It has been known for years that undocumented girls and women who are making the trek from Mexico to the United States are being subjected to epidemic sexual violence.
But Donald Trump’s assertion that Mexico is sending rapists to the United States has caused a media firestorm in both countries.
Trump was fired by NBC this week and both NBC and Univision dumped the Miss Universe Pageant, that nauseating display of 50’s era sexist cheesecake. Few would argue that the tone of Trump’s statements were racist.
And yet it is ironic that Trump’s blundering assertion seems to have garnered far more attention than the actual plight of Mexican girls and women who are being raped on their journeys to the United States (even if their rapists do not actually cross the border into America).
Maybe now Mexico and the United States will do something about the real problem of sexual violence against migrant girls and women?
A Fusion investigation , which was reported last fall by the Huffington Post, stated that 80 percent of women and girls crossing into the U.S. by way of Mexico are raped during their journey. Fusion is a television channel that reflects a collaboration of Disney/ABC and Univision.
In 2010, Amnesty International reported that 60 percent of migrant girls and women suffered sexual violence at the hands of criminal gangs, people traffickers, other migrants or corrupt officials. According to Amnesty International, “It is a widely held view – shared by local and international NGOs and health professionals working with migrant women – that as many as six in 10 migrant women and girls are raped.” The rape victims are afraid to report the crime for fear they will be deported.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that in FY 2011, the number of Mexican children apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was 13,000, rising to 15,709 in FY 2012 and reaching 18,754 in FY 2013.
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