ReliefWeb: Stuck in Uncertainty and Exposed to Violence: The Impact of US and Mexican Migration Policies on Women Seeking Protection in 2021

On the one-year anniversary of U.S. President Biden’s executive orders on migration and asylum, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) and Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración (IMUMI) today released a report on the effects of the Biden and Mexican President Lopez Obrador administrations’ border policies on women and families in Mexico. The new report, Stuck in Uncertainty and Exposed to Violence: The Impact of U.S. and Mexican Migration Policies on Women Seeking Protection in 2021, notes that both the U.S. and Mexican governments have fallen short of promises to restore safe, orderly, and humane migration and have left thousands of women vulnerable.

The report, based on monitoring of events and interviews with migrant and asylum-seeking women and their families in Mexico, details the devastating effects of continued anti-asylum policies and increasing enforcement that together block women and families from reaching safety in Mexico or at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Our team spoke to women in Mexican migrant shelters who are feeling desperate and stuck, who have difficulties in accessing even the most basic services or medical care and are unable to support themselves and their families while in indefinite limbo,” said Savitri Arvey, policy advisor on the Migrant Rights and Justice team at WRC. “Many of them were afraid they would even be tracked down by their persecutors and that they had nowhere to turn for safety. Presidents Biden and Lopez Obrador’s policies, grounded in misguided attempts to deter people from seeking asylum, are having a devastating effect on women seeking protection.”