Browse our publications to learn more about how we support immigrant survivors of gender-based violence through service in communities, courts, and Congress.
The Tahirih Justice Center submitted testimony for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a hearing on December 10, 2024, explaining how how mass deportations will harm immigrant survivors and the communities to which they belong.
FALLS CHURCH – “They’re throwing women, girls, and other persecuted people back to the violence they are desperately trying to escape,” said Casey Carter Swegman, Director of Public Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center. “The administration’s final rule limiting asylum access during the ‘credible fear’ process will result in vulnerable survivors being sent back to face the very real threat of lethal violence. That’s not an exaggeration; it’s simply the truth.”
“People who have survived trauma and abuse, and seek refuge in the United States, are brave beyond measure. They are taking action to save their own lives, and the U.S. should do everything in its power to assist them. Instead, the current administration has issued a final rule that cuts more people off from life-saving protection — protection that is written into U.S. law — when they have barely caught their breath, much less spoken to a lawyer or had their day in court,” said Carter Swegman.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s final rule, “Application of Certain Mandatory Bars in Fear Screenings,” narrows the path to asylum for people who need it. The Tahirih Justice Center and numerous organizations supplied well-documented commentary to the proposed rule, illustrating the fact that denying more people access to asylum during the initial stage, known as a “credible fear interview,” will undoubtedly harm individuals who qualify for protection under the law.
“Reading the text of the final rule, we see that none of Tahirih’s concerns — which are based on real-life client experiences in an already deeply-flawed system — were considered with seriousness or care,” said Carter Swegman. “My heart breaks for the women, girls, and other survivors of gender-based violence who reach our border, desperately seeking safety, and will now be met with even greater barriers to justice in a system already stacked against them. They have been failed by the institutions and the governments of their native countries, and risked everything to try to survive. With this policy, our government is failing them too. When will we stop making it as dangerous to try and escape gender-based violence as it is to stay?”
The Tahirih Justice Center is a national nonprofit legal organization that works with people who survived gender-based violence and are seeking protection in the United States. Tahirih has represented many survivors who were unable to fully express their fears of return, or adequately explain their circumstances, during the so-called “credible fear” stage of the asylum process. The “credible fear interview” occurs when people first encounter an immigration agent, often after suffering years of abuse and a traumatizing journey to seek safety. “The credible fear interview is supposed to be an initial screening with a fair standard, not a final evaluation of an individual’s qualification for asylum under U.S. law. With this new rule, the first stage will now be the last, for many,” said Carter Swegman.
When she was still a child, Ava* came to the U.S. after escaping human trafficking in a harrowing display of courage. During her credible fear interview with a Customs and Border Protection officer, Ava expressed a fear of return to the place she fled, but did not feel comfortable disclosing all of the details of the trauma and abuse she experienced. When this law enforcement interrogation began she was alone, cold, and wet, having just emerged from a dangerous river.
Only later, after speaking with a counselor in a place she felt safe, was Ava able to open up about the details of the significant abuse that forced her to flee. This included the fact that as a young girl, her school bus driver had groomed her for human trafficking. He isolated and raped her and, after many violent beatings and threats, forced her to participate in his crimes, including selling drugs. It took a trauma-informed counselor and legal team to uncover the extensive, harrowing details of Ava’s abuse and the full context of her participation in her abuser’s criminal activity, which occurred under extreme duress and was, in fact, a key element of her trauma. Had the new policy already been in place, Ava would very likely be back in the hands of her trafficker today.
“Everyone deserves safety and a life with dignity and purpose; to thrive in a violence-free home and community; and to build their best lives. Supporting women, girls, and all victims of gender-based violence should be a value we share as a country, without partisanship. Not only is this final rule devastating for immigrant survivors feeling gender-based violence, it is an affront to people worldwide who face persecution only to find shrinking avenues for true and lasting safety. It feels like the final crack in the door, where some light of hope still shined through, has been slammed shut,” added Carter Swegman.
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WASHINGTON – The Washington, DC City Council unanimously approved the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act on December 17, setting the minimum age of consent for marriage at 18. This is a resounding victory for survivors of child marriage and those at risk of this little-discussed form of child abuse. The bill now heads to Mayor Bowser for approval, and will then be considered by Congress.
