After 20 Years in Prison Mexican Woman Gets Green Card

A Mexican woman has received a green card after her parole from prison threatened to deport her back to her homeland.

Maria Suarez spent two decades in prison after being convicted of conspiring to kill a man who reportedly took her in and raped her repeatedly for five years. According to court documents, when Suarez came to the U.S. legally in 1976, she met Anselmo Covarrubias who claimed he was a witch doctor.

In 1981, Covarrubias was allegedly killed by a neighbor and Suarez reportedly cleaned and hid the murder weapon. At the time of her conviction, she was set to serve more than 22 years in prison.

Though Suarez was paroled in 2003, she was able to stay in the U.S. after receiving a special visa specifically for trafficking victims. Since then, her lawyers said she has been counseling domestic violence victims and educating people about human trafficking.

"I want to go from the bottom where we really need to start educating people and make them aware of what is happening," Suarez told the Associated Press.