Any day now, Attorney General John Ashcroft may issue new regulations that will limit asylum-seekers who are trying to escape domestic violence, honor killings or sexual slavery. Justice Department officials have confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that Ashcroft is reconsidering proposed Clinton Administration guidelines that would have made it easier for women seeking to escape gender-based violence to gain asylum in the United States.

While Justice Department officials say no decision has been made, advocates fear that Ashcroft may reverse one of former Attorney General Janet Reno's last acts in office. In 2000, Reno vacated a harmful decision by the Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in the case of Rodi Adali Alvarado Peña, and instructed the BIA to reconsider the case after the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Justice Department finalized new regulations that made gender-based violence a possible ground for granting asylum. The regulations were never finalized, and advocates fear that Ashcroft will reverse them, effectively denying asylum to women seeking to escape gender-based abuse.

The INS will become part of the new Department of Homeland Security on March 1, but immigration courts will remain under the Justice Department's jurisdiction, so Ashcroft may retain control of this issue.

"I am very concerned that Attorney General Ashcroft's actions could have a devastating effect on women asylum seekers fleeing honor killings, sexual slavery, domestic violence, dowry deaths, and other grave human rights violations," said Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA). "The United States should join other countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand in recognizing that women who flee gender-based persecution deserve a grant of asylum."

The Most Reverend Thomas G. Wenski, Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, wrote to Ashcroft, "It has been reported that the Department of Justice intends, through regulations, to severely limit the ability of women fleeing...gender-based persecution to seek refugee protection in the United States. We strongly urge against any changes to current asylum law and practices that would limit access to asylum and make women more vulnerable to human rights violations."

Alvarado Case

Ashcroft's action will relate specifically to the case of Rodi Adali Alvarado Peña, but it could affect thousands of other women who face gender-based violence in their native countries.

Alvarado fled her native Guatemala and came to the United States in 1995 to escape brutal violence. During ten years of marriage, her husband, a former soldier in the Guatemalan army, beat and raped her repeatedly, attempted to abort their second child by kicking her until she hemorrhaged, broke windows and mirrors with her head, and beat her until she lost consciousness. Alvarado knew of no shelters in Guatemala, and each time she attempted to escape, her husband found her and beat her even more severely. She fled to the United States in 1995, leaving her children with relatives.

Shortly after Alvarado came to the U.S., the INS issued guidelines that recognized gender-based persecution as a basis for asylum. Although they were non-binding, the guidelines noted that women are often victims of persecution particular to their gender, including rape and domestic abuse.

Immigration courts have been inconsistent in gender-based cases. In 1996, the BIA - the highest court within the INS - granted asylum to a Togolese refugee who would have faced genital mutilation if she returned home. The gender guidelines were a consideration in that case, but not the basis for the decision.

In 1996, a judge granted Alvarado asylum based in part on those guidelines. But the INS appealed the ruling. In a ten to five ruling in 1999, the BIA denied Alvarado asylum. The judges deplored her husband's vicious conduct but concluded that she should be deported because the persecution she suffered was based not on one of the five categories for asylum under established immigration law: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a social group. That ruling rendered the gender guidelines almost meaningless - which is why Reno vacated the BIA's decision and directed the INS to finalize proposed regulations that recognized gender-based persecution claims as a possible basis for asylum.

Those regulations never became final, and Attorney General John Ashcroft may reinstate the BIA decision in the Alvarado case and issue new regulations that restrict gender-related asylum claims.

"It would be callous and unconscionable for Attorney General Ashcroft to take any actions that restricts gender-based asylum claims," said Family Violence Prevention Fund President Esta Soler. "Such a move would unnecessarily jeopardize the safety and security of countless women who face horrific domestic, sexual and other violence, and who come to the United States in search of safety. The lives of Rodi Alvarado and countless other women are at stake. We urge Ashcroft not to take this action."

© Copyright © 2004 Family Violence Prevention Fund
All rights reserved