“I miss my babies so much, but I can’t go back. I know he will find me and kill me,” Gonzalez, 26, said recently, sobbing as she stared at a cellphone image of two little boys. Around her sat a dozen other Hispanic women who had gathered at La Clinica del Pueblo in the District. All are victims of domestic violence in their home countries or the United States, and most are here illegally.

In the national debate over immigration changes, little attention has been paid to a subset of immigrants who live in a double shadow: thousands of women who depend on abusive spouses for legal and economic protection in the United States, and thousands more who fled violent partners in their homelands and could be in danger if forced to return.

Now, as President Obama attempts to revive fading chances that Congress will pass a comprehensive overhaul in the coming months, advocates for abused immigrant women are making a separate appeal for action on their behalf. In theory, these groups say, many victims qualify for political asylum or special resident visas, but in practice many remain trapped and invisible, reluctant to complain or seek help for fear of making things worse.

The bipartisan immigration bills languishing in the Senate and House would put about 4 million undocumented women on a path to legal status. They also contain provisions to grant more rights and services to immigrants who have suffered violence abroad or in the United States. For example, they would extend the one-year deadline to apply for asylum, nearly double the number of visas for victims of violence, and protect undocumented women from deportation if they leave an abusive spouse.

“Congress may see there is time to wait, but we see incredible urgency to press forward,” said Jeanne Smoot, director of public policy for the Tahirih Justice Center in Arlington County, which helps victimized immigrants seek legal protection. “We see an immigration system that ties and traps women in situations of abuse and exploitation every day. Reform legislation will address that with a host of thoughtful and significant changes.”

At a congressional briefing in November, officials from Tahirih and other groups detailed cases of women, many of them from Africa, who fled war or ritual violence and applied unsuccessfully for political asylum. A Tanzanian who refused female circumcision was raped, beaten, starved and left naked in prison before escaping. She applied for asylum in the United States but was turned down because she did not meet the one-year filing deadline.