United States-Mexico Border Militarized Rape Research Paper

Name:
Institution Affiliation:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
United States-Mexico Border Militarized Rape
Introduction
Each year, hundreds of individuals try crossing to the United States through the Southwestern. Most of these border crossers come from El Salvador and Mexico and they face a distressed journey filled barbarity and insecurities especially for the women. The legal status of the immigrants prevents them from reporting these misdeeds to the relevant agencies for the fear of deportation. Statistics do not show the scale of the brutality against women and any other types of inhuman activities that occur.
It is important to note that most of the violence against women immigrants are promoted by government officials at the borders. For example, the crimes committed by Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents are not a new phenomenon. Since the early 1990s, Human Rights Watch has been documenting such cases of abuse while persistently calling on the United States government to rectify the issue. This paper will evaluate and explain the problem of militarized border sexual assault at the United States-Mexico border and examine the factors contributing to this problem.
Many young girls and women migrating to the United States from Mexico have suffered sexual assault from the officials at the United States-Mexico border. Ordinarily, individuals who migrate from Mexico lacking the required legal documents get into illegal dealings to facilitate their entry into the United States. The perpetrators of these practices may be smugglers and sometimes it may involve government officials (Traywick, p.5). Sometimes sexual assault becomes the price of sneaking and entering the United States. Occasionally, women are reported preparing for sexual assault beforehand by taking contraceptives.
It is also keynoting that individuals without the required migration documents are unlikely to report the cases of sexual assault to the relevant government agencies for the fear of jeopardizing their intentions of crossing the border or remaining in the United States. Women are particularly treated as insignificant because of their gender and lack of legal status and they are therefore considered powerless by the militarized border patrol officers. This creates a sense of indestructibility in the men committing these rapes since they are confident that they will not be reported or charged based on these women's fears that they might be exploited further or deported back to Mexico.
The United States-Mexico border has been militarized to forcefully and powerfully establish and affirm the territory of the United States. It is important to note that in this parts, daily attacks are reported against the border crossers and they may exist in different forms which may include harassment, rape, and ruthless beatings from state officers (Sylvanna, p.119). The militarization of United States-Mexico border stands on two major elements which are; the reorganization and adjustment of the border patrols to look like the military in terms of the tactics used, the structure and the equipment used by the border officers.
Secondly, the establishment and consolidation of military units arou...