Illegal immigrants who are staying in California and who are violent crime victims will now stand the same chance to apply for a U S visa, regardless of the place of occurrence of the crime. This is as per the new bill that has been passed by the State Senate Committee on Tuesday this week.

Visas are granted by the federal government to illegal immigrants who help law enforcement to catch criminals. This visa is called U-visa and it allows the immigrant to stay in and work in America for 4 years, but in order to apply the local law enforcement department in the area where the victim stays should be first asked to verify the cooperation.

The California state Senate Public Safety Committee passed the California bill unanimously on Tuesday, and this comes just as the actions on immigration reform has stalled at the federal stage. A Californian democrat said that they wanted to send out a very clear message to Washington D C that legislators in the country would have to do their jobs.

It is required by the U-visa bill that the California state’s Law Enforcement would verify the victim’s cooperation in a period of 90 days; meanwhile, if the victim was in the stage of being deported the period comes down to 14 days.