DWT Helps Secure Green Card for Human Trafficking Victim and Her Family

Jennifer Panopio was coerced by a trafficker into borrowing a large sum of money with false promises of a well-paying housekeeping position in the U.S. and clean, affordable housing. She arrived from the Philippines in 2008 and quickly realized the reality she was living was far different than what was promised. Ms. Panopio escaped her conditions in the U.S. and reported the crimes against her to authorities in Missouri, who prosecuted the president of the "employment" company engaged in illegal trafficking. On referral from API Legal Outreach in San Francisco, DWT's Cristina Chou and Sharon Mathis helped Ms. Panopio and her two daughters, who joined their mom in the U.S. in 2016, to adjust their asylum status to permanent residency. This allowed the family to re-establish their lives and pursue the dreams they had many years before they arrived in the U.S. Currently, Ms. Panopio lives in the Bay Area, where she works at an assisted-living community, and both of her daughters are thriving and attending college.