New Website Helps Undocumented Immigrant Women Exercise Their Rights

By Kenrya Rankin Mar 09, 2016

In a time when immigration raids and xenophobic rhetoric dominate the news, a new website aims to help the estimated 5.2 million undocumented immigrant women living in the U.S. understand their rights and connect with legal resources.

StepFoward is an outshoot of the We Belong Together campaign, which is co-anchored by the National Domestic Workers Alliance and the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. It launched yesterday (March 8) in honor of International Women’s Day, and it was developed with input from undocumented women. The site features an interactive guide that details users’ rights, the latest immigration news, a directory of nonprofit organizations that offer free and low-cost legal services and personal stories from immigrants. It’s currently available in English and Spanish, with plans to add additional languages.

“Three-quarters of immigrants are women and children. That’s why we have a stories section on the website to hear the stories and see the faces of women who are impacted by this issue,” Andrea Cristina Mercado, We Belong Together campaign co-chair, told NBC News. “We’ve been really concerned by the hateful rhetoric in the presidential debate, and that’s why we think that now, more than ever, it’s important to lift up the voices and stories of immigrant women and humanize the issue.”