In recent years, the Texas Legislature has focused increasingly on immigration enforcement at the border and across the state. Texas’s Operation Lone Star (OLS) launched in 2021 and has deployed thousands of law enforcement personnel to the border, making use of state laws, such as trespassing and smuggling, to engage in immigration enforcement. OLS has radically shifted the way that state and local laws are applied to immigrants and border communities, has resulted in racial profiling, and has led to the deaths of dozens of people through high-speed chases and dangerous border barrier infrastructure. During the 3rd and 4th Special Sessions of the 2023 Legislative Session, the Legislature responded to the Governor’s call to expand Operation Lone Star and passed 3 anti-immigrant bills that will have a disproportionate impact on BIPOC immigrant survivors of gender-based violence.

The 2025 Texas legislative regular session saw the passage of both promising and harmful bills impacting immigrants and survivors. On the positive side, lawmakers approved several measures that strengthen crime […]

Today, the Justice Department issued a precedential decision that attempts to turn back the clock on progress made in recognizing women’s rights as human rights. In Matter of K-E-S-G-, the […]

JEFFERSON CITY – Incredibly, in 2025, child marriage is still legal in most of the United States. But now the practice is banned across Missouri — making the Show Me […]

This analysis focuses on the impact the January 20 executive orders are likely to have on the ability of immigrant women, girls, and other survivors of gender-based violence to access safety and the legal status to which they are entitled under law.