Browse our publications to learn more about how we support immigrant survivors of gender-based violence through service in communities, courts, and Congress.
USCIS recently published guidance regarding rescheduling biometrics appointments. Biometrics are required for most immigration benefits, and the new guidance provides clarity on how to reschedule these appointments and the consequences of failure to timely reschedule. The Tahirih Justice Center submitted feedback encouraging USCIS to consider and account for the disparate impact of the guidance on survivor applicants for immigration benefits.
From May 10-12, 2023, Tahirih was part of a delegation of human, civil, and immigrants’ rights leaders led by the Haitian Bridge Alliance. The delegation visited the Texas Rio Grande Valley and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas to bear witness to the end of the Title 42 policy and the implementation of punitive policies along the border, including the Biden administration’s new asylum ban. Lives at Risk: Barriers and Harms As Biden Asylum Ban Takes Effect is the delegation’s joint report on their findings.
On April 7, Tahirih and pro bono counsel Orrick filed a lawsuit against USCIS for its failure to timely process asylum applications. The seventeen Tahirih clients who are plaintiffs in the litigation filed their applications at least five years ago and continue to await adjudication, despite the completion of many later-filed applications. Delays in asylum adjudication compound the stress and hardship of survivors, and Tahirih and Orrick look forward to vindicating the rights of these survivors to timely adjudication of their meritorious claims for relief.
The Tahirih Justice Center submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Circumvention of Lawful Pathways
Tahirih filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit in Miranda Sanchez v. Garland. In this case, the government reinstated a removal order against the noncitizen. After denial of relief under the Convention Against Torture, the noncitizen sought federal court review. The government now argues that federal courts lack jurisdiction to review this order because the noncitizen should have sought review within thirty days of the reinstatement of the removal order – which, in this and virtually all cases, would precede even the immigration judge’s first scheduling hearing. We stepped in as amicus to argue that the government’s position is inconsistent with law and produces absurd and inefficient results.
Tahirih has recently filed comments which object to the continued delay (in lieu of rescission) of the security bars rule. The security bars rule is premised on the false and harmful notion that immigrants may pose a risk to national security by threatening public health. This administration should rescind the rule rather than continue to delay its implementation, risking the possibility that an incoming administration could let it take effect without further notice and comment.
Project Empower is a first-of-its-kind guaranteed income (GI) program designed to support immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. This program offered unconditional, regular cash transfers of $1000 per month to 10 Tahirih clients, all survivors of domestic violence with a child or children, for six months. A new report from Tahirih and our partner, My New Red Shoes, discusses the experiences and lessons learned from the first cohort.
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