A new report by the Tahirih Justice Center highlights the urgent need for ‘gender’ to be recognized as the sixth protected ground for asylum. In this report, Tahirih asserts that current U.S. asylum laws, as applied, fail to adequately and consistently protect survivors fleeing gender-based violence, leaving them vulnerable to further abuse and trauma. The inclusion of gender as a sixth ground is one of several critical steps needed to transform our immigration system into one that fully understands and meets the needs of survivors.

To ensure equal and enduring access to asylum for survivors of gender-based violence, the U.S. must join other countries in adding a gender as an independent basis for asylum.

Today, the administration proposed regulations that aim to overturn U.S. asylum law, making it effectively impossible for people fleeing persecution to obtain protection in the United States. If implemented, the rule would eliminate gender-based asylum—shutting the door to anyone fleeing life-threatening persecution due to their gender, while undoing decades of legal precedent. Women fleeing rape […]

On June 10, 2020, the administration proposed new regulations that aim to end asylum. Within the regulations is an attempt to end gender-based asylum, which endangers the survivors we work […]

Tahirih and a coalition of national organizations issued this statement after releasing results of a survey demonstrating the fear of immigrant survivors in reporting violence.

This one pager describes the various pathways to legal residence for immigrant survivors of gender-based violence present in the United States. 

What is gender-based violence? What are the forms of it? We answer these questions about gender-based violence, which is a cause and consequence of gender inequality, in this one pager.