Because sexual violence cuts across all racial, ethnic, age, religious, gender, and socioeconomic lines, BARCC is grateful to collaborate with other community organizations in our work to end sexual violence through healing and social change. We’re thrilled this year to recognize one of our partners, the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) with the Beacon of Change Award at our Virtual Walk for Change Sunday, April 26.
Our Beacon of Change Award recognizes an individual leader or organization that has “demonstrated an unwavering commitment to supporting survivors of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse.”
As an organization that works to protect and support immigrants and refugees—populations that are at heightened risk of sexual assault—living in Massachusetts, MIRA has done just that.
MIRA’s work to disseminate information on all matters impacting immigrants at the local and national level is critical; BARCC relies on MIRA’s weekly bulletin and policy analyses to inform our staff on issues that might impact survivors working with BARCC.
The organization is also leading the campaign to pass the Safe Communities Act, important legislation that would enable vulnerable immigrants and refugees to interact with our legal system and other local government entities regardless of their immigration status. The bill prohibits law enforcement and court personnel from asking an individual their immigration status unless required by law. This provision is key to enabling sexual assault victims and survivors who are immigrants to report crimes without fear of being separated from their families and detained, and ensuring that perpetrators of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse are brought to justice. BARCC is proud to be among the many organizations to have endorsed this legislation.
Additionally, MIRA actively opposed the “public charge rule,” which assesses immigrants applying for a green card based on income, age, health, family status, education, and English language skills. The rule allows the federal government to reject applications from anyone deemed likely to rely on public assistance programs to meet their basic needs. It is especially cruel as it forces vulnerable immigrants, who often struggle financially as they seek to establish themselves in a new country, to choose between accessing critical safety net programs and services or maintaining their legal status in the United States. And for low-income survivors of sexual assault, access to these safety nets—food stamps, housing assistance, and Medicaid, for instance—are often what makes it possible to escape abusive relationships or unsafe living environments.
MIRA continues to educate and support the immigrant community about the public charge rule since it was implemented earlier this year.
Similarly, MIRA has been working to protect undocumented immigrants (commonly called Dreamers), who were brought to the U.S. as infants by parents or family and are now at risk for being deported from the only country they have ever known as home. MIRA has fought the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which allowed Dreamers the chance to build a life in the U.S. without fear of deportation. As we await a Supreme Court decision to determine DACA’s fate, MIRA is also working to pass the federal Dream and Promise Act, which would offer a path to permanent citizenship for Dreamers.
Removing these important protections for undocumented residents would undermine their ability to report sexual violence to the police, especially since it’s not unusual for perpetrators to threaten a survivor who is undocumented with exposing their immigration status to keep them from reporting the assault. (Survivors should know that BARCC works to provide a sanctuary for immigrant survivors of sexual violence. Our counselors, hotline volunteers, and staff do not ask about immigration status, and our services are held to the highest standard of confidentiality.)
BARCC is proud to honor an organization that is so committed to protecting and supporting our immigrant and refugee communities, who contribute so much to our society yet remain so vulnerable to sexual assault and other traumatic situations due to their lack of legal recognition.
We hope you’ll join us on Sunday, April 26, as we celebrate MIRA’s vital work on behalf of immigrant and refugee survivors. And while the COVID-19 shutdown is forcing us to move the Walk for Change from the outdoors to a virtual setting, it will remain an inspiring, empowering event that will combine livestreaming, pre-recorded messages, and fun online activities. And it will help us raise funds for BARCC’s free services and also help meet the immediate evolving needs of survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as food and housing insecurities.
Register here, and we’ll see you on the (virtual) street!