Said Dr. Indira Henard, Executive Director of the DC Rape Crisis Center; “We are very excited that DC Council has passed the bill to end child marriage in the District. We commend Councilwoman Brooke Pinto for her leadership in bringing this bill to fruition. This is a great day for survivors. What we know for sure is that protecting children should be everyone’s business, and we are glad that this bill gives much needed protection to our children against child marriage in the District. We are grateful to all of the survivors who shared their stories, and partnered with us throughout this process.”
“The passage of this bill is a resounding symbol of the District’s commitment to putting survivors first. We at The Person Center are proud to stand alongside a community-based coalition rooted in the bravery and determination of our survivor advocates,” said Lul Mohamud, MPH, Executive Director of The Person Center. “Ending child marriage in Washington, DC is a result of the listening ear, compassion-based action, and coordinated efforts of Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s office and staff. The DC Council’s monumental vote will close a door to victimization, violence, and trauma — protecting our most vulnerable across the district and across the region. We at The Person Center look forward to continuing to champion the work of this coalition to expand protections, resources, and support for our youth in collaboration with our survivor advocates, community organizations, and the DC Council.”
A few steps remain before this bill becomes law. The legislation must be signed by Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and sent to Congress. Congress has 30 days to object, approve the law proactively, or allow it to become law without taking further action.
Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager at the Tahirih Justice Center, added “This is a resounding victory for children in the District and throughout the U.S., as DC Council joins the 13 state legislatures that have passed a ban on child marriage since 2016. This reform continues the mid-Atlantic’s leadership in the campaign to end child marriage across the US, and setting another example that the remaining 37 states should follow. We look forward to swift approval of this legislation from Mayor Bowser and Congress.”
All of Washington, DC’s neighbors have already taken action to limit or end child marriage, according to a Tahirih Justice Center report. DC City Councilmember Brooke Pinto (Ward 2), Chair of the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, introduced the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act in the fall of 2024 to right that wrong. Pinto invited public comment in what was a highly emotional, but empowering legislative hearing.
Vilas Wright testified that she was forced to marry a man twice her age after her father found out she had been raped. “No one asked me,” she said. “I was a naive and innocent little girl, even if I was a feisty redhead. No one stopped it. No one stood up and questioned if this was right or wrong. You have the power to do that today.” Read more testimonies here.
And the DC Council acted. Advocates expect the bill to become law by early 2025, ensuring that predators who wish to trap children in marriage, in order to “legitimize” abuse, can no longer do so under color of law in any jurisdiction across the mid-Atlantic.
Tahirih Justice Center and partners will continue to advocate for state restrictions on child and forced marriage across the United States, as well as enactment of the federal Child Marriage Prevention Act. This legislation, introduced by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), remains pending in the United States Congress.
Read testimonies in support of the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act of 2024, offered during the October 21 DC City Council hearing and in the Tahirih Justice Center column, “What survivors of child marriage want the DC Council, Congress, and the world, to know,” in English, and Spanish.
View the Tahirih Justice Center report, “Child Marriage in Washington, DC,” and two-page issue brief about the DC law.
Learn more about the federal Child Marriage Prevention Act, which encourages all states to raise age-of-marriage laws to 18; prohibits child marriages on federal lands and property; and strengthens U.S. immigration laws so that minors cannot be used by abusers — even under their parents’ direction or consent — as a passport to immigration in this Ms. Magazine op-ed by Casey Carter Swegman and Teen Vogue column by Naila Amin.
Learn more about the national campaign to end child and forced marriage at https://preventforcedmarriage.org/.
Since 2016, 35 U.S. states have enacted legislative reforms to end or limited child marriage and this summary offers a concise look at the impacts of these reforms. Variations in minimum age of marriage, legal emancipation requirements, judicial responsibilities, and allowable age differences between spouses, among other legal limitations, are highlighted to give a complete view of what incremental progress has looked like in those states that have not yet set a bright line age of marriage at 18 without exceptions. This document complements the Map of Legislative Reforms to give more detailed information on current marriage laws in those 35 states that have initiated reforms.
Falls Church – Everyone should have the right to determine whether to get married, when, and to whom. But every year in the United States, hundreds of children find themselves locked into marriages they are not ready for — whether through coercion, or because it seems like the best way out of an abusive situation. The cycle of exploitation, abuse, and diminished futures continues.
Tahirih Justice Center compiled an updated resource bank of analyses, reports, and survivor stories to help lawmakers, the media, and the public inform themselves about the landscape in individual states and nationwide.
