This might be surprising but did you know that immigrant women are the forefront of advocacy that often fixes America’s immigration policy? Well, women play a very important role in the American society as well as the economy. To be brutally honest, the media portrays an immigrant as a single Hispanic male without a status. The truth of the matter is that female immigrants both documented and undocumented comprise of half of all the immigrants in the US currently. They are also known to be more industrious, hardworking family members than American born women and will push the hardest in their families to gain citizenship.

However, while this might seem like a success story about female immigration into America, it’s not, on the flip side of this industriousness and drive, female immigrants are often subjected to abuse, discrimination, that often leaves them scarred for life. Undocumented immigrant women face the risk of deportation in case they are located by officials and risk losing their American born children. They also face racial discrimination that at times leads to abuse by their employers who take advantage of their undocumented status. We compiled 15 disturbing confessions of female immigrants; you won’t believe half the things women have to go through to experience the American dream. It’s often not as rosy as it seems in fiction.

15. The Road to the American Dream is treacherous

Apart from having to leave your family behind to look for greener pastures abroad, female illegal immigrants have to use unofficial means to get into the US. If you have had the chance to go through American Customs or immigration, then you understand that it’s almost impossible to sneak into the country through air or sea. The best alternative means often the glaring deserts. According to revelations from rescued female immigrants, the desert hike takes days, and it’s not uncommon to get abandoned by your guide in case they sense you are too slow to catch-up. You might also have to literally drink urine or dirty cattle farm water from ranches or die. Between 1991 and 2016 border security officials have found 450 bodies of unidentified illegal immigrants in Imperial County alone.

14. Six out of Ten Illegal Immigrants are victims of sexual assault

This statistics might seem unbelievable at first glance but the reality is much grim. Illegal female immigrants often face sexual abuse. Most of them know that there is a possibility that they may get raped and will choose to use birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The assailants know that they have a slim chance of getting caught since the women could get deported in case they seek help from authorities. The female immigrants will get raped by fellow immigrants on the way and even border patrol agents in case they get nabbed. If they manage to get into the country, their landlords or employers might also take advantage of their undocumented status and assault them, both physically and sexually.

13. Everyone Thinks You Are Either A Terrorist Or Colluding With Them

If you have heard a chance to view the viral racist video from a Wal-Mart parking lot, then you will understand some of the experiences female immigrants go through in the US. Amber Hensley of Mapleton N.D was captured on camera verbally attacking three female immigrants of Somali origin claiming that they parked their car too close to hers at a Wal-Mart parking lot. This video shows the woman shouting, “We are going to kill you, we are going to kill all of you f—king Muslims.” Most immigrants and especially those from Muslim nations will get publicly humiliated or connected to terrorism at some point during their stay.

12. Female Immigrants Part With Up to $3000 To Get Into The US

Thanks to Hollywood, the American dream has a price stamp, and to attain it, you might need to part with some cash, that’s of course if you don’t want to participate in the free lottery. One rescued female Mexican immigrant confessed that, sometimes, you might have to part with up to $3000 to hire a guide to help you get into the US illegally. If you can’t catch-up, you pose the risk of being abandoned by your guide. Worst case scenario, your guide might turn on you in the middle of the desert and rape you a couple of times through the journey before you reach your destination. If you ever get there!

11. Immigrant women are often denied health care

While it often seems rosy on the other side, female immigrants who have lived in the US for less than five years are normally barred from using the federal Medicaid for the most basic and vital preventive services like prenatal care. One female immigrant confessed that she was unable to access prenatal care even though her income qualifies her for the program. The only hope they have is when/if their state chooses to eliminate this ban for pregnant women and children who are eligible. Because to this and an array of other factors, female immigrants are twice as likely as American born women to lack health insurance.

10. No toilets, no water in Immigration Interrogation rooms

In case you are nabbed or suspected by immigration officials trying to cross into the country illegally, you will be subjected to a security check. A female immigrant caught up in this situation might not experience the best of times. As documented by Mem Fox who has had first-hand experience after being detained by immigration officials at a Los Angeles Airport. According to her accounts, the belligerence and violence of the experience was really terrifying. There was no water or toilet, and there was this woman with a baby holed up in that room with all the others who were undergoing the security check.

9. Rude Immigration officials

The experience of immigration office security checks and procedures always seem rational and humanitarian when you are watching it on TV shows. If you are a female immigrant, then you better get ready to be yelled at! According to Mem Fox’s experience at a Los Angeles airport where she was detained for about an hour, one Iranian woman in a wheel chair, who was about 80 years old had immigration officials yelling at her in Arabic? Arabic? The immigration officials screamed at her “ARABIC?” at the top of their voices in her face. She replied she was “Farsi”. God knows what would have happened to her if she didn’t speak some english.

