Where children are prisoners and crayons are contraband.

May 16, 2016August 8, 2022

Carmen Rey

As an immigration lawyer, a week of immersion in immigration and refugee law is a dream, but as a human, I dread the crying children.

The Central American refugee crisis has sent tens of thousands of people, primarily from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, through Mexico and across the US border. These refugees, the vast majority of them women and children, are escaping extreme violence and abuse in their homes and communities. Their path to safety in the US is littered with danger.

For many who make it, another brutal reality awaits – family detention in facilities across the southwest US, and deportation back to the danger they left behind.

Many of the refugees are victims of gender-based violence, and Sanctuary’s attorneys are eager to help. Carmen Rey, Deputy Director of Sanctuary’s Immigration Intervention Project is in Texas this week to provide legal service support to detained mothers and children at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, which houses up to 2,400 detained immigrant families.

This is the first of three posts Carmen will be sharing from Dilley. Check back throughout the week to follow her journey and hear about the mothers and children she defends.

As an immigration lawyer, the prospect of a week of complete immersion in immigration and refugee law is a dream, but as a human, I dread the crying children.

Starting in 2014, in response to the influx of refugee mothers and children from Central America arriving at the US border in search of protection, private prison subcontractors working with the Department of Homeland Security created a series of detention facilities in isolated areas across the southern US.

In these jails, these refugees are held far from their families and from legal resources, and in conditions that sometimes violate basic standards of decency. As a lawyer, that all makes me furious, and so the prospect of helping them fight against their continued detention is energizing.

But what scares me is that, because of the arbitrary rules of these jails, there is little we can do to comfort the children.

The innocuously named South Texas Family Residential Center is one of these jails. Located in Dilley, Texas, over an hour away from the nearest city, San Antonio, it is one of the largest civil detention facilities in the US, and it is where I will be volunteering my time for the next week.

During these seven days, in a warren of small rooms in a trailer in the middle of south Texas, volunteer attorneys and legal assistants from across the US, will spend long days meeting with hundreds of refugee mothers and their children. Guided by the on-the-ground expertise of the CARA Project, we will work to prevent these families from being immediately deported back to places where they face severe violence and even death.

In these rooms, we will ask these families the horrors that brought them to our borders, and get the details that allow us to help them win their freedom. And that will ease my fury and make me proud to be a lawyer.

But in the telling of these horrors, the mothers will cry. And when children see their mothers cry, the children will cry. But because these children are prisoners of our government, the attorneys and legal assistant volunteers can’t so much as give these children pack of crayons to distract them.

In the South Texas Residential Center, children are prisoners and crayons are contraband.

And so, watching the children cry, I will feel my eyes fill with tears and feel powerless to help a young child stop crying. And as a human being, that is what scares me.

Carmen Rey is an attorney and the Deputy Director of Sanctuary’s Immigration Intervention Project.

Prostitution is a root cause of gender violence. Let’s end it now.

May 11, 2016

Great Believer

Why put an end to prostitution? Far from being a job, prostitution is exploitative, harmful, and perpetuates gender inequality.

This week the New York Times Magazine featured the cover story “Should Prostitution Be a Crime?”

The article suggests that people in prostitution are helped by the wholesale decriminalization of the sex trade, including pimping and sex buying.

This position flies in the face of our work assisting thousands of survivors of sex trafficking. Far from being a job like any other, prostitution is almost invariably a condition of gender exploitation and frequently a violent and lethally dangerous form of abuse inextricably connected to sex trafficking.

Each day we work with survivors who share their histories of abuse and exploitation in the sex trade. Many of them were lured into it by pimps and traffickers, most as children. Others have ended up in prostitution when conditions of extreme poverty and prior sexual abuse leave them traumatized and with few options.

Ms. Bazelon’s omission of the experience of these victims, almost exclusively women and girls of color and undocumented immigrants, and her focus instead on the comparatively privileged, adult, mostly white “sex worker,” creates a falsely benign picture of the world’s most brutal industry.

Also omitted is the fact that prostituted and trafficked girls and women rarely reap the economic benefits of their exploitation–and by the time their economic value in the sex trade has expired are with rare exceptions physically, psychologically, and economically devastated.

Our clients’ experiences are the basis of our conviction that commercial sexual exploitation is one of the root causes of gender inequality and that we need to eliminate it, not simply try to mitigate the harm suffered by its victims.

People in prostitution should not be criminalized and must be provided with services to get out of poverty and escape exploitation. That’s why Sanctuary is growing our Economic Empowerment Program so that even more survivors can find a path to living wage, career-track work.

We contend, however, that when we fail to hold traffickers, pimps and buyers accountable, the sex trafficking industry continues to expand, destroying the lives of new generations of victims.

We are saddened that the voices of our clients were not included in this article. The author rejected our offer to share their experience with her. We were not alone. Many of our partner organizations, who have vast experience serving prostituted and trafficked people, were not consulted by Ms. Bazelon.

At Sanctuary, we believe that failing to hold traffickers, pimps and buyers accountable, is not progressive but harmful and dangerous to the women, men, and children we serve.

We believe that they deserve safe harbor and a world without exploitation.

