Category: Immigration

Congress Has the Opportunity To Take a Critical Step Towards Protecting Immigrant Survivors

Congress Must Take This Critical Step to Protect Immigrant Survivors

For years, the U.S. has failed immigrant survivors by limiting their access to critical assistance programs. The LIFT the BAR Act is an opportunity for Congress to take real steps towards protecting immigrant survivors and getting them the resources they need.

The LIFT the BAR Act restores access to federal assistance programs like Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), by removing the five-year bar and other barriers that deny critical care and aid to people who are lawfully present.

immigrant children

“Any Day They Could Deport Me”: Immigrant Children in Legal Purgatory

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There are more than 44,000 child immigrants trapped in the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) backlog, waiting to apply for a green card. In the meantime, they are vulnerable to deportation, homelessness and abuse.

Children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala in particular must wait an average of four years to receive green cards after first applying for SIJS. As Congress and the Biden administration push for immigration protections, SIJS children have been left out.

“The Traumas of Irwin Continue to Haunt Me”: Non-Consensual Surgery Survivor Seeks Restitution, Calls to Shut Down Detention Centers

“The Traumas of Irwin Continue to Haunt Me”: Non-Consensual Surgery Survivor Seeks Restitution, Calls to Shut Down Detention Centers

In 2019, I became one of about 40 women subjected to invasive non-consensual gynecological surgery while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. What happened to me is not a one-off aberration—it’s a legacy of American white-supremacist pseudo-science going back decades.

For justice to be served, the government, ICE and all culpable individuals must be held accountable for what happened to me.

Four Years After #MeToo, We Need a Movement Led by Women of the Global South

Four Years After #MeToo, We Need a Movement Led by Women of the Global South

Four years after #MeToo went viral, women continue to come forward with their stories of sexual harassment in the workplace and elsewhere. Unfortunately, we can only tell some women’s #MeToo stories after it’s too late.

If we’re going to realize the promise of the #MeToo movement for all women, we need to start with addressing the immigration, caste and other systems that harassers and abusers use to exert power over women.

We Need Intersectional Feminist Principles in U.S. Foreign Policy

The Feminist Peace Initiative Urges Intersectional Feminist Principles in U.S. Foreign Policy

The Feminist Peace Initiative, co-founded by MADRE, Women Cross DMZ and the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, challenges and reimagines a U.S. foreign policy in the interests of all people and the planet.

“The conditions people flee—economic, violence—are push factors often created by U.S. policies, and exacerbated by the climate catastrophe, a result of corporate extraction or militarized pollution.”

Ms. Global: #WhereIsPengShuai?; Greece Accused of Ignoring Domestic Violence; Bolivia Debates Abortion Rights; The End of COP 26

Ms. Global: #WhereIsPengShuai?; Sweden May Get Its First Woman PM; Bolivia Debates Abortion Rights; The End of COP 26

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The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: Romania’s massive coronavirus outbreak; Afghan families forced to sell their daughters; the aftermath of COP 26; where is Peng Shuai?; Sweden may get its first woman PM; and more.

Daughters of Immigrants Lead the Way

Daughters of Immigrants Lead the Way

Michelle Wu is not the only daughter of immigrants to blow the doors open in Boston this election—so did her campaign manager, Mary Lou Akai-Ferguson.

Born in Japan, raised in East Atlanta and only five years out of college, Akai-Ferguson is far from the typical political consultant. But we shouldn’t be surprised: As daughters of immigrants, Akai-Ferguson and Wu fit a pattern of high achievers.

I Lived in Terror as an Undocumented Youth. Now I’m the Second Lady of Pennsylvania Standing with our Nation’s Dreamers.

I Lived in Terror as an Undocumented Youth. Now Second Lady of Pennsylvania, I’m Standing With U.S. Dreamers

We were undocumented immigrants from Brazil living in a small apartment in Queens. As a girl, my mother’s parting words to my brother and me were the same every morning. “I love you. Have a great day. Be invisible.”

Today, I’m an American citizen, the second lady of Pennsylvania and the founder of three nonprofits that support underrepresented communities. But I still know in my bones the terror of living in the shadows.

It’s time for the Senate to step up, pass the Dream and Promise Act and stop using Dreamers as bargaining chips.