In light of the TimesUp and MeToo movements, an increasing amount of media and popular attention is being paid to rape and sexual assault than almost ever before; however, some women are still slipping through the cracks of hyperawareness, namely immigrant women. According to a Fusion Investigation, 80 percent of Central American women and girls are raped at some point during their journey to cross the border into the United States.

For so-called “illegal immigrants,” the path to entering the United States is fraught enough without the added risk of rape, but many of them are forced to face that reality in attempting to better their lives and opportunities. According to Teresa Rodriguez, regional director of the UN Development Fund for Women, “Rape has become so prevalent that many women take birth control pills or shots before setting out to ensure they won’t get pregnant.” Some immigrant women even consider rape the price they pay for being able to cross the border. Rape is so common on this path that, according to local sources, the “coyotes” who transport people illegally across the border have taken to tying an article of the victim’s clothing to a tree (a “rape tree”).

Even immigrant women who come into the country “legally” are frequently unsafe. In an essay titled “When Sexual Autonomy Isn’t Enough,” Miriam Ziola Pérez explains how victims of human trafficking can, and too often do, experience sexual violence in many different scenarios: Women can be “brought into this country without documentation and held captive by their traffickers, forced to work for little or no money and in substandard conditions; international marriages (also known as bride trafficking), where women are paired up via international marriage broker agencies and then abused by their American partners; and women’s being brought from their country of origin as domestic workers, and then mistreated by their employers.” In all these cases, the women (the victims) are dependent on their abusers to even be in this country. This power imbalance not only facilitates further abuse but also makes it next to impossible for women (and children) to leave these toxic situations.

The problem with traditional attempts to combat rape in the US is that they center on individualized education and don’t stretch far enough to accommodate the needs of immigrant women. Teaching women to avoid “risky” behaviors, encouraging men to respect the word “no,” and even the newer attempt to reclaim female sexual autonomy simply doesn’t work for women in these kinds of situations because their precarious socioeconomic status depends on being in the United States, which in turn requires them to depend on men who take advantage of their vulnerability.

Entering the country without proper documentation or with a dependence on your abuser means you can’t report rape or violence without fear of deportation or criminal charges against yourself. On the off chance you theoretically can report, the fear of retribution for exposing a larger crime operation’s men persuades some immigrant women to not report anyway.

The institutional structure of immigration policy in the United States, especially for Latina women, makes it next to impossible to avoid these kinds of situations and even harder to report. There exists a racist, classist, and xenophobic quota system in U.S. immigration policy that limits the number of visas available. The number available to Latin American immigrants is extremely low, while foreign economic policies (such as NAFTA) have only deteriorated the economic conditions in Central America. This deadly combination has increased the demand to enter the United States while simultaneously making it immensely more difficult for Latin American immigrants to gain legal access to the country.

Despite the bleak conditions and the heartbreakingly small amount of attention paid to the sexual abuse of immigrant women, there are things that can be done, even by people who live nowhere near the Mexican-U.S. border. The National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights, led by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH), and the Women’s Refugee Commission, provide access to crucial resources, information, and contacts for immigrant women and their allies (in both English and Spanish!).

Moreover, NLIRH works to place the power of reform in the hands of immigrant women themselves by working with groups of women in immigrant-heavy communities, as an effective way to make sure the actual needs and voices of immigrant women are not lost in the uproar of politics. In 2008, NAPAWF published “Rights to Survival and Mobility: An Anti-Trafficking Activist’s Agenda,” which provides a guide for grassroots activists to actively combat human trafficking in their regions.

If you want to help the women and children (80 percent!) who suffer rape and sexual violence as the expense to enter this country, you can donate to any of the organizations above or a local nonprofit working to combat human trafficking. You can also donate your time and/or money to an organization working to lighten severe immigration restrictions, such as those compiled in list form by Attorney Carl Shusterman, to start change on the national or state level. Educate yourself on immigration issues and harmful Latina/o stereotypes. Just by reading this post, you’ve already taken a small step. Take one more and soon you’ll be advocating for the countless women and girls who have fallen through the cracks of the feminist movement for decades.

If you’re in the United States and need help, information, or resources on human trafficking, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1 (888) 373-7888. If you need resources, help, or information about rape, sexual violence, and/or domestic abuse, visit http://www.ncdsv.org/ncd_linksimmigration.html and find an organization for your case.

Si se encuentra en los Estados Unidos y necesita ayuda, informaciòn o recursos, communíquese con el Centro Nacional de Recursos para la Tra ta de Peronsas al

1 (888) 373-7888. Si necesita recursos, ayuda o información sobre violaciones, violencia sexual y / o abuso doméstico, visite http://www.ncdsv.org/ncd_linksimmigration.html y busque una organización para su caso.