Noncitizens who are victims of a violent or particularly disturbing crime like blackmail or stalking can ask U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for a type of asylum.

But they’re first expected to submit signed certification from a law-enforcement organization.

In Minneapolis, the police department routinely approves some 70 or 80 percent of such certification requests. From 2014 to 2016, St. Paul Police approved about 10 percent.

The gap between the two law enforcement agencies has since narrowed. St. Paul officials want to make sure it stays that way.

The St. Paul City Council held a public hearing last Wednesday on an effort to step up the pace for screening requests, while clarifying and standardizing the steps all parties must go through to get the “U Visa” application started.

The result is expected to make confirmations both faster and easier to obtain.

St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell has been instructing his officers accordingly for months, said St. Paul City Council President Amy Brendmoen, and the new rules make the police department’s recent approach official.

“In a lot of ways, it’s just codifying what they were already moving towards,” Brendmoen said. “We didn’t think it was necessary for our police to act as the stringent gatekeeper. There was a big gap between what St. Paul was doing and what Minneapolis was doing. Under Chief Axtell, the gap was shrinking already.”

St. Paul Police approved 36 percent of all certification requests last year — or 47 of 129 requests — compared with 8.5 percent the year before. About 10 percent were approved in 2014.

There’s been a marked change in recent months. From January through mid-April, the department approved 90 percent of “U Visa” confirmation requests, or 37 of 41 applications.

THE NEW RULES

The proposed city ordinance is sponsored by five of the seven council members — Brendmoen, Samantha Henningson, Rebecca Noecker, Chris Tolbert and Dai Thao. A final vote is scheduled for next Wednesday.

City officials noted that local law enforcement do not determine who receives a U Visa. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, housed within the Department of Homeland Security, decides if an applicant is eligible for a U Visa, and relies on information from law enforcement to make their determination. Related Articles Marchers shut down I-94 through St. Paul to protest Breonna Taylor decision

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A certification form gives USCIS basic information about the criminal activity that is alleged to have taken place, as well as the victim’s willingness to assist in the investigation, prosecution, conviction or sentencing of a suspect.

St. Paul Police Commander Ken Sass, who is part of the group that reviews U Visa confirmation requests, said that under Axtell and in response to public concerns, the department has taken a harder look at three qualifying criteria set by Homeland Security: Did the crime occur in St. Paul? Is it a qualifying crime? And is the victim being helpful?

“A robbery is not a qualifying crime, but if during that robbery a weapon was used, then we have an aggravated assault,” Sass said. “And that is a qualifying crime.”

COOPERATION REQUIRED

As for the victim’s willingness to cooperate, “if a person made a police report, we consider that helpful on its face,” Sass said. “For the last two years, during my time doing it, we have never denied a U Visa based on the victim being helpful.”

Among the changes put forward by the city council, the ordinance states that police or “a city certifying agency” must determine if the victim has information about a specific criminal activity, “and has been helpful, is being helpful, or is likely to be helpful in the investigation or prosecution of the criminal activity.”

At the very least, that entails assisting with a criminal complaint or “filing a full and accurate police report.”

It makes no difference if the case actually results in conviction, prosecution or arrest, or even if the case is already over.

The proposed new rules also explain the difference between standard and expedited reviews of certification requests, and in both cases call for city agencies to process the requests within 30 days of receipt or “as quickly as reasonably possible.”

For victims in the midst of removal proceedings, expedited reviews are expected to take fewer than seven days.

The rules also clarify how the data can be used and the degree of privacy around an application.

The hope is that victims will feel more comfortable working with law enforcement when officers provide them with information about the visa opportunity.

John Keller, executive director of the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center, said that as much as a fourth of his center’s work is focused on U Visas, and residents of St. Paul and Minneapolis are two of the largest sources of applications.

Keller said that nationally, government detentions of immigrants who have not committed violent offenses are on the rise, leading many to shy away from working with police. That makes it harder for local law enforcement to stop crime, which helps no one. Related Articles Marchers shut down I-94 through St. Paul to protest Breonna Taylor decision

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“There are consistent reports of a fear of reporting crime to law enforcement, and a fear that has increased, unfortunately, under the current administration,” Keller said. “The fear is not without merit.”

Keller said that for some immigrants, the distrust has even escalated to avoiding free medical clinics or food shelves — any site even vaguely associated with government.

“One of the effects of that increased enforcement is a lack of trust of all government entities,” he said. “There is an obvious chilling effect.”