U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled on Monday against the asylum applicationof a Salvadoran woman who fled to the United States after her ex-husband beat and raped her.
The landmark decision is expected to have a chilling effect on the way America’s asylum policies have been interpreted both inside and outside the country’s borders.
‘I understand that many victims of domestic violence may seek to flee from their home countries to extricate themselves from a dire situation or to give themselves the opportunity for a better life,’ Sessions wrote.
But, quoting a previous court ruling, he added that the ‘asylum statute is not a general hardship statute.’
Sessions is seeking to return immigration judges to a strict interpretation of federal law, under which asylum on the basis of persecution can only be granted when two requirements are met.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled Monday that a Salvadoran woman who wants asylum after she was raped and beaten by her ex-husband can’t remain in the U.S. because she was a victim of common crime, not persecution based on her membership in a group
The American ‘asylum statute is not a general hardship statute,’ Sessions wrote, quoting a previous court ruling, as he instructed an immigration judge to send the woman, known only as ‘A.B.,’ back to her home country
The law requires that applicants claim membership in a group – such as a race or nationality – that is ‘socially distinct’ in the place they’re fleeing. They also must prove they were victimized ‘on account of their membership in that group rather than for personal reasons,’ he wrote.
The attorney general said hours earlier that the decision would ‘restore the sound principles of asylum and longstanding principles of immigration law.’
‘The vast majority of the current asylum claims are not valid,’ he said in a speech at the department’s Executive Office For Immigration Review. ‘For the last five years, only 20 percent of claims have been found to be meritorious after a hearing before an immigration judge.’
Sessions told officials that in what would be a major policy shift, a grant of asylum in the United States ‘was never meant to alleviate all problems – even all serious problems – that people face every day all over the world.’
The Immigration and Naturalization Act, he explained, outlined the process of applying for asylum and only granted it to migrants ‘who leave their home country because of persecution or fear on account of race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social group or political opinion.’
A Justice Department spokesperson said America’s immigration laws ‘provide for asylum to be granted to individuals who have been persecuted, or who have a well-founded fear of persecution, on account of their membership in a “particular social group,” but most victims of personal crimes do not fit this definition – no matter how vile and reprehensible the crime perpetrated against them.’
More than 260,000 foreigners requested asylum in the U.S. during 2016, a number that the Trump administration wants to shrink by publicizing a get-tough policy and limiting approvals to cases of persecution, discrimination and genocide
Beth Werlin, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, said Monday that Sessions’ decision, if courts don’t overturn it, will ‘result in sending countless mothers and children back to their abusers and criminal gangs’
Central American immigrant families climbed the U.S. border wall in April after traveling for about a month across Mexico to reach the United States; many are seeking asylum
‘The Department of Justice remains committed to reducing violence against women and enforcing laws against domestic violence, both in the United States and around the world,’ the spokesperson continued.
Beth Werlin, Executive Director of the American Immigration Council, said in a statement that the United States has always ‘opened its doors to individuals fleeing oppression and persecution. Today’s decision by the Attorney General is yet another attempt to close our doors.’
‘The Attorney General’s decision—if permitted to stand—will no doubt result in sending countless mothers and children back to their abusers and criminal gangs,’ Werlin added.
The American Immigration Council is a left-leaning group that represents immigrants, both legal and illegal, in courts proceedings.
In 2016 more than 260,000 people requested asylum in the United States. The Trump administration set a cap of 50,000 approvals in 2017, but a loophole allowed more to enter if they had existing family ties to other asylees.
Federal agents interview asylum-seekers to assess whether they arrived in the U.S. due to a ‘credible fear.’ But Sessions warned last October that illegal immigrants were gaming the system in order to get an ‘easy ticket to illegal entry in the United States.’
He predicted Monday that as word spreads that the U.S. is applying a stricter standard, ‘the world will know what our rules are, and great numbers will no longer undertake this dangerous journey.’
‘The number of illegal aliens and the number of baseless claims will fall.’
Sessions said his new ruling will also provide more clarity for immigration judges who have to decide whose claims are valid.
Unlike the federal judiciary system, the U.S. immigration courts fall under the jurisdiction of the Justice Department and the attorney general can intervene in cases to change legal precedents that have been decided by the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Sessions has been unusually active in this practice compared to his predecessors by exercising his intervention authority to make it tougher for some people to legally remain in the United States.
In the case of A.B., which are the woman’s initials, Sessions’ decision could have potentially far-reaching consequences for women and children immigrants seeking asylum to escape domestic violence in their home countries.
Judge Ashley Tabaddor, president of the immigration judges’ union, told Reuters that cases like that of ‘AB’ are ‘definitely a common claim coming from Central America.’
President Donald Trump has long called for an overhaul of the U.S. asylum system, citing a more than tenfold rise in asylum claims since 2011.
Trump has also rallied has base against ‘catch and release’ policies that allow some illegal immigrants to remain in the United States while they await court hearings in a clogged legal system – or disappear into the interior of the country rather than returning to plead their cases.
Sessions said Monday that the United States has ‘a backlog of about 700,000 immigration cases, and it’s still growing.’
‘That’s more than triple what it was in 2009. This is not acceptable. We cannot allow it to continue,’ he said.
Sessions promised that by the end of 2018 the Justice Department will have hired 100 new immigration judges and increased their access to videoconference and othe technologies to hear cases remotely.