Our democracy is a victim of domestic abuse.
2
Mr Sessions is right. As sorry as I am for the plight of this poor woman, the United States cannot ignore that this is a common criminal case that the Salvadorean authorities have to deal with on their own, not something the US should get involved in. This woman is not a victim of State-sponsored harassment and violence, she's the victim of a single Salvadorean man. Admitting her into the US would imply that the US considers that (a) all Salvadorean men are violent harassers, which is not the case, and (b) that it is OK to pass judgement on the adequacy of a foreign country's Laws and Criminal Justice System, an unacceptable breach of sovereignity. Looking at this from a Human Rights point of view is simply wrong, the concept was conceived to qualify governments that violently and systematically harasses its population as a matter of policy. If this was about Women's Rights, then the US should open the asylum floodgates to a significant portion of the world's Muslim women, donwtrodden, enslaved, beaten and wantonly kept ignorant and penniless by their husbands on religious grounds, which would be unfeasable and grounds for serious conflict.
She should go back to El Salvador, seek safety from the local authorities and her family, file for divorce, sue for domestic violence and find herself a new partner. The US has no business getting involved in this.
12
This is all I need to know to believe this was the right decision by the Justice Department: "The number of people who told homeland security officials that they had a credible fear of persecution jumped to 94,000 in 2016 from 5,000 in 2009"
13
All cases of asylum should require applications at a foreign consulate and not at the border. Maybe since the Mexican and Canadian border is safe for these asylum seekers, they should seek asylum in Canada and Mexico. The bigger issue is the amount of free help that these guys get. All asylum seekers should also explain how they will survive in the USA and not be abused by the system and poverty.
12
It's truly amazing that a court could be housed in a prosecutor's office, such that the prosecutor can override the court. What's next; All the circuit courts in the country get moved into the district attorneys' offices, with the DA able to set aside any court decree?
But then we also have a system in which a President can apparently fire anyone who investigates him or his staff/allies/family.
These run contrary to the fundamental separation of powers, and it seems they should be unconstitutional.
We need some fundamental changes in such matters, including pulling the immigration court out of the AG's office. But such changes aren't going to happen with this administration or this Congress. Vote!
immigration is a matter of executive branch authority. immigrants aren't yet citizens entitled to constitutional protections.
6
I think this was a half-baked decision by Jeff Sessions. I am in favor of stricter immigration laws but not at the expense of deserting those who have been the subjects of extreme cruelty. If there is evidence that there are a substantial amount of people faking claims to gain asylum to the U.S. then this decision might make more sense. However, all evidence points to the contrary and therefore the U.S. should absolutely let these people in.
I would also like to express my disappointment in the Mexican and South American governments who time and again show that they have no regard for basic human rights. I do believe that these governments need to be held responsible for their poor leadership because the focus has been on immigration policies in countries like the U.S. (which is understandable). BUT at the same time, I think there has to be more conversation on WHY so many people need to leave their home countries and WHY their governments continue to do very little about their very sticky domestic issues (domestic and gang violence). In my opinion, there should be more focus on helping these countries build their infrastructure and enforce their laws. Because the truth of the matter is whether you're pro-immigration or anti-immigration excessive emigration out of a country can be very harmful for that country's economy (Brain Drain) puts stresses the social dynamics. Praying this is all sorted out.
Sessions decision is no doubt legally correct, but it's missing something. What could it be? Oh, yeah, a heart.
Then, prey tell, what is?
Another good Republican Christian.
There is no condoning domestic abuse or gang violence at home or abroad; suggesting otherwise or making excuses for such savagery is contemptuous. There is a basic humane way to treat individuals regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality, age, disability or orientation.
Just the same, WHY should it be the responsibility of the US to be the 'Safe Space' for all those fleeing their gov'ts failed and corrupt policies?
Where is NATO on this? Nowhere to be found.
Why aren't the other G-7 countries helping to address this matter? They don't care; it's not in their back yard.
This isn't JUST about the current Administration, it goes back since before Reagan's amnesty. But his amnesty opened the spigot and Congress has done nothing to fix the immigration loopholes in 30-years now.
8
Apprehensions at the southwestern border alone run 40,000/month. What’s stopping those who feel strongly about this issue from organizing, raising a few billion (?)or so, and sponsoring these folks financially? Do an end run around Sessions. His goal is to eliminate illegal entry and the subsequent costs to American taxpayers. Money talks.
4
Sessions is right on this one. Domestic violence and gangs are not grounds for refugee status or approval of immigration. We have gangs all over the world, and in every city in the US. We have domestic abuse in every country, and throughout the US. Those are issues to be handled by the police and security agencies within the country. We all know that is not perfect; true throughout the world. To admit those facing gang activity or domestic abuse is to admit millions, and then their families. The Obama administration was totally wrong when he tried to open the US borders to all comers.
14
Session's doctrine begs a question: if half the population (women) are persecuted so violently and freely by drug gangs & cartel minions, with or without their government's approval, does this make a case for U.S. military intervention?
Droves of women (and men) fleeing their country for their lives. The linchpin is the drug trade, its myriad of consequences long worn by our country. One could even argue it's an active threat to our national security.
Instead of a wall, why not regime change and import democracy?
I ask this sincerely, no sarcasm.
