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.

Tahirih’s policy work is rooted in our core values and in our promise theory of change. We work to advance policies and laws that enable immigrant survivors of gender-based violence to purse legal immigration status, live in safety, and fore their own paths.

The Tahirih Justice Center is prioritizing the following policy goals to immediately improve protections for immigrant survivors with simultaneously seeking long-term, systemic change.

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.

Rachel Sheridan, Tahirih’s Litigation Counsel spoke with City Limits reporter Daniel Parra and El Diario NY report Jesus Garcia about two recent SCOTUS decisions that will negatively impact immigrants seeking legal status in the U.S.

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

 Tahirih’s Senior Litigation Counsel, Richard Caldarone, spoke to La Opinion reporter Jesus Garcia, about two recent SCOTUS decisions that could devastatingly impact the clients we serve. 

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.