U.S. Women Without Borders

I don't know how many of you are aware the group exists as it's kind of new. Right now they are focusing on trafficking of women and girls and the fact there is a 1 year time limit for minor's to apply for asylum. There are so many reasons why it is wrong (not to mention limiting) to only give minors 1 year to apply for asylum after they escaped from their traffickers.

1) If a young woman has been living on the streets for that year, how and where would she find out about her chance at asylum? Will there be huge posters throughtout the city to inform them? We know the Phillipines and several other Asian cultures are big on trafficking, yet there are no advertisements to inform women and girls of their choices and rights.

The movie Human Trafficking, which was on Lifetime late last year, detailed what human trafficking was like in the U.S. when Russian girls were brought here to be prostitutes (slaves).

2) What if the young woman is brought to a country other than her own, such as from Russia to the U.S., where the language spoken is not familiar? If she doesn't know English very well, how will she know she can apply for asylum within that first year of breaking free from the trafficking "trade"? How will she know where to go as we have a completely different government going on.

3) For the common sense person, how many 16 year olds know what the laws of their state are, much less their country? Ask your random U.S. teenager and I'm sure many would have no idea who our president, vice president or Secretary of Defense is. Many don't realize we have a state and federal congress, how many members are allotted from their state, much less the name of those people.

Limiting minor women to only 1 year is constricting and asks a lot out of those who just went through hell. Girls within the "trade" are getting younger and younger which means they began totally unaware of the world around them only to be thrown into having sex with adult men who are, at times, old enough to be their father.

If this whole thing disgusts you as it does me, please sign their petition. Every signature helps and you never know when someone is going to actually listen.