Legal Momentum Briefing Room

Sexual Abuse Within Immigration Detention Must Be Addressed Immediately

The Human Rights Watch's new report, "Detained and at Risk: Sexual Abuse and Harassment in United States Immigration Detention," demonstrates the critical need for protection from sexual abuse within immigration detention. The report details various incidents and allegations of abuse, the frequency of which is largely unknown. One of these incidents occurred in 2007, when a trafficking victim was sexually assaulted in a Florida jail with which Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a contract to rent bed space for immigration detainees.  Women detained on criminal charges who were housed in the same dormitory assaulted the victim while she was partially incapacitated by prescribed sedatives. Later, in 2008, five women detained at the Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas were assaulted when a guard entered their rooms in the detention center infirmary. Assuring them that he was acting under the orders of a physician, the guard told the women to undress and then proceeded to touch intimate parts of their bodies.

Data collected on these type of incidents is highly erroneous, because it typically excludes detention facilities not run exclusively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Additionally, victims face fear of reporting abuse from the very people in charge of their deportation.

In recent proposals by ICE, the agency has stated their intention to address this issue. Yet, in their report, Human Rights Watch emphasize that action must not be limited to ICE’s recommendations, but must be taken swiftly to enforce legally binding detention standards in all immigration detention facilities.

Key recommendations of the report include:

 

To the Department of Homeland Security -

• Institute legally binding detention standards applicable across all types of immigration detention facilities.
• Appoint a Prison Rape Elimination Act coordinator.
• Publish information on reported incidents of sexual assault.

To Immigration and Customs Enforcement -

• Ensure that reports of sexual abuse are thoroughly investigated.
• Improve the monitoring of compliance with detention standards by detention facilities.
• Expedite implementation of the detention standard on preventing and responding to sexual assault and abuse across all facilities holding ICE detainees.
• Require detention centers to facilitate on-site access for local community providers of support services for sexual assault survivors.
• Standardize procedures for ensuring access to appropriate relief measures for victims, including release from detention and visas to remain in the United States and assist law enforcement.
• Require detention facilities to have reasonable suspicion of infractions before conducting pat-down searches of detainees.
• Ensure that detainees are fully informed about their rights with respect to sexual assault, abuse, and harassment.

To the Department of Justice:

• Issue regulations based on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission's recommendations without delay.
• Review the department's experience in prosecuting sexual assault and abuse in immigration detention with a view to improving procedures and prosecution rates.

To the U.S. Congress -

• Demand disclosure of ICE records related to sexual assault, abuse, and harassment in  detention.
• Pass legislation setting standards for detention conditions.

The prevalence of sexual assault crimes within the criminal justice system stands in sharp contrast to the intentions of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was designed specifically to educate law enforcement as well as other professionals about sexual assault. The VAWA, which Legal Momentum helped to draft and pass, provides funds to educate medical professionals, victim advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. Our National Judicial Education Program (NJEP) is targeted at educating judges about sexual assault and we have produced an abundance of materials on understanding and addressing sexual violence. Additionally, the Immigrant Women Program specifically addresses issues facing immigrant women and their families, including wrongful detention and separation of families. The perpetration of sexual assault by officials themselves is a fundamental human rights abuse that must not be tolerated. Human Rights Watch’s recommendations are a critical step towards ensuring the safety of all individuals, regardless of their citizenship, within the detention system.

Learn more about Legal Momentum's National Judicial Education Program.

 

Learn more about Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program.

Read Human Rights Watch’s new report "Detained and at Risk: Sexual Abuse and Harassment in United States Immigration Detention."

Stereotypical Myths About Working Women Hurt Relationships, Children, and Jobs

Sometimes, despite hard facts indicating otherwise, media outlets insist on propagating sexist stereotypes. Often, the relationship between a woman’s home life and her career is said to be an irreconcilable tension in which both the family and the woman suffer. Caryl Rivers confronts this myth in a recent article in Women's eNews entitled "Smart Women Take Heart: Your Love Life Is Fine," which sites a New York Times article by Camille Paglia which asserts that successful women are out of touch with their sexuality and unhappy in their personal lives. Paglia’s argument falls in line with those of countless others in the media who have advanced the notion that successful women are intimidating to men and thus less likely to marry. As their success increases, the myth says, their chance of marriage decreases.

Yet Rivers argues that these assertions are both inaccurate and sexist, and blatantly ignore research that proves just the opposite. She sites a study done by Professors Betsy Stevenson and Justin Wolfers of the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, which asked over 50,000 men and women since 1972 "How happy are you, on a scale of 1 to 3?" The study analyzed the results in relation to the individuals' different domains of life, including whether they were single, married, employed, etc. and found virtually no differences between men and women’s happiness. Instead of discussing the true results of the survey, the media seized upon the marginal differences, warping them into something of bigger significance than they actually were.

Similarly, the media circus around successful women’s marriage chances were all based on a widely outdated survey – one questioning men and women born in 1921, meaning those individuals are now in their 80’s. And the notion that successful women are “sexless grinds”? Also false. One study by Janet Hyde at University of Wisconsin-Madison's surveyed 500 couples, and found that both men and women reported higher levels of sexual satisfaction when both had successful careers.

