Tahirih mourns the lives lost in recent tragic events in Texas along with their grieving families. As new information continues to develop regarding the violent incidents in Texas this past week weekend, we can’t ignore the imminent attack on immigrant communities in Texas.

OtherWords.org published an op-ed by Tahirih’s Supervising Attorney, Daniella Prieshoff, in which she calls out the dehumanizing language used in mass media and by politicians that is used to justify inhumane policies and cruel discourse of immigrants.

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.

Governor Phil Scott signed a law that ends child marriage in the state by raising the legal age for marriage to 18 without exceptions. This victory makes Vermont the 8th state to completely end child marriage and comes after years of advocacy by the sponsor, Rep. Carol Ode, and advocates in Vermont to ensure that children can no longer be coerced into marriage

To tackle the unprecedented backlog of applications for humanitarian relief, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has created the Humanitarian, Adjustment, Removing Conditions, and Travel Documents (HART) Service Center which will be comprised of a dedicated team of specially trained staff responsible for adjudicating VAWA self-petitions (I-360), issuing U visa bona fide determinations (I-918), and reunification of refugees and asylees with their family members (I-730).  

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.

The Washington Post reporter, Kimberly Kindy, interviewed Tahirih’s public policy experts on child marriage in U.S. You can read the full article here.