The Niqabi Paralegal

Another key victory for victims of domestic violence

Obama Administration Extends Asylum for Domestic Violence Victims:

A Mexican woman with a history of domestic violence at the hands of her common-law husband was granted asylum by the Obama administration in a groundbreaking case that holds promise for future seekers of asylum with similar backgrounds.

The woman, whose identity in the press has been abbreviated to "L.R." due to the confidential nature of asylum cases, had first filed for asylum five years ago, but her case's implications will redefine policies that are nearly two decades in the making. A similar case featuring a woman from Guatemala had been pending for 15 years before receiving approval last December.

"The Department of Homeland Security has recognized that asylum should be available to women who have suffered domestic violence and whose governments won't protect them," Simona Agnolucci, a lawyer with the Howard Rice law firm in San Francisco who represented L.R., tells The New York Times. "Now the day finally came when the department said these are the criteria required to show a case for asylum."

The ruling in L.R.'s favor will likely begin turning the tides for international victims of domestic violence, whose claims have largely been ignored and dismissed by the asylum process. During the initial application, L.R.'s legal team was presented with a list of narrowly defined guidelines that would have to be proved in order for asylum to be granted.

at long last

A little over three years ago, I wrote:

Visitors face a more difficult situation. The major types of visitors are temporary workers and students. A person granted a worker visa or a student visa may bring their spouse along. The first problem for the spouses is that they are not authorized to work in the U.S. unless they can get their own visa. The second problem is that their status depends entirely on the marriage. If they leave the marriage, they automatically become deportable because they are "out of status". The VTVPA was supposed to change that, by creating a new type of visa called the U visa. This allows victims of violence, especially gender-related violent crimes (including domestic violence) to obtain their own independent visa. Once in possession of the U visa, they can work in the U.S. and even apply for permanent resident status after a year. There's just one problem - the government has not issued regulations yet for the U visa. Without regulations, nobody knows how to apply for this visa. John Ashcroft stonewalled for two years while immigration was handled by the Justice Department and now that immigration has been transferred to the Homeland Security Department, it appears that Tom Ridge is stonewalling too.

Now, three years later, the U visa will finally be available. It's been 7 years altogether since it was first authorized. Better late than never, I guess.

general immigration posts

My posts on immigration law at Open Source Politics aren't necessarily directly related to "legal issues facing Muslims in the United States" (the subject of this blog), but certainly they have a great effect on immigrant Muslim communities - and sometimes only on Muslim communities. They are: Trapped (9/02/03; immigrant victims of domestic violence) Target: Immigrants (9/8/03; anti-terrorism measures aimed at Muslims) The INS's record of failure (9/11/03; how the immigration system is broken) Left out in the cold (9/15/03; the devastating effects of welfare reform on immigrants) CLEAR-ly a step in the wrong direction (9/29/03; why a bill that would allow police to enforce immigration law is a very bad idea) The new freedom riders (10/6/03; about the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride) Good news for victims of domestic violence (10/14/03; follow up on immigrant victims of domestic violence) The Exploitation Game (10/23/03; how corporations exploit undocumented workers)

asylum law and gender-related persecution

I applied, and have been accepted, for a volunteer paralegal position at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. I'm still waiting to hear back on the details of what I'll be doing and what hours they want me to work, but it appears that I'll be working under the supervision of attorney Anita Sinha. Sinha wrote a very interesting Note for the New York University Law Review in November 2001 called "Eliminating the 'Cultural Hook' for Claims Involving Gender-Related Persecution", 76 N.Y.U.L. Rev. 1562 (link is to PDF). The note examines three recent cases in which women sought asylum for gender-related persecution. The first case, In re Kasinga, 21 I. & N. Dec. 357 (B.I.A. June 11, 1996), involved a woman who was the victim of female genital mutilation. The second case, In re R-A-, Int. Dec. 3403 (B.I.A. June 11, 1999), involved a woman who was the victim of severe domestic violence by her husband. The third case, In re S-A-, Int. Dec. (Hein) 3433 (B.I.A. June 27, 2000), involved a woman who was also a victim of severe domestic violence, this time by her father. Asylum was granted in Kasinga and S-A- but not in R-A- and the purpose of Sinha's Note is to propose a theory why. In Kasinga the type of violence involved was FGM, which is widespread in Africa but not practiced in American culture; Kasinga was from Togo. R-A- involved a Guatemalan woman. S-A- involved a Moroccan woman. Guatemala of course has a Christian-based culture like the U.S. while Morocco is a Muslim country. R-A-'s husband beat her because she didn't behave according to his standards of how she ought to. Similarly, S-A-'s father beat her because she didn't behave according to his standards of how she ought to. So why did S-A- get asylum and R-A- not? Sinha argues that judges could attribute the behavior of S-A-'s father to his Islamic religion, which seems just as foreign to American immigration judges as does FGM, while the behavior of R-A-'s husband could not be attributed to anything that was foreign. Or rather, if R-A-'s husband's behavior was culturally or religiously based, it would implicate the same culture and religion as we have in America. In other words, as long as gender-related violence can be blamed on a foreign cultural or religious tradition, judges will grant asylum, but if granting asylum for gender-related violence would involve blaming our own cultural and religious traditions, then judges do not grant asylum. Sinha wants this "cultural hook" removed. If Western culture and religion are not to blame for the widespread violence against women that we still see in Western countries, then other cultures and religions should not be blamed either. That kind of blaming, Sinha believes, is the result of stereotyping. Worst of all, it leaves women like R-A- unprotected. What are the factors that led R-A-'s husband to beat her, despite Guatemala's Western and Christian culture? What are the factors that lead Guatemala to have a legal system that offers women like R-A- no real recourse, despite Guatemala's Western and Christian culture? That's what led her to seek asylum in the U.S. and why she should have been granted it. And are those factors the same as the ones that led S-A-'s father to beat her and that lead Morocco to have a legal system that offers women like S-A- no real recourse? Almost certainly. Violence against women is not limited to Muslim or non-Western countries. It exists in every country and every culture. It tends to be more widespread in developing countries that are experiencing rapid and substantial social dislocations. People who feel that their lives are controlled by forces larger than them may seek to force their control on others, especially those weaker than them, as a way of compensating. Very often, the behavior is justified by appeals to a traditional culture or to a religious tradition, whether or not the behavior is actually sanctioned by either. These are the factors that countries as different as Togo, Guatemala, and Morocco have in common. And guess what, the attitudes of the societies and legal systems in Togo, Guatemala, and Morocco towards gender-related violence are also similar. But if you insist on dividing it into Western and non-Western cultures, you have to explain why Guatemala is like the "bad" African and Muslim cultures. This kind of stereotypical thinking does a disservice to non-Western countries, and it does an injustice to victims of gender-related violence in Western countries, like R-A-. As Sinha says in the conclusion of her article: If the humanitarian spirit and rule of asylum law is to be advanced, an applicant's life and safety should not have to depend on whether the persecution she has suffered is foreign enough. Cultural Hook, supra at 1597.

overview of immigration law

As I mentioned previously, I wrote a memo on immigration law. This memo is intended to provide an overview for a lay audience. It will be added to a series of legal information binders, so that's what the cross-references are about. I hope this may be of benefit to Muslims or others who would like to understand immigration law a bit better, inshallah. Please follow the extended entry link to read the memo.