4
i think the general belief is that most rulers in latin america are corrupt and complicit with the cartels and the few who are not are socialists. we could, i guess, take over Mexico or Colombia and install Michael Bloomberg or Jerry Brown or some other US politician as president, but then we'd be colonizing force.
isn't it the same problem with syria? do you support the inhumane government or the rebels who are often opposed to western/american values?
it would probably take someone like fidel castro to defeat the cartels.
1
Ask Trudeau if he'd grant each asylum for the price of a bus ticket?
5
Sessions has voices in his head that he has confused with God.
He should try the gospels and these excluders, victim-blamers, and greedsters should stop calling themselves Christians. Their leaders are complete phonies; no wonder they feel an afinity for Trump.
Unfortunately, punters hold on like grim death to those who con them.
Bad evil stuff!
2
As the quote from the GOP bible says, as sayeth the Lord Jesus, "if a woman won't get on her hands and knees and wash my feet, what good is she?" Amen, guys.
The ONLY solution to these women's problems is asylum in US?
Sessions is correct, this is just ridiculous.
11
Finally, the US is getting some sane policy for the hordes heading for the border!
10
Hey Jeff, just ban all immigrants except those that have three college degrees and a ton of money and Caucasian ancestry. Think you simple your life will be. One bad thing though. You'll have no one to vent your bigotry and racism on.
1
Another example of what a good Christian Sessions is.
1
Thousands of women around the world suffer from domestic violence, gender discrimination, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, rape and other issues. They live in countries that either condone this behavior or do nothing to stop it. The Attorney General of the US just turned a blind eye to these issues. He is deplorable.
It's actually millions. And your solution is...? Bring them all here?
7
don't women who get into abusive relationships tend to fll into a pattern of doing so? what if a woman who is granted asylum in the USA gets into an abusive relationship in the USA? i mean, isn't it often a psychological pattern more than a socio-economic/political phenomenon?
people feeling political or religious persecution are guaranteed a democratic society when they come to the USA, but they are NOT guaranteed a society free of domestic abuse, since the USA has plenty of that. the USA cannot guarantee a life free of domestic abuse, so how could it function as a place of asylum? the USA can promise asylum from things like religious persecution.
7
The whole idea that domestic abuse is a condition for refugee status is ridiculous. Suggesting that we can somehow solve this problem by granting refugee status to the unfortunate women in these counties is absurd.
Of the 7+billion people in the world, how many of them are women who live in societies where there is wide-spread domestic abuse as defined by standards of western civilization? 1 billion? 2?
How many of these people can we take into the US without destroying our country? So where do we draw the line?
If gender-based violence is a particular problem in Central America and parts of Mexico, then maybe we should reconsider waving so many people - especially men - from these areas into the US.
Starting in 2014, the Central American minors who were crossing illegally into the US & being delivered to 'families' in the US were 70% male. 84% were between the ages of 13 and 17 by their own claims. In fact, 31 percent claimed to be 17 - the oldest they could be and still be considered a minor. A significant number of these 'children' now swell the ranks of MS 13, a gang that specializes in human trafficking, rape & murder.
10
In an effort to atone for recusing himself from the Russian probe, Sessions would do anything to please his boss - and he knows Trumps feelings about all immigrants. It's a sad state of affairs indeed when we have a president who only cares about himself with employees who would feed his fragile ego.
1
Unfortunately this should not be a surprise. With the president boasting about his prowess in sexually assaulting women and the support he's received from Mr. Sessions and other Republicans for his twisted views and programs, they all feel they can ride roughshod over anything one can deem to be proper and fair. To Mr. Trump and his minions, "domestic abuse" means being given what they believe is less than stellar service by their staff. I fear that unless and until the Republican enablers say enough, things will just continue getting worse.
1
Have we always been cruel?
I agree with the decision of Jeff Sessions, the Attorney General of the United States of America. According to the Attorney General, a lot of bad things happen to a lot of people, but that does not mean that each and every one of them should get asylum in the United States. Thank you.
11
Every single "policy" that comes out of this benighted administration is cruel and soul-destroying. Most especially when the "policy" is aimed at women.
The fact is that the U.S. cannot afford to become a battered women's shelter for every woman in the world who is subject to domestic abuse. According to statistics, 25% of women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. With a worldwide population of 4 billion women, that means 1 billion women would be eligible for asylum in the U.S. (3 times the current U.S. population) based on domestic violence. Come on, people, put on your thinking caps. Asylum for women worldwide based on being a victim of domestic abuse is not feasible.
11
Good. This is a country. We have gang violence here. That does not give Americans our alleged right to settle anywhere we like.
11
Those of you decrying us for our alleged lack of Christianity might want to remember that much of the problem in Latin America stems from Christianity in the first place. It is Catholicism that makes abortion illegal even to save a woman's life in El Salvador. It is that same church that backs dictators and turns women into nothing more than wombs.
So perhaps you could direct your ire at the patriarchy of the Catholic church instead of the American people for our alleged failure to clean up the mess the church has made.
10
I refuse to live in an inhumane country. What is wrong with you people!!!???
1
We cannot and will not let the entire world come here
9
Sorry, but the entire world's been coming here since the Pilgrims first landed on Plymouth Rock way back when in their quest to escape religious persecution in England. Large swaths of the world came here in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to escape, among other things, famine in Ireland, the pogroms in Eastern Europe, and grinding poverty and lack of economic opportunity pretty much everywhere else. As the decades passed, others came here as well: people from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Central and South America looking to escape dictators, war, poverty, and general insanity.
