The New York Times Magazines reporter, Maddie Crowell, spoke with Tahirih’s co-director of client advocacy, Adilene Nuñez-Huang, about the hurdles Afghan women who seek a college education face while awaiting asylum claims.

Los Angeles Times immigration reporter, Andrea Castillo, spoke with Daniella Prieshoff, supervising attorney at the Tahirih Justice Center, about how visa backlogs are impacting her clients that have been waiting for an answer for several years. 

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.

Today, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that the Biden administration can terminate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy. Under this cruel policy, which Tahirih is challenging in a separate lawsuit, the United States has placed tens of thousands of vulnerable people fleeing violence, including many survivors of gender-based violence, into dangerous situations in northern Mexico. ‘Remain in Mexico’ is part of xenophobic policies that have all but eliminated the human right to seek asylum.

These disappointing decisions continue a troubling pattern of foreclosing important protections for immigrant survivors.

“My constant prayer is that my children never go through what I endured.”

Today, the Biden administration announced it would end its use of Title 42 on May 23, 2022. For two years, Title 42 has been used to justify the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border and the denial of their right to seek asylum.