re saying \u2014 but to get both sides,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI think I would also like to hear from our police department and probably at least one officer who’s Spanish speaking because I think they’ll have a different take.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no explanation from the administration as to why the police do not certify the U visas, or if the facts stated regarding that are correct.<\/p>\n

Council will continue to review the proposal at the committee level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013\u00a0Reading City Council heard from two city attorneys Monday night requesting the adoption of an ordinance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111217,1089,111219,111216,128,1095,130,129,1751,111218,111215,3636],"class_list":["post-263088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-bridget-cambria","tag-chris-miller","tag-immigration-attorney","tag-peoples-justice-center","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-council","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-police","tag-samuel-grimsley","tag-u-visa","tag-violent-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}