This misguided bill fails to include protections for ALL victims of violence and reverses protections for courageous immigrant women and girls that have been in place since VAWA’s original passage in 1994.

Every day, girls as young as eight or nine are forced to marry men who are often decades older. If we do nothing, an estimated 142 million girls will be married as children by the end of this decade.

The nation’s highest immigration court recently issued a disturbing decision denying an asylum request from a young woman who was subjected to female genital mutilation as a child and fears a forced marriage if she is returned to Mali. We need your help to put gender-based asylum law back on track.

SB 441 is a public safety imperative in Virginia that would make a powerful—even lifesaving—difference for the women and girls we serve.