I suspect the problem people are having with the current influx of immigrants boils down to anti-immigrant bias, which is old hat in this country. The Irish and the Germans were once derided by many of the white Protestant forefathers to whom Jeff Sessions bears more than a passing resemblance. Even JFK, that much-lauded Irish American president from a wealthy Bostonian family, had to assure the morally stunted of his time that no, he was not going to take orders from the Pope and that yes, a Catholic could run the country effectively.
I think you know where I'm going with this: prejudice against immigrants is longstanding. Of course we need sound immigration policies, but we also need to extend compassion to the desperate, as we've always done. After all, with the exception of the Native Americans, every single America citizen is either an immigrant or the descendant of one.
"every single America citizen is either an immigrant or the descendant of one."
Kidnapped Africans could not be considered immigrants by even the broadest interpretation of the term.
The US is already the third most populated nation on the planet. In 2018 it's a fair question to ask how many and which people we still need. Whatever the answers to those questions may be, they are the business of American citizens, not fence cutters and line jumpers who have been unable to build functional societies of their own.
1
I remember when we found out that a Swedish! employee of our brokerage firm who had a visa to be in the US because of her marriage to a US citizen was being abused by him. It was the mid 1990s. We paid for top flight legal assistance to get her a divorce and asylum, but in reality the interface with the legal system was straightforward then. She did not end up staying in the US, but I was proud of how our justice system handled her situation. Now I am weeping.
4
cariol,
so the swedish woman was a citizen by marriage and also fully employed? isn't that a very different scenario? I mean, she was already married to a US citizen.
3
Like recusing himself from the Russia investigation, Sessions here draws a line in an appropriate place.
Numerous commenters believe asylum is justified by domestic violence, based on the lack of a functional justice system which would address it. By similar logic, political asylum might be justified by a dysfunctional healthcare system, by inadequate inspection of meat and poultry, by gender discrimination in the workplace.
No. Change is hard, change is work. It’s never accomplished by running from a problem, and doing so only makes the job for those who remain harder. Political asylum is justified when a government begins jailing those working for change. Here, Sessions has decided the U.S. won’t serve as the world’s emergency room for those who aren’t.
10
AG Sessions is correct. Asylum status all across the world base asylum applications for persecuted for belonging to a certain Race, Religion, Nationality, Membership of a social group (like being gay etc.), and having certain Political opinions. Domestic violence even happens within the USA (as well in Canada and almost all developed countries). So, if a woman says that she is being harassed (and more) by her "husband" then she must seek a divorce and rely on the local police authorities to keep her safe from an abuser. It is not some systemic issue for which a person should be granted asylum in any other country.
10
I can only imagine the exceptions to the rule: perhaps a white woman from Norway who has evangelical affiliations who's husband refused to buy her a yacht.
The GOP, and Sessions, especially is a disgrace to humanity.
2
Could I get asylum in France because my boyfriend beat me? No -- I could move to Queens. Why the emphasis on domestic violence, when the real atrocity, it seems to me, is that gang violence is no longer accepted. This is the biggest problem facing many Central American countries, and a truly legitimate reason for people to flee. These gangs are like crime syndicates, and targets are legitimately afraid for their lives and their children's lives. Not to minimize domestic violence, but that's a far different issue.
6
The contradictions are just astonishing. Trump himself identified the M-13 gang as a threat to national security and now Sessions says, "Naw - it's not so bad." The schizophrenia saturating this administration is spell-binding. Trump and Sessions are battling each other and poor suffering humanity is the loser.
What kind of nonsense will follow?
3
No question about the cruelty and dishonesty of the Trump Administration, but this decision serves multiple political purposes for the Trump Administration and the Republican Party.
1. It is meant to distract people from the other really bad things the Trump Administration is doing such as weakening voting rights, enabling expansion of right-wing media control (Fox, Sinclair), ending net neutrality, wrecking the environment, tax cuts benefitting big corporations etc.
2. It will be used against Democrats in mid-term elections - the Republicans will say Democrats only care about immigrants - not the plight of poor Americans (who may face crime and DV in their lives.) And Trump/GOP assumes that Democrats will take the "bait" and "waste" considerable political resources, time and energy on "immigrant" issues.
3. It is a "practical solution" to the Trump goal to stop poor people from coming to the U.S.
Apparently misogyny has now merged with immigrant bashing, essentially a twofer as Sessions bashes on female immigrants in hopes of getting his boss to stop Tweeting about him.
The fact the article cited the ultra racist Stephen Miller, says everything that needs to be said about this reprehensible policy. The asylum seeker in this current case is a female El Salvadoran. This reminds me of the era under Ronald Reagan when women fleeing the El Salvadoran regime we were propping up were also not granted asylum and the journalist who wrote of their illegal entry was prosecuted; Demetria Martinez wrote of her ordeal in Mother Tongue.
2
As bad as it sounds, Sessions may be correct on this.
I'd be surprised if domestic abuse has not been an often abused loophole in asylum, for the simply reason that it is unverifiable (or prohibitively expensive to verify when the events happened in a country far away, without sufficient law enforcement and stability).
This is where idealism from the left appears to be nothing but an idea. It leaves a moon sized loophole in asylum policy.
