Summertime is when many Americans celebrate independence and freedom, both on Juneteenth and on the 4th of July. While parades, flags, picnics, and barbeques encourage us to celebrate independence and freedom, CAASE thinks that now is a particularly good time to declare that all of us, including immigrants and folks without legal status, deserve the specific right to live in a way that is free and independent of sexual harm. 

Yearning for Freedom 

In the United States, there is a long history of claiming pride that we are a nation of immigrants, a true melting pot. On the heels of Juneteenth, LGBTQ+ Pride Month and Immigrant Heritage Month in June, and the Fourth of July just last week, we are thinking about freedom in this country—we are asking both who gets to be free, and what do we want to be free from? 

We know that many people are losing their ability to live freely without fear of ICE raids tearing apart their families. We know that some are losing the ability to call the U.S. a place where they can escape violence and find peace and their ability to freely use public bathrooms that match their gender. We know that fewer people have the freedom to serve in our military, to receive gender-affirming care, or to access, and afford, reproductive and sexual health care, without having to travel to other states. At CAASE, we’ve always been concerned about who is, and who is not, free to live their lives without being vulnerable to sex trafficking and exploitation. This month, we are thinking especially about the particular ways in which freedom from sexual harm is more elusive for folks who are immigrants or lack documentation, than for most. 

Immigrants face disproportionate sexual harm 

Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, face a variety of challenges in this country, including being disproportionately subjected to crimes and violations involving sexual harm. And despite research which consistently documents that immigrants and folks without documentation engage in crime less often than citizens who were born in the states, they are being unfairly blamed and scapegoated for a plethora of problems in our society. 

Immigrants experience sexual violence at an alarming rate. For asylum seekers coming to the U.S., the threat of gender-based violence (GBV) increases. Surviving Deterrence: How Us Asylum Deterrence Policies Normalize Gender-based Violence, states, “Border closures and expulsions increasingly force migrants to rely on precarious housing conditions that make them more susceptible to various forms of GBV”. 

Not only do government policies sometimes fail to protect immigrants, but individual government employees sometimes commit harm themselves. In ICE detention centers, detainees report sexual abuse. Close to 200 allegations of abuse by government officials against detainees in these spaces have been reported since 2007. Cruel and unusual. 

It’s not just the journey to a new country that puts this group at risk. The risk remains high once they are here, too. Women farmworkers too often face sexual harassment on the job. It’s estimated that almost 3 out of 4 farmworkers in the U.S. are immigrants, with research documenting that as many as 80% of women farmworkers experienced sexual harassment. Organizations such as Justice for Migrant Women and their Bandana Project have been shedding light on the prevalence of sexual harm towards migrant women for years.

Getting help is harder for immigrant survivors 

For immigrants, getting help after surviving sexual harm can be especially challenging, especially if they are not fluent in English or if they are living in a community where service agencies know little about their culture or country of origin.  

Reporting violence and accessing services is more challenging for this community than for non-immigrants. One major factor all undocumented immigrants must consider is whether the brave act of reporting a crime against them will trigger the government to seek to deport them! Most victims of sexual harm are uncomfortable reaching out to law enforcement, but folks without legal status face exceptional risks when they are deciding what to do. 

For undocumented immigrants facing violence from their partners, whether it is domestic violence, sexual violence, or sex trafficking, the Tahrirh Justice Center reports that abusers often use their victim’s lack of legal status “as a tool to control their victims, threatening to destroy documents, controlling access to documents like passports, or failing to file for legal status for their immigrant spouse” with 72% of abusive partners using their partners legal immigration status as a way to control them. 

Getting help can be complicated for any survivor because of the stigma around sexual violence, not to mention the emotional toll it can take to come forward and tell their story. Nobody should face even more logistical roadblocks on top of these existing challenges.  

A future free from sexual harm 

So once again, during our annual celebrations of freedom, independence, and in the midst of ongoing debates about what the U.S. can and should provide for its residents, we dream of and work towards a more accepting and supportive America – one that is free from sexual harm, no matter who you are, where you come from, or where you’re going. Where services and resources are accessible, and our culture is sympathetic and supportive of survivors seeking healing. 

Together, we can declare that we all have an inalienable right to be free from sexual violation, and together, we can work towards combating sexual violence for immigrants and other vulnerable groups and strive towards a community that takes better care of us and our freedom, so that we can be free to take better care of each other. 

This piece was published on July 2, 2025. It was authored by Lizzy Springer and edited by Kaethe Morris Hoffer. Learn more about our staff here.