Tahirih’s interdisciplinary approach to direct services, policy advocacy, and training and education is underscored by the intersection of our clients’ diverse lived experiences. Every individual we serve has multiple overlapping […]

The Biden administration has presented the first-ever U.S. National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence: Strategies for Action, a long-awaited, comprehensive, whole-of-government plan that aims to address and prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in this country.  

The Tahirih Justice Center celebrates this milestone which represents a promise to protect human rights and support safety and justice for survivors of sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking, child and forced marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence. This plan is the result of years of work by administration officials and stakeholders like Tahirih who convened listening sessions with the White House Gender Policy Council to share our collective knowledge informed by years of providing direct legal and social services to survivors.  

For three years, Title 42 has restricted access to asylum for migrants seeking protection in the U.S. and as it comes to a long-overdue end, the administration has decided to pass a rule that doubles down on illegal and inhumane policies that prioritize deterrence and violate due process. And they are doing so despite outcry from advocates across the country, thousands of comments submitted in opposition to the proposed rule, nearly 80 lawmakers, and condemnation by the asylum officers union.

Under the new asylum ban, migrants most vulnerable to violence and exploitation, including women and girls and other survivors of gender-based violence, will have little hope of finding safety and will languish at our southern border where they are at increased risk of violence, sexual assault, and trafficking.

Yesterday, the administration announced a new set of measures in anticipation of the termination of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that restricts access to asylum and expels migrants at the Southern border. Though it is promising to see the administration focusing on addressing the needs of refugees within the Western Hemisphere — increasing resettlement, expanding family reunification opportunities, and establishing new regional processing centers in Colombia, Guatemala and other countries — such improvements should not come at the expense of meaningful access to asylum along our southern border.

Last week, the U.S. and Canadian governments expanded their 2002 “safe third country” agreement to allow both countries to expel vulnerable people seeking asylum who have crossed the countries’ shared border in between ports of entry. The expansion of the deal was negotiated in secret a year ago and became effective just three days after its announcement on March 25.

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.

Tahirih Policy Communications Associate, Rachel Pak, reflects on her time at the border for the Asian American outlet, Angry Asian Man. Coming from an Asian immigrant family, she writes about […]