12
There are a lot of well-meaning fuzzy-thinking people out there. Domestic violence is not one of the legal grounds for granite asylum. Period. Where do people want to draw the line? The issue of legal vs illegal immigration is losing the Democrats votes.
7
The Sessions picture accompanying this article is perfect. He stands there looking thoughtful while ignoring all the darkness around him. Just like his number one enabler, he delights in throwing everyone who doesn’t agree with him into that pit of despair.
1
I suppose in some perverse, twisted way this policy makes sense to Sessions. I'm thinking of the horrific stories of immigrant children being ripped from their parents and handled in ways we don't fully understand as of yet. Why would we as a nation grant asylum to anyone who is being abused and traumatized when this is exactly how we treat people ourselves?
2
Dear Comrades:
One again, the rule of law has come up to block your feelings.
There are five grounds for asylum, under the law. One must have a fear of persecution based on one of the following:
Race, Religion, Nationality, Membership in a particular group and Political opinion.
Domestic abuse in one's home country is not a ground for asylum. It never was under the laws as written. Lack of jobs and gangs are also not grounds for asylum. Neither is fear.
If a person has no legal protection in their own country, tough love, my friends. With over country already 20 trillion in debt, we cannot be the welfare provider for all.
If you disagree, pack up your things, join the Peace Corps or American Corps, and 'go make a difference.' Otherwise, don't expect me to pick up the tab for your bleeding heart feelings. Not today.
18
It makes me sick, sick, sick to know that our government is condoning ripping children from their mothers' arms while they are trying to keep them alive and safe after being tortured, raped, and beaten by men in gangs, their families, and/or the police in their home countries.
As reported in "The Boston Globe," parents are told the children need showers and never see them again. The kids never even get to say goodbye. The kids are so distraught, they're given psychotropic drugs to shut them up . . . oh, I mean calm them down. Parents are sent "home," to face retribution and/or death. The children are shipped around the US to foster homes, traumatized beyond words. Little kids left with nightmares, sobbing, major anxiety.
THIS is America?!! We have stooped so low that we are stabbing little kids and parents in the heart by denying imperiled families asylum? For shame, Jeff Sessions, and all who support this Satanic "policy."
1
Finally a smart practical decision by government! The USA should be the haven for all of the world local domestic ills? Asylum was not created for people being the victim of a crime, which domestic abuse is, in a foreign land. You know lawyers and pro immigration advocates tell their client just say" fear of going back home, dangerous" and all of a sudden billions in tax related fees and litigation get thrown on the tax payer, when that money can be used elsewhere. Another example of what was once a good morally rule being abused for benefit
10
I believe this is among the common grounds Kim has w/Trump: non-existent value of human rights, human dignity, compassion and empathy. They looked into one another’s eyes and saw a soulless, greedy, ruthless, power-hungry cyborg reflected back. And shook hands on it.
2
Isn't Domestic violence a local crime to be handled by local law enforcement? Who are we to attempt to solve local crimes? We can not nor should we try to solve every injustice in the world.
10
Wait a minute. The AG can reverse an immigration appeals court decision?? I thought that court decisions had to be decided by the judicial system of appeals. I guess I was unaware that immigration "courts" are not actually courts at all, but just a tool of whatever autocrat heads up the administration's law enforcement division.
I've been seeing warnings about imminent fascism in the US. It's actually already here.
3
How interesting Mr. Sessions that we hear the news of a Police officer being gunned down in a domestic dispute. And the gunman takes 4 children as hostages. In the end those 4 children were murdered. Let that sink in!
1
There are gangs everywhere throughout the world, including the United States. There are domestic abusers throughout the world as well, including the United States. They can't all live here.
12
This is the same thinking that caused us to turn away a boatload of Jews escaping Hitler.
1
The evangelical administration.
" Matthew 25:31–46:
"But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. ....Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’
“Then they will also answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?’
“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
2
After all, if El Salvador is unable to provide safety for it’s citizens, what business is it for the U.S. to provide safety for them. Life is hard and then you die. If people are fleeing revolution and they were on the approved side they deserve safe haven but if they were on the wrong side or just losers caught in the middle, they need to find some other place to go.
7
So says the one being "domestically" abused day in and day out by his master.
1
As usual, sessions is full of sour condensed owl manure. Thoughtless, empty headed, cruel, scatter brained moron. HOW did this guy EVER get elected in the first place. Oh I forgot. Alabama. Unfortunately, its the best we can do, at this moment.
Have to agree with the AG on this one. These people do fit the legal definition and they are well-coached on how to game the system. Maybe they can go to liberal Canada? Oh wait, their laws w/r/t immigration and asylum are much more restrictive than ours.
12
Sessions is legalizing Rape and Violence against women and children. No one is safe with an Attorney General who believe white men are Gods
3
So we bomb Syria for gassing children but won't grant them asylum. That's beyond cruel.
2
Now we know the context of Trump's discussion of human rights with fellow sociopath Kim.
5
There is so much blood on this AG’s hands that The Pantone color of the year should be called Sessions Red.
6
The GOP fully endorses domestic violence.
6
Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and caldron bubble
Add a mother's anguish to the pot
Spice it well our country's rot
Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn and caldron bubble
With Lady Liberty's flame, heat the stew
Drink, our beloved country, of this witches brew
Toss in a Sessions, a Nunez, and maybe a Pruitt
Yes, by God, yes, that should do it
Stir, stir, and stir again, this disgusting swill
And grieve for our shining city on the hill
3
Jeff Sessions, the last faltering voice of the Confederate bigot, bemoaning the lost world of mint juleps served by adoring black slaves to the ladies and gentlemen seated on the front porches of those magnificent old southern mansions (so costly to keep up and maintain without those ever-present black slaves to do all the work.)