Today, in 2024, child marriage remains legal — fully or partially — in 37 states plus the District of Columbia. While 35 states have limited this insidious form of child abuse in some way since 2016, only 13 states have banned it outright. And the practice remains completely unchecked in 15 states plus Washington, DC. For nearly a decade, Tahirih Justice Center and partners have been working with survivors of child marriage and domestic violence to enact laws nationwide protecting children from abuse, exploitation, and the inability to determine their own futures.
The updated resource bank from Tahirih Justice Center includes a report about what the federal government can do to help end child marriage nationwide. This begins with enacting the Child Marriage Marriage Prevention Act, federal legislation introduced by Senators Durbin (D-IL), Gillibrand (D-NY), and Schatz (D-PA).
Because marriage laws are generally determined by the states, the landscape is complex and details matter. Tahirih’s resource bank includes 50-state appendices with detailed scorecards, plus data and analysis about progress made in individual states.
The resource also includes the lived experiences of people who have survived forced and child marriage, because they are the true experts in this arena and the voices that need to be heard.
Naila Amin, a survivor of child marriage and advocate for abolition, spoke out recently in Teen Vogue. “Naila’s Law in New York — which raised the age of consent to wed in the state to 18, effectively outlawing child marriage — is … named after a living victim: me, a survivor of the very thing the law now bans. I often wonder how different my life would have been if this law was in place when I was a child, before I was forced to marry an adult man. It would have saved me so much trauma, throughout years of my life, freeing me from the fear I still carry. As a mother of a daughter, I vow to protect her and all the other girls of this world to ensure that no child has to go through what I did, ever again,” wrote Amin.
Said Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager with the Tahirih Justice Center, “Congress must pass the Child Marriage Prevention Act to modernize federal and state law and protect our nation’s children. The bill encourages states to raise age-of-consent laws to 18, as is under consideration in DC; prohibits child marriages on federal lands and property; and strengthens U.S. immigration laws so that minors cannot be used by abusers — even under their parents’ direction or consent — as a passport to immigration.”
Wrote Casey Swegman, Director of Policy with the Tahirih Justice Center, in Ms. Magazine, “The Tahirih Justice Center, in partnership with survivor advocates and our allies in the movement to end gender-based violence, are advocating for swift passage of the Child Marriage Prevention Act because everyone should have the right to decide whether, when and whom to marry. The fact that children in so many states plus the District of Columbia, today, remain without this basic guarantee is a stain on our national conscience, but it’s a problem we can solve.”
Access the resource bank at tahirih.org/what-we-do/policy-advocacy/child-marriage-policy/
Contact: Lynn Tramonte, [email protected] / 202-255-0551
WASHINGTON – After her father found out she was raped, Vilas Wright was forced to marry a man twice her age. Speaking before the Washington, DC City Council Committee on the Judiciary & Public Safety on Monday, October 21, she testified, “No one asked me. I was a naive and innocent little girl even if I was a feisty redhead. No one stopped it. No one stood up and questioned if this was right or wrong. You have the power to do that today.”
DC Council held a hearing on the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act of 2024, introduced by Councilmember Brooke Pinto (Ward 2), as the next step in the legislative process. According to a Tahirih Justice Center report, Washington, DC is the only jurisdiction in the mid-Atlantic region that has not taken action to end child marriage. This legislative hearing was the next step in righting that horrible wrong.
In her moving testimony Vilas, a Maryland resident, described being repeatedly raped at 13 years old, treated “as a mere possession” until being “tossed aside” and becoming homeless. “I never attended high school. I was not able to get a job because I had no training and was not old enough to be hired. I survived by trading my body for shelter and food. After all, it seemed to carry no other value. The consequences of the events of my childhood will remain with me for the duration of my lifetime,” she added.
Aliya Abbas, another metro DC resident, said, “I wholeheartedly support this bill because it hits home. It’s extremely personal. I am a product of child marriage and who better than a child bride to know the reality of this injustice.” She went on to describe being removed from high school at the age of 17, and flown to another country to be married to a total stranger.
“That one instance changed my life forever. I became a mother at 18 and then again at 20, both times without my consent. Being a mother is one of the most fulfilling jobs I have, but I won’t lie, it took every ounce of my being to get to where I am today. It’s actually a miracle. No child should ever have to endure that unimaginable heavy load of raw pain. The years I spent in the marriage, if you can even call it that, were the most painful years of my life where I endured mental, emotional, and physical abuse and torture as well as marital rape,” Aliya said.
