Pennsylvania City Weighs U Visa Certification Rules

Selena Zavala’s name now sits atop a proposed city policy for immigrant crime victims in Reading, Pennsylvania. The 20-year-old Reading resident was killed by her abuser on February 17, 2025, according to the draft ordinance, which says her infant daughter was shot and survived. Her father, Erasmo Zavala, and other family members cooperated with the investigation and cared for the child through a long recovery.

The draft, called the Selena Zavala Ordinance, would establish written rules for the Reading Police Department to receive and decide requests for U-visa certifications and T-visa declarations. City Council discussed the proposal at an August 10 committee meeting, the Reading Eagle reported. Council members generally supported creating a process, while some wanted more information from police and the Berks County District Attorney’s Office and questioned whether an ordinance or resolution would be the better vehicle.

The distinction matters in Reading, a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Its Welcoming City code already says the police department may approve certification requests for crime victims and witnesses seeking U or T visas. The new proposal would turn that permission into a public procedure with deadlines, designated officials, confidentiality rules and written decisions.

For the Zavala family, cooperation with law enforcement was not an abstract condition. Spotlight PA reported that Erasmo Zavala encouraged his daughter to seek police help in October 2024, when Reading police referred her to a domestic violence shelter. Four months later, Selena was killed and her two-month-old daughter was shot. A Reading officer carried the wounded baby to a trauma center, according to court records reviewed by Spotlight PA. Erasmo and his wife later assisted the Berks County investigation, obtained legal guardianship of their granddaughter and stayed with her through months of medical treatment.

The Berks County District Attorney’s Office certified the couple’s U-visa applications, Spotlight PA reported. Nothing in the city draft says that Reading Police delayed or denied the Zavalas’ own certifications. The proposal instead uses Selena’s name and her family’s cooperation to address the decision facing other victims: whether they can seek police help and expect a defined process if they later need a certification.

Under the draft, Reading police would have 90 days to respond to a certification request. A 21-day deadline would apply when an applicant documents immigration detention, removal proceedings, a final removal order or a specified age-out risk for a family member. The department would also publish its request protocol online, consult a subject-matter expert and designate one or more supervisory officials to sign certifications. The applicant’s immigration status and the existence of the request would remain confidential outside narrow federal-law and applicant-authorized exceptions.

A denial would have to include a written explanation. The applicant could submit more evidence for reconsideration and would receive another explanation if the denial remained in place. The proposal also says the department could not base a decision on the age of the case, the absence of an active investigation, charges or a conviction, or a prior civil immigration violation. Those restrictions would keep the certification inquiry focused on victimization, information and helpfulness rather than on whether a prosecution produced a particular result.

Those local rules would govern Reading’s part of the process. A principal U-visa petitioner still files Form I-918 with USCIS and generally must include Supplement B from a qualifying certifying agency. The form addresses whether the person was a victim of qualifying criminal activity, has information about it and was helpful, is helpful or is likely to be helpful to authorities. Federal guidance leaves the decision to sign with the certifying agency. USCIS alone decides whether the person qualifies for U nonimmigrant status.

That separation is central to the council debate. Attorney Bridget Cambria of ALDEA told council that Reading has lacked a consistent certification procedure for years, according to the Reading Eagle. The proposed deadlines and explanations could make the local decision more predictable, but a signed form would neither grant immigration status nor guarantee that USCIS approves the petition. It would give a person the required local document needed to ask USCIS for a decision.

Council members also debated how durable the policy should be. Councilman Raymond Baker questioned whether an ordinance or resolution was the better approach, the Eagle reported. Managing Director Jack Gombach said the administration supported moving the initiative forward with revised language. He suggested that protections could appear in legislation, the city’s administrative code and police general orders so the procedure would be less vulnerable to a future change in leadership. Councilman O. Christopher Miller asked for input from the police department and possibly the district attorney before council acts.

The proposal could still change. Council President Donna Reed said council would continue working with the administration. The draft reviewed for this article had no bill or ordinance number, and the city’s August 17 committee agenda did not show a vote on it. The document also covers T-visa declarations, even though most of the public discussion described by the Eagle focused on U visas. For victims deciding whether to approach Reading police, the promised process remains a proposal rather than a rule they can use today.