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.

Last night, the Senate reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a vote that was six years in the making. The Tahirih Justice Center applauds Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) for their legislative leadership in the fight to get VAWA over the finish line. The new authorization provides more than $500 million to increase resources for survivors of violence.

Tahirih filed a comment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on ways to minimize the separation of families who enter the United States. The comment notes that family separation amounts to torture and recommends that the administration abandon the misuse of Title 42, the Migrant Protection Protocols, and detention and deportation to separate families

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.