Acknowledgments

Human Rights Watch recognizes the bravery and strength of the women who spoke with us for this report, some of whom waited hours or traveled far to speak with researchers, many of whom shared deeply painful and private memories and did so in spite of fears of retaliation, and all of whom participated with the sole incentive of contributing to an effort to ensure the protection of women’s human rights in detention.

We express our most sincere appreciation to the organizations and individuals whose partnership enabled this report to go forward. For their indispensable facilitation of this research in manifold ways, as well as their longstanding advocacy on these issues, we thank the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project, the Legal Aid Society in New York City, and the Capital Area Immigrants Rights Coalition. We also thank the numerous interpreters, private attorneys, activists, and social service providers we spoke with or worked with for their contributions to the research. In addition, we recognize our colleagues at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the National Immigrant Justice Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights First, the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture, Amnesty International-USA, and fellow members of the ICE-NGO working group for their ongoing insight and collaboration.

We wish to thank the Office of Policy and the Office of Detention and Removal Operations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their assistance in arranging our facility visits and for their openness to dialogue on the subject of our research. We also express our gratitude to the ICE Miami, San Antonio, and Phoenix field offices which directly coordinated our facility visits, and to the facility officials and the health personnel who spoke with us for this report.

Meghan Rhoad, researcher in the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, wrote this report on the basis of research conducted by the author, with research support from Janet Walsh, deputy director of the Women’s Rights Division, and Jessica Stern, consultant to the Women’s Right Division. The report was reviewed by Janet Walsh; Nisha Varia, acting deputy director of the Women’s Rights Division; David Fathi, director of the US Program; Alison Parker, deputy director of the US Program; Megan McLemore, researcher in the Health and Human Rights Program; Bill Frelick, director of the Refugee Policy Program; Dinah PoKempner, general counsel, and Joe Saunders, deputy program director. Nina Rabin at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women and Kelleen Corrigan at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center provided comments on draft portions of this report. Human Rights Watch takes full responsibility for the views expressed in this report.

For their assistance with our Freedom of Information Act request, we thank Dinah PoKempner, general counsel to Human Rights Watch; Leslie Platt Zolov, counsel to Human Rights Watch; and Ethan Strell and Catherine Sheehy, of the law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP, for their pro bono counsel.

Emily Allen, Rachel Jacobson, and Clara Presler provided technical and administrative assistance in the research for this report. Daniela Ramirez, Alex Horne, Jose Martinez, Fitzroy Hepkins, and Grace Choi provided production assistance.