The women who know they're going to be raped: Female illegal immigrants taking birth control before they try to cross US border

About 60 per cent of all illegal female immigrants are estimated to face some kind of sexual violence

The assaults usually go unreported over fears of deportation and reprisals against family

They happen on both sides of the border and have even been at the hands of at least one U.S. Border Patrol agent

Six out of every 10 women illegally immigrating into the U.S. are estimated to be victims of sexual violence, and many are reportedly taking birth control to avoid unwanted pregnancies.



Sexual assaults such as the March incident where a border patrol agent raped and tried to kill a woman and her teen daughter along the Texas - Mexico border before fleeing with the girl’s twin sister have led to illegals seeking out birth control for protection.

That incident is only one of many, most going unreported and failing to ever see prosecution because victims are afraid of reprisals against their families and deportation.

The silent sufferers: The majority of women crossing the border are sexually assaulted, according to at least one estimate

The female immigrants often take injections costing about $4 that prevent pregnancy for up to one month, a pharmacist told Fronteras Desk. The assaults come at the hands of guides, officers and even fellow immigrants – they often go unpunished.

Others take pills – a prescription is not required to buy birth control in Mexico, Anna Ochoa O'Leary, a professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies and a member of the Binational Migration Institute at the University of Arizona, told Fox News.

‘The women passing through here know that they’re going to be raped,’ Father Pedraza, director of a shelter for migrants in a Mexican border town told Fox News.

‘Migrants are a vulnerable group, and the most vulnerable among them are women,’ he added.

Among those vulnerable immigrants were the three Honduran women unlucky enough to come into contact last month with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent Esteban Manzanares.

Fear of consequences: The fear of deportation or actions against their families keep the women from reporting abuse

The deranged man dragged the mother and her 14-year-old twin daughters to a remote field where he raped the mother and slashed her wrists and raped one of the twin girls and tried to break her neck, police said.

He then fled the remote field with the other teen girl and restrained her in his apartment before returning home later in the day to rape her before committing suicide as SWAT officers moved in on his home, reports said.

All three women survived the ordeal, but they will never see justice for the horrific assaults – they are not alone.

‘What can I do in case I’m raped, and I don’t want to get pregnant?’ The pharmacist told Fronteras she is asked by women preparing to make the dangerous trip across the border. ‘What can I use?’

The women are often told by their guides – aptly named coyotes – to take the medicine ‘because the coyotes know what they are going to do in the middle of the desert,’ the pharmacist lamented.

Even police assault the women: Esteban Manzanares reportedly raped three women and tried to kill two of them before committing suicide

What happens in the desert usually stays in the desert. The rapes are almost never prosecuted.

‘An estimated six out of 10 migrant women and girls experience sexual violence, allegedly prompting some people smugglers to demand that women receive contraceptive injections ahead of the journey, to avoid them falling pregnant as a result of rape,’ Amnesty International reported.

‘Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses,’ according to a researcher for the human rights organization.

Even instances where illegal immigrants reported the rapes often lead to a lack of prosecution, authorities lamented to Fronteras.

Remote: The women are often isolated as they trek through remote mountain and desert regions

Investigators submit DNA samples to a national database in the hopes a match will pop up, but even matches pose challenges to prosecution because it is ‘nearly impossible’ to find deported victims.

‘They could live in a small little town where there are just shacks and they don’t have running water or phones, they have to go to another town that may be an hour’s drive away just to get information that someone is looking for them or messages relayed to them,’ an official griped.

But there is a glimmer of hope for one abused young girl.

The 14-year-old and her group were captured trying to cross the border. Her attacker, himself a coyote, faces decades behind bars after being accused of raping her at least twice during their trip.

‘Finally, finally we were able to be successful and hopefully catch someone we could hold accountable,’ an official told Fronteras.