Senior Litigation Counsel at the Tahirih Justice Center, Rachel Sheridan, explains why the CBP One App is problematic for survivors of violence seeking asylum.

A recent report from our two organizations reveals shocking levels of gender-based violence at the US/Mexico border, and exposes how the deterrence-based asylum policy of the US is fueling it.

Everyone deserves to live a life free from violence. That’s why at Tahirih, we believe that people seeking safety in the U.S. should be met with an asylum system that understands the trauma they have endured, instead of exposing them to more harm.

Unfortunately, that is not the case for survivors of gender-based violence who arrive at the southern border seeking protection here in the United States.

A new report by the Tahirih Justice Center and Oxfam America reveals how common it is for people seeking asylum to experience gender-based violence in Mexico while waiting to access the asylum process in the U.S.

A new report by Oxfam America and the Tahirih Justice Center documents how common it is for migrants seeking asylum to experience gender-based violence in Mexico while waiting to access the asylum process in the U.S.

In Surviving Deterrence: How U.S. Asylum Deterrence Policies Normalize Gender-Based Violence, Oxfam America and Tahirih explain how U.S. asylum deterrence policies, such as border closures and expulsions, exacerbate conditions that cause gender-based violence to proliferate at the southern border. The report further asserts that survivors who do manage to apply for asylum face an inequitable and re-traumatizing process on a systemic level.

On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new rule on the public charge ground of inadmissibility.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order that unlawfully seeks to arrest people seeking asylum, and other people without status in the United States, and return them to the border at a port of entry. The order is flatly illegal. It seeks to enforce purported violations of federal immigration law, something the Supreme Court has expressly held states cannot do. The order itself also violates federal immigration law, which makes clear that people have a legal right to seek asylum in the United States even if they enter the country without authorization. And if it is implemented, the order will force survivors of gender-based violence, and other vulnerable people pursuing that right to seek protection, out of their communities and into danger.

Today, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that the Biden administration can terminate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. Under this cruel policy, which Tahirih is challenging in a separate lawsuit, the United States has placed tens of thousands of vulnerable people fleeing violence, including many survivors of gender-based violence, into dangerous situations in northern Mexico. ‘Remain in Mexico’ is part of xenophobic policies that have all but eliminated the human right to seek asylum.