The Limits of State Sanctuary: A Feminist Case Study of VAWA Barriers in Colorado

As U.S. immigration policy changes across presidential administrations, it is critical to examine how these changes shape immigrants’ interactions with the legal system. While immigrants are provided basic rights, many lack access to critical protections. This paper employs an inductive thematic analysis of barriers to immigrant survivors’ access to Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) protections, using Colorado as a critical case study. This analysis demonstrates how even substantial state investment and sanctuary commitments are neutralized by federal legal barriers. Analyzed through a feminist lens, this analysis suggests that even in a state committed to immigrant protection, access to VAWA remains constrained in part because federal immigration law contains institutional structures that reproduce gendered power relations.