The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) is a leading voice in the movement to rebuild the U.S. asylum system and expand access to protection for women, children, LGBTQ+ people, and others seeking refuge. Our Policy & Advocacy team serves as a critical resource on asylum to policymakers, journalists, and the public. We provide rapid analysis of policy developments and offer practical recommendations for decision-makers at all levels of government, advising our leaders on how to ensure the United States lives up to its legal and moral commitments to people fleeing persecution.
This analysis unpacks the Inter-American Court’s Advisory Opinion on the Climate Emergency and Human Rights, highlighting key findings on cross-border displacement and offering recommendations to enhance protection and support advocacy.
Submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food outlining how climate change, land dispossession, and extractive policies in Honduras are driving hunger, displacement, and violence, and undermining the rights of Indigenous and rural communities.
Petición presentada al Relator Especial de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Derecho a la Alimentación, en el que se expone cómo el cambio climático, el despojo de tierras y las políticas extractivas en Honduras están provocando hambre, desplazamiento y violencia, y socavando los derechos de las comun
This factsheet outlines the legal framework, limits, and procedural safeguards for U.S. third country removals. It highlights compliance concerns and distinctions from safe third country agreements.
This submission details the US–El Salvador agreement transferring 288 people to indefinite, incommunicado detention at CECOT, El Salvador’s mega-prison, and urges the UN Special Rapporteur on migrants to demand due process and transparency.
CGRS submitted input to the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, exemplifying how several U.S. externalization policies and enforcement cooperation undermine refugee protections and violate the rights of those fleeing persecution and harm.
This article looks at the pernicious impacts of opacity in asylum decisionmaking in U.S. immigration courts and CGRS's newly launched Immigration Judge Dashboard available to advocates.
CGRS submitted input to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing for his report on land governance, land management, and the right to adequate housing, highlighting systemic disregard and erosion of collective land ownership rights in Honduras.
We submitted our analysis of the government’s interim final rule reducing the number of BIA members. Our comment urges the Department of Justice to rescind the rule in its entirety.
We provided our analysis of the planned additional border barriers and urged that they be halted.