"Last faltering voice?" Let us hope so.
4
Democrats are going to continue to lose elections if they focus on illegals.
17
It’s a simple concept- if you don’t want your family broken up, do not illegally enter America
16
A thoughtless concept, completely devoid of all human compassion, understanding or even common sense. Virtually all immigrants entering the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries were illegal (and I am reasonably sure that must include your ancestors as well.) Before the invention of passports, visas, aduanas and other barriers people simply stepped over the invisible line between political jurisdictions and went about their business. Did you mentions "walls"? Walls never kept out anybody - you simply go around them (or, as is the case in the US) fly over them..
1
If only life’s choices were always so simple
1
So do away all borders and immigration laws? That's your answer? This is not 1850. The world has ~ 7.6 billion people, this country has 325 million. Simply letting everyone go wherever they please sounds great, but it's not a world that most of us want to live in. The solution to the third worlds problems are not to move everyone to the west. That will just turn the west into another environmentally, socially devastated area.
Just because we empathize with someone who has experienced trauma does not mean that person warrants asylum.
8
This validates that those in charge now understand that climate change is in effect. Desertification is taking over in Central America/Mexico which means there will be more failed states with people moving north into the US which itself will experience the effect as the Southwest dries up by the end of the century. They are trying to prevent that migration away from the torrid zones as we see in north Africa and the Near East. Many lives will be lost instead of being saved.
1
PLUS, these women's asylum claims based on domestic violence are impossible to verify!
I worked in a law firm that did a lot of pro bono work for asylum seekers claiming domestic violence. Their stories were carefully shaped by lawyers who wanted to win --lawyers prefer to win, you know. The judge would have to guess, true or false, based on hearsay. If the women told their story well they were granted asylum. This is not a good system and not how it's supposed to work.
13
Yes, of course, find the most mean-spirited answer to any question, the solution that harms the most number of people, and that's what Republicans are doing. Everyone seems to be blaming Trump or Sessions, but this isn't their fault. All of this lies at the door of the Republican Party. We all knew who and what these men were before the Republicans turned them loose on our country.
3
Mixed messaging at it's worst. If you can grant that the domestic abuse argument has merit, it is a callous argument that gangs hold the same (non) weight? these are not the Jets versus the sharks here--these gangs are more like ISIS, making these refugees in more of a failed-state type of refugee status.
All you have to do is look at the Trump administration's policy regarding refugees from the Mideast for an answer.
2
The United States has been a shining example of Democracy based on the rule of law, a Constitution and the checks and balances that the structure of American government affords.
Moses was not allowed into the Promised Land because he "hit a rock" out of frustration, thereby ruining the all important example of following the Lord's directives that he, as a leader, must at all times portray.
Sessions and the GOP are destroying the view that America is a leader in Democratic rule and weakening the validity of its historic, moral and ethical design. The experiment is polluted. Time to wash out this corrupt petri dish. Vote this November.
1
Wait a minute: Sessions applied the rule of asylum law and he is destroying the rule of law? Now I've heard everything.
5
As a practical matter, domestic violence in foreign countries is a problem that the US cannot solve; that problem must be solved at home. Neither can it solve rampant crime, or rampant underemployment. These are reasons why people may want to move to the US, but not reasons for asylum. Asylum is reserved for those who are political victims of their own governments. Everyone else, although the condition of their lives may be bleak, must go through the regular system. Granting asylum to a Guatemalan woman who claims to have been raped by her husband or terrorized by a gang does not solve Guatemalan violence; it just lets her jump the line in front of the Guatemalan who applied at the US embassy. Only Guatemala can solve Gautemala's problems. This is not about how Jeff Sessions feels about women or domestic violence; this is about what you can and cannot achieve with an asylum policy.
12
Wait! Did I read this correctly that Sessions reversed a court decision ON HIS OWN without arguing before said court or another superior court for reversal? Can he do that?
It was an administrative immigration court. Immigration courts are under the purview of the Justice Department. The AG is the Supreme Court as far as those courts are concerned. So yes, he can do that.
4
"My husband beats me," should not be sole grounds for entry into the United States. Unless domestic violence is condoned by the government of another country, in which case it becomes political asylum. That is not the case with Mexico or Central American states.
9
Asylum seekers under the special groups conditions have to proof their situation beyond reasonable doubt. They are not given a free pass and are certainly not skipping the line. Most of these women and men fleeing due to domestic violence, gang persecution or harassment, have tried to stay in their countries and still violence pursue them. They are in real fear of their lives and their families. The requirements to proof their case are higher than any political or systemic abused refugee because their cases are harder to proof as any domestic violence or harassment case. That is why these cases take longer and they seem to live on a free pass, although they are the firsts to be deported if their cases fail. This administration and many in the world cannot fathom these situations because we are privileged under our judicial systems. Compassion has been drowned with fears of immigrants and lack of understanding. Read and research a little and you will see the truth.
I agree with Sessions. Your family's issues aren't our problem.
11
Jeff Sessions has led a comfortable, over-entitled, privileged, naive life. Only someone with his lack of experience would assert that the believable threats of criminal gangs and murderous spouses are insufficient grounds for asylum.
