An illegal immigrant who this week was awarded $200,000 in a lawsuit against a Tennessee sheriff's office will ask a federal judge to grant her permission to remain in the United States legally, her attorney told CNN.
A jury on Thursday awarded Juana Villegas the damages in a civil case against the joint government of Nashville and Davidson County in which she alleged that county sheriff's deputies violated her rights when they shackled her while pregnant, while in labor and during her postpartum recovery. She had initially filed suit against federal officials, but the judge dismissed that part of the case
Now, her attorney, Elliott Ozment, says that he will ask the judge who oversaw the case to grant his client a U-visa, a special status that can be conferred on victims of crimes who are in the country illegally.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/20/tennessee.immigrant.woman/index.html
