U.S. tightens rules on asylum
Sessions: Victims of domestic abuse, gang violence don’t qualify
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered immigration judges to stop granting asylum to most victims of domestic abuse and gang violence, a move that could block tens of thousands of people, especially women, from seeking refuge in America.
The decision, which immigration advocates are sure to aggressively fight, came as Sessions seeks to use the authority of his office to sharply change U.S. immigration law to make it less friendly to asylum seekers.
The attorney general has the power to issue decisions that serve as binding precedents for immigration judges. In this instance, he used a case involving a victim of domestic violence from El Salvador to rule that survivors of such “private” crimes are not eligible for asylum under U.S. law.
The woman, referred to in immigration court as A.B., for her initials, claimed that she was fleeing years of physical and emotional abuse by an ex-husband who had raped her. An immigration judge had denied her asylum claim, but the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled in her favor in 2016, saying the Salvadoran government had shown it was incapable of protecting her, even after she moved to another part of the country.
Sessions’ decision overturned that ruling.
“Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum,” Sessions wrote in his ruling. “The mere fact that a coun-
“This act of staggering cruelty insults our nation’s values.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi
try may have problems effectively policing certain crimes — such as domestic violence or gang violence — or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.”
He acknowledged the “vile abuse” that the woman reported, but said, in effect, that U.S. law could not help her.
In a speech earlier in the day to a training session for immigration officials, Sessions telegraphed his position, saying that “asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems — even all serious problems — that people face every day all over the world.”
His anticipated “ruling restores sound principles of asylum and longstanding principles of immigration law,” he said.
Sessions emphasized at the conference that immigration judges will be required to follow his interpretation of the law. Under immigration law, the attorney general’s rulings are binding on immigration judges unless overturned by a federal appellate court.
The decision’s most immediate impact could come long before asylum seekers get to an immigration judge, said Lenni Benson, a professor at New York Law School and director of its immigration clinic.
When would-be immigrants arrive at the U.S. border with an asylum claim, they typically first go through a screening interview with border officials. Sessions’ decision sends a clear signal to those officials to reject requests for a hearing from people seeking asylum who say they are trying to escape violent gangs or spouses, Benson said.
“The attorney general seems to be saying you don’t even have to give these people a chance to talk to a [hearing] officer,” she said. As a result, many immigrants detained at the border could be summarily sent home, Benson said.
The attorney general’s decision forms a key part of a broader Trump administration effort to restrict immigration and discourage asylum seekers from coming to the U.S. The administration has also stripped various legal rights from detainees and has been separating families detained by immigration agents.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, of California, said in a statement that the administration has “just condemned countless vulnerable, innocent women to a lifetime of violence and even death, just to score political points with their base. This act of staggering cruelty insults our nation’s values.”
The policy Sessions took aim at has been hotly contested over the past two decades.
Under the law, people seeking asylum must prove that they have a reasonable fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, political views or “membership in a particular social group.”
Advocates for victims of domestic violence have argued for years that victims of domestic violence could be considered a “social group” subject to persecution.
In 2014, they won a major victory when the immigration appeals board, ruled in favor of a Guatemalan woman fleeing domestic violence, establishing a precedent that has allowed many asylum seekers, especially women from Central America, to win cases.
That ruling, a landmark case for immigration law, came about because of policy shifts by the Obama administration, which accepted arguments that victims of domestic violence in Central America merited protection as members of a social group.
Whether the new policy will withstand court challenges remains to be seen. Legal experts said the law offering asylum to victims of domestic abuse and gang violence is well established in precedents that appeals court judges may be loathe to set aside, despite the authority of the attorney general to guide asylum rules. But it maybe years before the appeals courts weigh in. Until they do, the Sessions ruling stands.