Jesus wept.
4
So did Jesús.
I agree with another poster that if a country has legal protections from abuse, they shouldn't qualify. I also agree with Mr. Sessions on this one. Our asylum program shouldn't be a refuge for the unfortunate worldwide. I want strong borders. Where I differ would be that I would want to increase legal immigration 3000% or more-- really get it up there. We need immigrants but I want them to be here legally with full protections from employment abuse, etc.
I found an article detailing new laws to address domestic violence in El Salvador.
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/articles/2011/03/21...
10
This is ridiculous, a threat from a gang in El Salvador is equivalent to a death sentence, is easy to say that is private matter, it is easy to be selfish it is easy to ignore the ones that do not have a voice those who cannot defend themselves. Before saying what Mr Sessions said better be informed about the consequences, what this makes is more people are going to be afraid of confronting the gangs and more people are going to die because they do not have a place to go to run from serious death threats by the gangs, they should at least provide safe passage to the Canadian Border. It is incredible how dehumanizing this administration is after the many times in which Central America and the US have partnered economically, militarily and diplomatically.
Perhaps if prior administrations had enforced immigration laws, there would be less frustration with illegal immigration and more room for asylum seekers.
6
America is moving up the ladder for human rights violations. The man who is in the WH is meeting with the leaders of nations known for human rights violations. We’re not there yet, but these are the leaders with whom he wants to bond. He really liked Kim & now they are BFF. I clearly do not understand how this man thinks this represents America. Dump allies to form union with dictators who kill people who oppose them. Dictator trump returns home in triumph (Fox News headline future). Kim has won round one.
Perhaps we should just take the right to vote away from women - that way issues that effect them could be more easily ignored by this administration.
The US has always been a shining beacon of hope....we must unite and fight those who wish to tarnish that great legacy. Vote in November! Who knows what will happen if you don't!
Sessions is right.
18
So you agree we should bomb Syria for gassing children and deny them asylum. We should deny battered women and take their children away before we do it. If that is right to people like yourself, no wonder America has joined the other repressive regimes run by a dictator.
2
He may be legally "right" but, in my opinion, he is morally "wrong.
2
Luckily for us this is a country of laws not moral opinions.
Could it be that Mr. Sessions is right on Legal grounds but wrong on Morals grounds?
After all, a victim abused woman doesn't belong to a specific group. If domestic violence is ground for asylum, the U.S could more than 30% of the world women could apply for asylum in the U.S.
They were 52000 unsolved deaths in the past decade in the US as per a recent Washington Post article. Most Black and minorities neighborhoods are plagued by gang violence in the U.S. Does that give any black young man or woman living in those gang-infested neighborhoods the right to apply for asylum in France or any other country. If those young Black men were to ask to move into the neighborhoods of people calling Sessions name on this comment board, will they open their doors to them?
Having said that, we all know where Mr. Sessiosn decisions come from? I'm sure if these people had a whiter skin color, Mr Sessions decision would have been different.
9
I'm confused. All along this administration kept warning us about MS-13.
Now they decided to support MS-13.
3
I believe the MS-13 originated in LA, ergo it is a US creation, a native product and not an import.. Deportation of MS13 members to Central America brought that curse to Cental America. I think the US should recognize its role in the creation of MS-13 and help solve the problem. The MS-13 is NOT a product of Central America. NO ONE supports the MS-13.
2
The fact that we let these guys come here and they repaid us by forming a violent gang is further proof that we need to be VERY careful who we let into this country. Importing more people from that part of the world is unlikely to be a viable solution to the ms13 problem. Aid to that part of the world maybe a good start, but throwing open the border is not.
France needs to demand we send Lady Liberty back to them. We deserve such a symbol of compassion no longer.
I think France is "enjoying" the benefits of mass migration right now. I suspect they wouldn't want the statue with the cheesy poem on it. We got it when our population was 1/6th what it is now. Our immigration laws and needs have evolved, just as every country on earths have.
4
France's President Macron has said that Africans are having too many children and that Africans and Arabs need to understand that they can't just move to France.
The pendulum is swinging back. The Third World is going to find more and more resistance in Europe and the US to uncontrolled immigration.
6
It's time for a show of hands. A reasonable number of people who could immigrate here under a claim of domestic violence is probably in the 300 million range. With chain migration, kids etc were talking about as many as billion new Americans. If the commenters are serious in that they think we should take them all in were talking about the greatest: social, fiscal, lifestyle, environmental, etc upheaval this country will have ever experienced. Every single aspect of this society would be affected so profoundly as to probably constitute the destruction of the u.s. as it now exists. Hard to imagine even the most rabid open borders type wants this. So perhaps we can move from name calling and emotional outbursts to a plan that helps people round the world without destroying the u.s. We can't take everybody, so how can we do the most good for the most people.
10
This is so sad, it just boggles the mind. It is just another link in the chain of backward politics ramped up beginning with the Reagan years. We will have to teach this all over again: I hope the millennials are up to it and if they cannot, their revolutionary children will be set to do so.
1
Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Just don't give us your domestic abuse victims or those fleeing gang violence. Sorry but, according to Jeff Sessions, it isn't America's problem if your husband beats you and your kids practically to death or if you live in fear of being murdered in your neighborhood by gang members. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and deal with it: isn't that the name of the game, Mr. Sessions?
