Clara endured a perilous journey to reach safety. She trusted her Tahirih lawyers and now she lives a healthy, safe and free life.

International human rights law forbids sending people back to the country that they are fleeing when their lives are on the line. Black immigrants, including Haitians, have been discriminated against—and it’s costing lives. For months, thousands of Haitian asylum seekers and other Black migrants have been expelled from this country and denied their legal right to seek asylum. Black migrants deserve to be welcomed with dignity, not face an endless cycle of inhumane and violent treatment at the hands of our government.

October 11 marks both International Day of the Girl and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, observances that illuminate the ways gender-based violence particularly impacts those who live at the dangerous intersections of sexism, racism, and xenophobia.

The Department of Homeland Security issued broad new directives to immigration officers that will go into effect on November 29, 2021. Although these new enforcement and deportation guidelines clarify that not everyone who is an undocumented immigrant should, or can, be removed from the United States, the memo gives worryingly broad discretion to individual ICE and CBP agents to carry out the enforcement priorities and risks the removal of survivors of gender-based violence.

The Tahirih Justice Center strongly condemns the administration’s racist and brutal mistreatment of Haitian refugees at the U.S. southern border.

Support Afghan refugees seeking safety in the U.S.

To ensure equal and enduring access to asylum for survivors of gender-based violence, the U.S. must add gender as a protected ground for asylum.