8. The Illusion of a Warm Hearted Nation

Is hard being an immigrant anywhere in the world, it simply isn’t easy and one of the reasons is because it’s not your home. However, the reason why most people flee their countries to live in the U.S is that they want a better life. But the illusion of a warm-hearted nation is often broken once you step onto American soil. Female immigrants are often the worst hit by this. Apart from public discrimination due to culture or race, they will get abused both at home and even at work. It’s worse for undocumented female immigrants since they cannot seek help from authorities once they are abused physically or sexually for fear of being deported.

7. Risk of losing American Born Children

In case a female immigrant is apprehended by immigration officials for being in the country illegally, they often face the risk of losing their American born children. While she might have come into the country illegally, her child did not, and according to one Mexican illegal immigrant, she lost her son who remained with his American father after she was forcibly deported. Others are likely to be taken up for foster care in case no legal guardian is found in the country, which is often the case. These cases are not uncommon, however, several policies are being revised to make this process fair.

6. Taking Birth Control Pills to Avoid Unwanted pregnancies before crossing

While this might be a shocking fact, many illegal immigrant women are taking birth control pills or injections to avoid unwanted pregnancies. In March, it was reported that a border patrol agent raped and even tried to kill a woman and her teenage daughter along the Texas-Mexico border. This is just one incident, many of them go unreported and fail to ever see prosecution because the victims are afraid of reprisals on their families or even worse, deportation. These female immigrants sometimes take injections that cost up to $4 to prevent pregnancies for up to a month. Some of the assaults come from their guides, immigration officials and even fellow immigrants.

5. No Justice for Female Immigrants in cases of abuse

The worst part about being an illegal immigrant, and worse, a female immigrant, is that you do not only not have access to basic features such as health or work permit, but you have totally no rights, and this is because you are an illegal alien. Female immigrants go through a lot, and unlike their male counterparts who might divert into crime to make a living; a female illegal immigrant needs to look for work to sustain herself and her family back at home. In most cases, their landlords, employees, spouses, and friends are in the know of their illegal status and in most cases, will take advantage of the situation. They will get poor pay, poor housing, sexual abuse, and physical assault among other unimaginable acts. They will remain silent for fear of being deported.

4. Female Immigrants are Vulnerable to discrimination and racial abuse

Well, in case you immigrated into the U.S legally, all might still not be rosy for you, and especially if you are a woman. Female immigrants have for a long time faced discriminated due to their culture or race. It might be harder to get a job that you qualify for just because you are an immigrant, and sometimes getting the most basic of services such as health might be an uphill climb. Recently a video of a women telling Somali immigrants she was going to kill them in a Wal-Mart parking lot went viral prompting her employers to fire her. The Somali women dropped the charges and forgave her.

3. The American Dream is Just an Illusion for Immigrant Women

All immigrants come into America with the fallacy created by Hollywood that America is the land of milk and honey. Well, while you can be anything you have ever desired to be in America, the road to getting to that point is not as easy as it might seem. America like any other country in the world right now is facing unemployment as well as other socioeconomic issues that make it extremely hard for immigrants to make it big. Loans, health insurance, mortgages, white-collar jobs might not be readily available to an immigrant. This realization often dawns too late on them after they have already set foot onto American Soil.

2. Female Immigrants are subjected to Trafficking

Female trafficking is a major problem in the world and especially in first world countries like the U.S and the U.K. According to the US Department of Justice, it’s estimated that each year more than 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States. The U.S government can only grant 5000 “T” visas that are used to help immigrant women who might have been forced into, among other things, the sex trade, however, according to studies, its seems like barely any of these “T” visas are granted. Records at the U.S. Department of Immigration reveal that only 447 “T” visas were approved in 2010.

1. Obligated to Make Enormous Sacrifices As A Female Immigrant

According to a study by New America Media, only 13% of immigrant women work as professionals in the US, even though 32% of them worked as professionals in their home country. The research concluded that female immigrants might be putting devotion to the well-being of their families both in America and back at home ahead of their personal pride once they choose the journey to America. It’s hard enough to get a decent job in the U.S even if you worked in a similar position back at home due to a variety of reasons. Female immigrants will often have to make enormous sacrifices by getting odd jobs or even prostitution to make a living and sustain their families.

Sources: nytimes.com, theguardian.com, americanprogress.org, nydailynews.com