Tahirih Justice Center Praises Law & Order Episode Addressing the Legal Obstacles Faced by Women Fleeing Violence and Seeking Protection in the United States
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Layli Miller-Muro, Executive Director, (571) 282-6161, justice@tahirih.org
Falls Church, VA—March 18, 2010. The Tahirih Justice Center praises last night’s episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (“Witness”), which brought to light obstacles faced by women fleeing violence who seek protection under US law. Sam Waterston, who plays District Attorney “Jack McCoy” on Law & Order, was the keynote speaker at the Tahirih Justice Center’s 2009 Annual Benefit and featured guest at Tahirih’s September 2009 Congressional Briefing on gender-based asylum.
The episode featured a woman from the Congo who shared her story of being gang-raped by a militia in the dead of night, then watching them each rape her five-year-old daughter. Six days later, her daughter died and her husband returned home to throw her out for causing shame to the family. She fled to the United States and stayed, undocumented, for two years, at which point she became a material witness to the rape of an American woman. The episode culminated with a focus on her as the star witness of the rape trial.
The episode highlighted the fact that women who flee brutal human rights abuses in their home countries face many obstacles to receiving safe haven in the United States. While the law has begun to recognize that violence against women can be a basis for asylum, the lack of clear guidance in law and regulation leaves many women without protection. For women fleeing rape as a tool of war, severe and sustained domestic violence, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, “honor” crimes, human trafficking or other forms of gender-based violence, their ability to receive protection in the US is not certain. Women asylum-seekers are also harshly impacted by a legal requirement that applicants file for refugee status within one year of their arrival in the US. Many women, like the woman in this Law & Order episode, struggle to survive in a strange new country, still reeling from the after-effects of the trauma they endured, silenced by powerful feelings of shame and taboo, afraid they will be imprisoned if they present themselves to authorities, and uncertain (for good reason) that they will receive protection if they step forward. For more information on the obstacles faced by women fleeing gender-based violence who seek protection in the United States, please see Tahirih’s report, “Precarious Protection.”
Also highlighted in the show was the availability of the U visa for certain victims and witnesses of crime. Too often undocumented immigrants do not come forward to report crimes and assist police with prosecutions because they fear it will result in their deportation. The anti-immigrant climate in the US and the increasing numbers of local police deputized to enforce immigration law heighten those fears. Although the U visa was established in 2000, regulations were delayed for years and approvals only began in 2009. Still, few victims are aware of its existence, and law enforcement is only gradually recognizing the visa’s availability. For more information on U visas, see Tahirih’s news release highlighting our first clients to receive approvals and a FBI Bulletin article authored by a Tahirih staff attorney and local law enforcement detective.
The Tahirih Justice Center praises Law & Order actors, writers, and producers, including SVU executive producer Neal Baer and writer Dawn DeNoon, for drawing consistent and careful attention to the horrific abuse of women throughout the world and for responsibly portraying the legal hurdles hindering their protection. Episodes like the one that aired last night are powerful platforms for educating the public and policymakers, and Tahirih is deeply grateful to the show for leveraging that platform to help the courageous women and girls we represent.
Through direct legal services, public policy advocacy, and education, the Tahirih Justice Center works to protect immigrant women and girls seeking justice in the United States from gender-based violence.
