Sexual assault of migrants from Latin America to the United States

Many people migrating from Latin America to the United States are victims of sexual assault and sex trafficking in Mexico.

People without legal permission to migrate are much less likely to report being the victim of a crime or otherwise take actions which may jeopardize their ability to cross the border or remain in the United States.

Although data is difficult to collect and analyze, Amnesty International reported in 2010 that the proportion of women and girls who are sexually assaulted over the course of their journey might be as high as 60%.

People travel from or through Mexico to the United States for several reasons, including poverty, lack of opportunity, and unsafe conditions.

[6] Many determined to improve their conditions, but who are unable to migrate with legal permission, find other means to cross the border, often at great risk to themselves.

"[6] Other women also migrate to reunite with family members, to search for better economic opportunities through employment, to escape from the domestic violence they are victims of, or the violent conditions and political instability in their homeland.

Just the sight of him with a badge and a gun was enough to intimidate anyone.”[7] The few women who opt to report and prosecute after being sexually assaulted have to face institutions such as the INS, the U.S. government and the U.S. legal system.

[19] According to federal documents released on February 26, 2019 by Florida Representative Ted Deutch, unattended migrant children have allegedly experienced sexual assault from the staff in Office of Refugee Resettlement.

"[21] On July 30, 2018, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered that immigrant children held at Shiloh Treatment Center could no longer be medicated with psychiatric drugs without the consent of a parent or court authorization[22] However records show that immigrant children are still being drugged even after court orders.

[10] At the time of the Amnesty International report, the non-profit estimated "as many as six in 10 women and girl migrants experience sexual violence during the journey.

[8] Michelle Brané of the Women's Refugee Commission told Tucson Weekly that "nonprofit groups and even the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement ... estimate that the vast majority of women and female children encounter some sort of sexual assault en route to the United States," and that "it's become the norm, and in many cases with female children, they just assume that there's been some sort of incident.

"[10] Amnesty International called for state and non-government organizations to ensure proper medical and psychological services for people who have experienced sexual violence, to design processes that facilitate safe reporting of crimes, and to evaluate the ways in which they find and protect victims.

According to Reuters, it also "established so-called gender violence alerts, a tool to mobilize national, state and local governments to catch perpetrators and reduce murders.

[25] For the next few years the VAWA of 1994 was one way in which the United States government aimed to protect immigrant women, but it was not until 2000 when improvements were made to this legislation.

As defined by the VAWA of 2000, severe forms of human trafficking include: “(1) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by fraud, force, coercion, or in which the victim is younger than 18 years of age, or (2) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude or slavery.” [26] These visas provide victims with deferred action, meaning it protects them from removal, and also provides them with a work permit, while those with “Bona fide T-visas can benefit from other resources such as cash assistance, food stamps, and job training.

[7] These women fear the consequences of reporting the crime, thinking their family's safety could be jeopardized if they disclose who their attackers are due to the amount of power they potentially possess if connected to the U.S. immigration authorities.

[7] Those few women who report their assault have to face scrutiny as their stories are often questioned and discredited by the authorities in charge of investigating such crimes.

[7] Her mental well-being and capacity to face the re-traumatization of the events as the investigation was conducted, the OIG's attempts to protect the accused agent and discredit their story, prompted her to seek suicide as her only way out.