These five volunteers are leaving their mark on Sanctuary

April 26, 2016April 26, 2016

Sanctuary for Families

Find out how they’re making a difference.

Every year, over 2,000 volunteers make it possible for Sanctuary to provide life-saving service to survivors of gender violence throughout New York. On May 5th, we’ll honor five longtime volunteers and celebrate all of our incredible volunteer support at our annual Pillars of Change Volunteer Recognition.

RSVP to join us at this special event, and learn more about how our five honorees are making a difference at Sanctuary by clicking through the links below.

Doreen Jackman: Seamstress, tailor, volunteer, friend.

Doreen keeps our Butterfly Boutique in shape.

Joel Kurtzberg: 19 years of dedication.

Joel tutors to make a difference.

Kate Bieber Ogg: Volunteering to end gender violence.

Kate educates her family and community about Sanctuary’s work.

Anne-Cecile Raphael: a multilingual, multi-talented volunteer.

Anne-Cecile volunteers her legal and language skills.

Hilda Sanchez: a volunteer, and a part of the team.

Hilda helps Sanctuary Clinical Administration staff stay organized.

The African Girls’ Leadership Group is cultivating a new generation of advocates

April 25, 2016April 26, 2016

Sanctuary for Families

Together, these girls are tackling FGM and gender inequality in their communities.

“I’m willing to go out and speak. Usually I’m nervous when I speak, but you have all inspired me,” says Fatoumata, standing proudly before a room packed with peers, advocates and survivors.

“I know we as a group can make change when we go at it together.”

Fatoumata is a graduate of Sanctuary’s inaugural African Girls’ Leadership Group, a group that engages young African girls in advocating to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in their communities.

Eight young women and teenage girls graduated during a ceremony last week, where Fatoumata and others spoke. All of the graduates have parents who immigrated from Africa, or were themselves born in Africa, with four different West African countries represented among the group.

Growing advocates from the community

The African Girls’ Leadership Group was founded by Sanctuary counselor Mariama Diallo, who was born in Guinea, West Africa. In Guinea, Mariama says, more than 93% of women undergo FGM.

In 2004, Mariama came to the United States, and began working at Sanctuary, where she did outreach among US-born girls in African communities in New York. “I was shocked to realize that FGM was happening here,” says Mariama.

Mariama has long been an advocate to end FGM in the US. But in recent years, as the children of her clients at Sanctuary grew up and learned about their mothers’ experiences, Mariama started to wonder how she could engage these bright young women in her advocacy.

After all, says Mariama, “the people who are most closely connected to an issue are the best to speak out against the issue – and this issue disproportionately impacts young African girls.”

Learning to make people listen

Over the course of three months, the girls gathered weekly to discuss their shared experiences of growing up in the US, but remaining closely tied to the traditions and culture of their or their parents’ home countries.

Everything was on the table, from the anxiety of awaiting college acceptance to the challenge of speaking to a respected and beloved male family member about why FGM is wrong.

Each week, guest speakers trained the girls in a new area of advocacy, including public speaking, using media, and legal aspects. “My favorite day was when we spoke with the Senior Trial Attorney from the Justice Department,” says Adama, age 16.

“I learned how to approach people about FGM effectively,” she adds. “You can’t immediately confront everyone with the brutal realities of FGM – you have to take different approaches to be the most effective and get people to listen.”

Carrying the message to the community

Aisha is 18, and about to graduate high school.

Despite her busy schedule, she found time to join the African Girls’ Leadership Group and was inspired to take action.

“When I was young, my mother wanted to ensure my sister and me never had to undergo FGM. She came to Sanctuary for help,” recounts Aisha.

“Today, even though most if the kids in my high school are from West Africa, I don’t think they are very educated about the issue of FGM. I’m planning to create a documentary that shares the stories of FGM survivors. FGM is such a traumatizing event, when someone speaks about it you can see it in their eyes. Words alone aren’t enough – I think video is a much more effective way to really show people what FGM is.”

Aisha is looking forward to attending Bryn Mawr next year, where she’ll study computer science. This summer, she’ll be working and getting ready for school – but she still wants to dedicate time to her advocacy.

“Being part of this group has really helped me to think outside the box about advocacy,” she says. “What keeps me going is knowing that this isn’t just for me, but could make a difference for someone else.”

Setting goals, making change

The African Girls’ Leadership Group doesn’t end with graduation. While some girls will be moving on to college, others are still in high school and are excited to push their agenda forward while growing the group to include other girls.

They’ve also created a list of goals for the future. The advocates hope to have a meeting with the New York City Mayor’s Office this summer, to talk about their idea for a city-wide ad campaign calling attention to FGM.

They want the opportunity to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2017, and are willing to participate in and speak at related events and panels.

They also want to do more outreach directly within their communities. The advocates think holding a free hair-braiding event at a local salon would be a great opportunity to reach mothers and families.

While braiding their daughters’ hair, the advocates could speak with the mothers about the dangers of FGM – and perhaps prevent yet another girl from undergoing the dangerous procedure.

“I’d like to see the group grow so we can inspire more girls, from all different places, to take part,” says Adama.

Scroll down to view more photos from the graduation!