Sessions’s asylum ruling reverses decades of women’s rights progress
canada goose store She called the police in canada goose vest outlet her native Guatemala several times, butwas told they could not interfere in a domestic matter, canada goose jacket outlet uk according to a court canada goose discount uk ruling. When Cifuentas’s husband hit her in the head, leaving her bloody, canada goose outlet online uk police came to canada goose outlet near me the home but canada goose outlet buffalo refused to arrest him. “If I had stayed there, he would have killed me,” she told the Arizona Republic. It establishedclarity canada goose outlet black friday in long running debate canada goose outlet over whether asylum can be granted on the basis of violence perpetrated in the “private” sphere, according to Karen canada goose outlet kokemuksia Musalo, director for the Center for Gender canada goose shop uk Refugee Studies atthe University of California, Hastings College of the Law. canada goose store
canada goose But on Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturnedthe precedent set in Cifuentas’s case, deciding that victims of domestic canada goose outlet in vancouver abuse and gang violence generally will not qualify for asylum under federal law. (Unlike the federal courts established under Article III of the Constitution, the immigration court system is part of the Justice Department.) canada goose
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canada goose deals For critics, including former immigration judges, the unilateral decision undoes decades of carefully deliberated legalprogress. For gender studies experts, such as Musalo, the move “basically throws us back to the Dark Ages, when we didn’t recognize that women’s rights were human rights.” canada goose deals
canada goose “If we say in the year 2018, that a woman has been beaten almost to death in a country that canada goose outlet canada accepts that as almost the norm, and that we as a civilized society candeny her protection and send her to her death?” Musalo said. asylum law, granting asylum to a Salvadoran canada goose uk site woman who said she was abused by her husband. Musalo is co counsel in the case. canada goose
canada goose store Sessions’s reasoning hinged canada goose outlet official on theargument that domestic violence victims are not generally persecuted as members of a “particular social group,” according to his ruling. Under federal law, asylum applicants must show that either “race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion was or will be at least one central reason for” their persecution. canada goose store
canada goose deals In the precedent setting Cifuentas case, the Board of Immigration Appeals held thatan applicant can qualify for asylum as a member of a particular social group of “married canada goose parka outlet uk women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship.” To support its ruling, the board noted that Guatemala has a culture of “machismo and family violence.” Spousal rape is common and local canada goose outlet ottawa police often fail to enforce domestic violence laws. canada goose deals
Canada Goose online Sessions rejected that reasoning. “When private actors inflict violence based on a personal relationship with a victim,” Sessions wrote, “then the victim’s membership in a larger group may well not be ‘one central reason’ for canada goose outlet toronto address the abuse.” Canada Goose online
canada goose store “The prototypical refugee flees her home country because the government has persecuted her,” Sessions wrote. “An alien may suffer threats and violence in a foreign country for any number of reasons relating to her social, economic, family, or other personal circumstances. Yet the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune.” canada goose store
canada goose store As Kara Lynum, an immigration canada goose outlet in toronto lawyer in Minnesota, tweeted,”Sessions thinks these women aren’t eligible for asylum because their husbands are only violent to them not all canada goose clothing uk women.” canada goose store
cheap Canada Goose A group of 15retired immigration judgesandformer members of the Board of Immigration canada goose outlet paypal Appeals wrote a letter in response to Session’s decision, calling it “an affront to the rule of law.” cheap Canada Goose
canada goose store The Cifuentas case, they wrote,”was the culmination of a 15 official canada goose outlet year process” through the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals. The issue was certified by three different Attorneys General, one Democrat and two Republican. The private bar, law enforcement canada goose outlet trillium parka black agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, all agreed with the final determination, the former judges wrote. The decision was also supported by asylum protections under international refugee treaties, they said. canada goose store
Canada Goose Jackets “For reasons canada goose outlet miami understood only by himself, the Attorney General today erased an important legal development that https://www.thecanadagooseoutlet.com was universally agreed to be correct,” the former judges wrote. Canada Goose Jackets
canada goose Courts and attorneys general have debated the definition of a “particular social group” since the mid 1990s, according to Musalo. canada goose
canada goose clearance sale “It took the refugee area a while to catch up with the human rights area of law,” Musalo said. canada goose clearance sale
cheap Canada Goose A series of cases led up to the Cifuentas decision. The case, known as “Matter of Kasinga,” centered on a teenagerwho fled her home in Togo to escape female genital cutting and a forced polygamous marriage. Musalo was lead attorney in the case, which held that fear of female genital cutting could be used as a basis for asylum. cheap Canada Goose
Canada Goose Parka “Fundamentally the principle was the same,” as the one at stake in Session’s ruling, Musalo said. Female genital cutting, like domestic violence in the broader sense,generally takes place in the “private” sphere,inflicted behind closed doors by relatives of victims. Canada Goose Parka
canada goose black friday sale Musalo also represented Rody Alvarado, a Guatemalan woman who fled extreme domestic abuse and, in 2009, won an important asylum case after a 14 year legal fight. Her victory broke ground for other women seeking asylum on the basis of domestic violence. canada goose black friday sale
canada goose Then, after years of incremental decisions,the Board of Immigration Appeals published its first precedent setting opinion in the 2014 Cifuentas’s case, known as “Matter of A R C G.” canada goose
canadian goose jacket “I actually thought that finally we had made some progress,” Musalo said. Thoughthe impact wasn’t quite as pronounced as many experts had canada goose outlet boston hoped, it was a huge step forward for women fleeing gender based violence in Latin America and other parts of the world. canadian goose jacket
canada goose clearance sale “We’ve gone too far in society with the MeToo movement and all of the other advances in women’s rights to accept this principle,” Musalo said. canada goose clearance sale
canada goose store “It shows that there are these deeply entrenched attitudes toward gender and gender equality,” canada goose outlet store quebec she canada goose outlet factory added. “There are always those forces that are sort of the dying gasp of wanting to hold on to the way things were.” canada goose store.