Today it's the abuse victims from abroad. Tomorrow it will be the abuse victims here. Make no mistake, this administration is going to wash its collective hands of every person, every group, and and every issue it considers problematic. The helping hand of fellowship is eventually only going to be extended to those who can afford to pay for the privilege.
5
It's already happening here, Lindsay. This administration, as well as most of the republican congress, is anti-women's rights. They fight equal wages & higher minimum wage, are anti affordable healthcare and anti-reproductive rights.
4
Give me a break. The US has a duty to grant refugee status to every man and woman in the world suffering from domestic violence? Since when?
9
Just as the U.S.really has no business being "law enforcers and social workers to the world."
Ii don't want this taken as Nationalist chest-pounding. Not even close, as far as I'm concerned.
What I do mean, is our country cannot be "all things to all people."
While I find separating illegal immigrants from their American-born children way beyond deplorable, there are lines that have to be drawn, and understandings established, in no uncertain terms.
The Democrats I help get elected need to be mindful of this, especially with midterm elections getting closer and closer.
Summer's here and the time is right, for us Dems to start looking long and hard at ourselves, on this narrative in particular.
Know this; we still have to be able to exploit the Republicans hipocisy; we just can't do so at our own expense.
If I had a solution to this and other problems within the Democratic Party, I'd hope that I would have the best skills and abilities of a Howard Dean; a Robert Reich; a James Carville; and yes...even the sinister tactics of a Lee Atwater. ( Hey; somebody's got to give the GOP a mouthful of its own poison.)
2
Sessions ends the gaming of the system at the border. Bravo.
5
Ugh. I've long wondered what would happen if people stayed in place and fought back against fear, corruption, injustice, etc. It seems allowing people to come here only "to escape x,y,z..." actually might make life worse - there and here. Would the United States be the United States if those unhappy with the English King, his government, and his "operatives" had simply left these shores and gone to, um, the then Spanish Argentina? Someone, somewhere, will have to always pay a price to right "wrongs" and that price may include dying, being unhappy, seeing your kids suffer... But, what about the people you left behind when you left "your" country? Are they, is anyone else better off, because you - with all your motivations to "fix" things - permanently leave? Are we making the world a better place by making it easier to do so...? Like I said, I wonder what would happen if every time the going gets tough, the "remedy" is to get going - away... And, to then stay away forever... At least some past governments have taken people in, trained and armed them, and sent them back. The Bay of Pigs didn't go well, but many war refugees in WW2 did go to England, train to retake their countries "back," and actually did... Win some, lose some, but what's better? Taking yourself to another country, or, making your problem a reason to fix your own country? Hmmmm....
1
Mr. Sessions' decision is yet another obscene strike against women perpetrated by the Right Wing. He seems to be unaware - or unwilling to acknowledge - that domestic violence is a severe life threat for many women, not just an inconvenience or "misfortune." When one considers the role of extended families in cultures other than the United States (which is different because many families are fractured and elders generally are not honored), domestic violence can take on a multi-generational and familial aspects, and is far more dangerous for a woman who becomes part of her husband's family.
Mr. Sessions seems to desire a return to the "Dark Ages" of wife beating as a right of the (male) head of household. It cannot be long before US women are eligible for asylum throughout the global community based on the conditions prevalent in THIS country.
4
Once again this points out that we are unwilling to have a conversation on what we really want from our immigration system. Gallup polling indicates that there are hundreds of millions of folks who would like to immigrate, likely, more than the current population of the country. So, who do we want? I do not have all the answers, but we need an understandable policy. Congress needs to deal with this. Otherwise, we will continue to fight these battles in the micro, on a case by case basis, while the current, in my opinion, wrong headed system grinds forward.
13
Very typical disregard for human well-being and suffering, especially for women and children, is a hallmark of the present so-called "administration." They have the nerve to call themselves Christian. Trump and his gang cannot be ousted too soon.
6
Then perhaps Sessions also should outlaw the use of Federal funds gleaned from low income taxpayers to hire a massive security detail for his buddy, Scott Pruitt, who is in much less danger of losing his life than these pitiful applicants for asylum.
3
Why are there so many awful places in the world?
Why is america becoming one of those awful places too?
8
My guess is that Sessions, like a good chunk of the GOP, thinks domestic violence is the woman’s fault anyway.
Everyday the party of Christian Family Values shows how hollow those values are.
Why doesn’t Sessions and the rest of GOP admit what the rest of us have figured out? The Party’s preference would be for the US to be a whites only country.
The GOP should rebrand itself as the Confederate Family Values Party. Its values seem more in line with the racism and white supremacy of Jefferson Davis than the compassion and mercy of Jesus Christ.
3
Domestic violence is not the woman's fault; nor is it the United States problem to solve another country's citizen problems
4
I really hate that these creatures are doing this in all of our names and representing this country to the world. If it's petty, cruel and morally bankrupt then it's Trump policy. Why? Was this country really being harmed that much in ANY significant way by beaten desperate women trying to escape violence???
I am so ashamed of my country.
12
there are not civil words to respond to Sessions; yet there are other solutions to spousal abuse. Ask Loretta Bobbit. There is a war on women in our government; be it ripping children from mother's arms, forcing pregnancy completions, tighening abortion rules, paying us less. Maybe Sessions has a skeleton in his closet along with a baseball bat.
