From Jails to Emergency Shelters: Dismantling Unconstitutional Border Patrol Detention

Abstract

D.A. fled Honduras to escape domestic violence. Her ex-partner had become involved with one of the violent street gangs that terrorize the country. He beat her, raped her, and threatened to kidnap their six-year-old son and force him to sell drugs for the gangs.Sexual violence, domestic abuse, and femicide are widespread in Honduras.3 Police typically do very little to intervene on behalf of women experiencing domestic abuse, and street gangs operate with impunity throughout the region.4 Like so many people in Central America living under the constant threat of violence with no hope of protection from the authorities, D.A. decided that the only way she could escape her persecutor was to leave the region.