In her testimony, Aliya described herself as a “survivor who had the courage to finally stand up for myself and for the sake of my children at any cost.” She also explained that being an advocate on such a personal issue is “not only emotionally and mentally traumatic, but has physical implications. I will spend this day writing the testimony along with the day when I have to orally testify in sorrow and unimaginable pain of having to relive the trauma in sharing my story, yet again, in hope of seeing a day when … survivors no longer have to relive their traumas through advocating to end child marriage, because good people in this world would have worked together to eliminate it.”
Survivors Brigitte Combs (Virginia), Sara Tasneem, and Judy Wiegand also testified before the DC Council, alongside Dr. Indira Henard, Executive Director of the DC Rape Crisis Center, Lul Mohamud, Executive Director of The Person Center, and Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager at the Tahirih Justice Center. Find all testimonies here.
Said Sara Tasneem, “At fifteen years old I was forced to marry a stranger who was 13 years older than me. I was legally married to my rapist and abuser at the age of 16 and clearly pregnant — which was evidence of rape…. It took me seven long years of surviving my abusive relationship and overcoming enormous obstacles to separate and file for divorce. It then took three years to finalize my divorce. As a minor, I faced extreme and numerous barriers to being able to leave my abusive marriage. Sadly, I am not the exception. It has taken me years to recognize and address the severe impacts child marriage has had on me, including PTSD from the prolonged abuse, recovering from the financial abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse, the educational impacts of being taken out of school as a fifteen-year-old led directly to extreme poverty. It has taken me years to recover.”
These brave survivors, and others, are speaking up to protect children from having to endure these same experiences.
“If my efforts and words to you as a survivor and an advocate can save one child from living the hell that comes as a result of children getting married, then I am asking you to hear my testimony and protect future generations of innocent children from this fate. You have the power to do that today by setting the minimum age to marry at 18 with no exception,” concluded Vilas.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Read additional testimonies in support of the Child Marriage Prohibition Amendment Act of 2024, offered during the October 21 DC City Council hearing.
See the Tahirih Justice Center report, “Child Marriage in Washington, DC,” and two-page issue brief about the DC legislation.
Learn more about the DC legislation and find quotes from Alex Goyette, Public Policy Manager with the Tahirih Justice Center; Dr. Indira Henard, Executive Director of the DC Rape Crisis Center; Lul Mohamud, MPH, Executive Director of The Person Center; Sasha Taylor, child marriage survivor-advocate and founder of SK Sultana LLC; and Councilmember Brooke Pinto (Ward 2), the bill’s sponsor, here.
CONTACT: Lynn Tramonte ([email protected] / 202-255-0551)
Falls Church, VA – Reacting to additional asylum restrictions from DHS and DOJ, Casey Carter Swegman, Director of Policy at the Tahirih Justice Center said, “It takes profound courage and strength to leave everything you know to seek safety in another country. The survivors we work with at the Tahirih Justice Center are heroes, fighting to save their own lives and break cycles of violence. We are completely opposed to this latest move that would cement and expand border policies that unlawfully restrict access to asylum. The current border policies and asylum restrictions have already been ‘death by a thousand cuts’ — and can mean literal death for already traumatized survivors with nowhere else to turn for safety.”
Tahirih Justice Center represents and advocates for survivors of gender-based violence in immigration court and before Congress and the Executive Branch. The new policy flies in the face of every one of Tahirih’s “Five Principles for a Trauma-Informed and Survivor-Centered Immigration Framework,” which calls for policies that:
Despite comments from advocates, DHS and DOJ have moved forward with plans to further restrict asylum eligibility. “Instead of a humane policy to more effectively manage the opportunity of immigration and protect the rights of survivors of gender-based violence along our border, the federal government is relying on a cruel deterrence-based approach,” said Swegman. “The policy fails to recognize the human need for migration, the right to seek asylum under current U.S. law and well established international law, the strength of people’s will to survive, and the fact that immigrants enrich our communities through their contributions, energy, and commitment every day.”
To learn more about Tahirih’s interdisciplinary approach to securing dignity, justice, and transformation for survivors, visit our website: www.tahirih.org.
Contact: Lynn Tramonte ([email protected] / 202-255-0551
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