Along with these widely spread lies about working women is the myth that two parent households are better at raising children than single parent households. But now a Department of Justice report issued by its Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has challenged this myth. The report examines the old studies used to support this notion, finding that the old studies "only compared single mother households with those with both parents present, were extremely misleading, since they ignored other household types, specifically those where the father was raising children without the mother."

In contrast to these misleading findings, the report shows that children raised by single parent fathers are actually much more likely to become delinquents than those raised by single mothers. The second worse delinquency outcomes appear among children raised by their father and a stepmother. "Thus it is a complete distortion to claim that single parent mothers cause delinquency, or that mothers are worse parents than fathers, when biological fathers were far worse, whether living on their own or with a stepmother."

These theories must be debunked for exactly what they are – stereotypical and sexist. They do nothing to advance the conditions of women or their families, and instead succumb to a backwards conception of what it means to be a working woman. Most strikingly, they completely belie hard facts set forth by research. Indeed, "don't expect these facts to spoil the media's love affair with the notion of a high-achieving woman sacrificing her sex appeal. Having both love and money is apparently an expectation that only guys are supposed to have," Rivers concludes. We must struggle against these myths, which have real life consequences for women’s relationships, their children, and their jobs.

Read Caryl River’s piece "Smart Women Take Heart: Your Love Life Is Fine."

Read the report "Causes and Correlates of Girls’ Delinquency" issued by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (of the Department of Justice).

The Recession's Disproportionate Impact on Single Mother Unemployment

Single mothers have consistently experienced a far higher rate of unemployment than the population as a whole and this pattern has continued during the economic downturn that began in December 2007.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2007 the average monthly unemployment rate was 8% for single mothers compared to 4.6% for the population as a whole. In 2009, the unemployment rate was 13.6% for single mothers compared to 9.3% for the population as a whole.

The single mother unemployment rate may have grown even higher in 2010. Although the BLS will not publish the single mother unemployment statistic until the end of the year, the Bureau does publish on a monthly basis the unemployment rate for “women who maintain families,” about two-thirds of whom are single mothers. The average monthly unemployment rate for women who maintain families was 11.9% in the first seven months of 2010,compared to 11.5% in 2009.

The economic downturn has also led to an increase in the fraction of employed single mothers who work only part-time from 18% in 2007 to 22% in 2009.

New Report by Legal Momentum Shows TANF Sanctions Commonly and Erroneously Imposed

A new report by Legal Momentum, “The Sanction Epidemic in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program,” examines the serious harm financial sanctions cause recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Our report demonstrates that the sanctions are commonly utilized and imposed erroneously for extremely minor violations, resulting in undeserved hardships for families. Indeed, sanctioned TANF families often report maternal or child hunger, eviction or homelessness, and lack of medical care.

Some sanctions are “partial,” meaning a withholding of some (but not all) of the aid that a family would otherwise receive. Some sanctions are “full family” meaning a withholding of all of the aid that a family would otherwise receive. These sanctions often come as a result of minor violations, including failing to file a document. For example, the report describes the case of “a 43-year-old black woman, living in an emergency shelter and suffering from both shingles and AIDS, who was sanctioned for failing to attend an appointment at the Department of Labor. According to her, when she called the Department of Labor to say she would be 20 minutes late for her appointment she was told it was too late and was sanctioned.”

While sanctions contribute to the sharp reduction in program participation by eligible families, the federal statute incentivizes them, thus offering little hope of future sanction reduction. Full family sanctions have contributed to a decline in program participation from 84% of eligible families in 1995 to 40% of eligible families in 2005, the most recent year for which this information is available. Currently, only about two million families are receiving TANF although probably at least five million families are eligible.

TANF recipients are a disadvantaged and vulnerable population for whom the consequences of sanctions are severe. All are extremely poor. About a third are African-American and about a quarter are Hispanic. Ninety percent of the parents receiving TANF are single mothers, over half with a child below age 6 and over a quarter with a child below age 2. A third of parent recipients have a disability, a substantial portion are domestic violence victims. 40% lack a high school degree and only 3% have a college degree. One quarter of TANF recipient families include a child who has at least one chronic health problem or disability.

Are these really the people that should be further hindered from achieving economic security and independence?

The decline in TANF participation as a result of sanctions has devastating consequences for these individuals. Indeed, a study in twenty cities in fifteen states of mothers who had received TANF in the prior twelve months found that 42% of those who had been sanctioned and 27% of those who had not been sanctioned reported experiencing one or more of the following four hardships: maternal or child hunger; eviction or homelessness; utility shutoff; unable to receive medical care due to cost. Another study of TANF caregivers seeking emergency room treatment for a child in six cities found that compared to children in non-sanctioned families children in sanctioned families had a 30% greater risk of having been previously hospitalized, a 50% greater risk of food insecurity, and a 90% greater risk of being admitted to the hospital at the ER visit.

The Obama Administration has asked Congress to extend TANF’s current legislative authorization until September 30, 2011. When TANF is considered for reauthorization, Congress must look closely at sanction issues. In an assistance program for America’s neediest families, sanctions should be fair and rare. During a time of extreme economic insecurity for millions, needy families should be aided, not hurt, by TANF.

- Read “The Sanction Epidemic in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program” here.

- To learn more about Legal Momentum’s work with TANF, click here.

- To learn more about TANF reauthorization, click here.