Join our network of advocates defending the rights of all survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking, and gender-based abuses for access to life-saving protections.

ais STATEMENT: Fear and Silence - AIS Denounces Passage of Reconciliation Bill as Threat to Survivor Safety

Congress just passed the harmful reconciliation package which ramps up extreme funding levels for immigration enforcement, establishes new financial penalties on humanitarian immigration protections, and cuts off critical safety net programs for asylees, refugees, as well as survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking.

By pouring billions of dollars to immigration detention – including the detention of families – and imposing unprecedented fees on women, children, and families seeking humanitarian protection, while cutting off access to health care for survivors, Congress has inflicted deep and lasting harm – choosing an agenda of cruelty over an agenda of safety and justice and for all.

See statements by leadership at the AIS Co-Chair organizations.

ais SURVEY: Fear and Silence - 2025 Insights from Advocates for Immigrant Survivors

On June 18, 2025, AIS released the results of a nationwide survey of advocates and attorneys assessing how changes to federal immigration policies are impacting the help seeking behaviors of immigrant survivors, including their willingness to engage with law enforcement when they are a victim of a crime. What we heard was clear and alarming: immigrant survivors are more afraid than ever to seek help from the police or the courts. 

One of the stark findings reveals that 76 percent of advocates reported that immigrant survivors have concerns about contacting the police to report domestic violence and sexual assault. “Most of the immigrant survivors that I currently work with are fearful to leave their homes, drive, or be in public spaces as these are all ways that they could be picked up by ICE,” said one advocate in the survey. 

ais STATEMENT: What it really means to keep America safe

This administration’s call for increased militarization of law enforcement and retribution against cities and states with sanctuary policies comes on the heels of increased threats to services and protections for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, putting immigrant survivors and their families at risk of falling through the cracks.

Immigrant survivors know that this is not what safety looks like. Safety means being protected from harm and is rooted in ensuring survivors have the support they need. 

Safety is not accomplished by attacking sanctuary jurisdictions that choose to build community trust with local law enforcement or by ramping up increasingly aggressive and militarized policing methods.

Safety means access for all, because when one survivor fears asking for help, all communities become less safe. 

STATEMENT: AIS Stands with Jennifer Vasquez Sura

We are rooted in survivor centered and survivor led principles of advocacy. In this moment, that means trusting Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Ábrego Garcia, to make the best decisions for herself and her family and to follow her lead.

She has made her position clear. She wants her husband home.

The administration has weaponized a decision made by Jennifer Vasquez Sura to seek a temporary protection order in 2021 in order to justify her husband’s illegal kidnapping and indefinite incarceration. Nothing in Kilmar Ábrego Garcia’s history gives the government permission or an excuse to violate his right to due process or legitimize his illegal removal from the U.S.

Let us be clear: Our movement does not advocate for the erosion of due process or the mass expulsion of immigrants as a solution to violence against women in this country. This is not what makes communities safer.