3
Maybe ethics, morals and basic human dignity can't reach good ole boy Jeff in his titanium Ivory Tower.
His actions are, without a shadow of a doubt, deeply un-American.
My apologies to all victims he has recklessly chosen to discard for nothing more than political leverage.
4
Sessions is the most callous narrow minded Attorney
General imaginable. He was rejected decades ago for the Federal Bench due to his segregationist past. I feel he has not changed much and remains bigoted and prejudiced to minorities. He is cut from the same cloth as Trump! Just horrible.
16
Of course domestic abuse is not grounds for asylum. Session’s boss is a serial abuser, and he sees nothing wrong with it.
4
What if the person fleeing domestic abuse is from Norway?
6
Just one more example of the overall lack of humanity of this administration.
2
Ethnic cleansing, no matter what the overt and sadistic cruelty involved . Nothing the Republicans want more than to whiten the voter rolls, no matter whose blood is on their hands.
18
Ethnic cleansing? I don't suppose you could elaborate?
2
This administration is nothing but cruel.
15
Well at least he has combined a fundemental miss-understanding of asylum with lack of human empathy... how else would we know he’s republican.
4
Just look at this Christians concern for the well being of others. What a role model. What a witness to the love of Christ.
4
I think it's about time somebody told Jeff Sessions that he should go and sin no more. They should tell him that bit of Christian wisdom right after they inform him that he who is without sin should cast the first stone, and that a camel has a better chance of getting through the eye of a needle than the rich man does in entering the Kingdom of Heaven. Oh wait, no: that last one's not for old Jeff. That one's for Trump.
We are blind to genocides and ethnic cleansing around the world. We are blind to sectarian wars in which women and children are bombed, gassed, driving into refugee camps and die of starvation and cholera. We see news of these atrocities almost daily on our evening news reports and yet do nothing. Why would we be any different when it comes to domestic abuse?
3
Domestic Violence ? Isn't every Heroic Single Mother who divorces her husband and gate keeps the children away from their father an alleged victim of Domestic Violence ? If you take the time to do a little bit of study of just one of these Domestic Violence organizations, you can see that they don't give a rat's tail about violence, but rather they are all about breaking up the families, and most importantly, securing Custody of the child(ren) for the Mother.
4
This isn't about taking defenseless kids away from poor, suffering, beleaguered, good-hearted fathers whose vindictive ex-wives are taking them to the cleaners. This is about abused women and children who are no longer going to have a refuge from their violent and sometimes psychotic abusers thanks to this administration. People are going to end up dead because Jeff Sessions. You don't get to rewrite the narrative on domestic violence because you think all women are, in some fashion, out to get men. Grow up.
2
if these are criteria for asylum, how many hundreds of millions of women from Africa claiming to flee genital mutilation, from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc claiming spousal abuse and fleeing arranged marriage, and men and women from Central America fleeing gang violence should we be obligated to absorb?
11
As many as need help.
Would you refuse to rescue someone from drowning by claiming that the boat was too full?
If taking in the drowning person meant the rest of the boat would sink or topple over from the extra weight, then yes. I know it sounds cruel, but taking in everyone who wanted to move to the US is unsustainable. It sounds lovely and admirable to say we would help everyone who needed it, but it isn't possible.
Actually yes. If the boat is full then attempting to being in more people means that we all drown when the boat capsizes. That doesn't seem to be moral under either utilitarian or deontological considerations.
If memory serves the F.D.R. Administration had a similar policy towards my Eastern European Jewish antecedents. Systemic German violence against them in the 1930’s was insufficient grounds for granting them asylum in the U.S. Six-plus million deaths later Sessions and his leash-holder Trump are still playing the same tune.
10
Supposedly, we learned from that and wouldn't do the same thing. But in the next breath, we're back to the same.
1
No wonder the Trump administration appears to be getting along so well with North Korea. Humanity is secondary to bigotry and hate in both the Trump administration and the North Korean government.
6
My first reaction was felt deep in my soul.....why does this administration hate women so much?
23
Trump allegedly raped his ex-wife (and two others). Domestic violence is his middle name.
people who voted for this. how do you sleep at night? or are they so immoral that this has no impact on them.
4
It makes them proud & they sleep with their guns every night. The scary thing is this will get these guys voted back in. Unless trump cones back & declares as dictator & government is null & void. Only people left will be pruitt, sessions, & mnuchin, & family. Everyone else arrested & imprisoned in Sessions’ new privately owned prisons.
1
What about men who are gang raped or who live in fear of being beaten or hunted down because they refuse to join a gang or follow their orders? Do they qualify for asylum?
Of course, though I can’t recall an article concerning this subject. Rape and gang rape of women is recognized internationally as a war crime and has been for centuries. Conquering soldiers customarily rape. It has been going on since Viking and Roman times and I’ll bet even longer.
There should be a NYT story every day about a separated family, or a brutalized person refused asylum. Who are we?
3
Jeff Sessions is depraved. He just denied health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions: and now this.
5
I lived in Alabama for 10 years. Jeff Sessions has no heart, no compassion and no empathy. He is a mean little man.
23
On the one hand, empathy cannot be the foundation of policy, nor should it be. By taking pity on one person, you exclude others who are equally worthy of protection. We are a country of laws, not tear-jerkers. On the other hand, there are countries and cultures in which rape and domestic violence are enshrined as tools of political, religious and ethnic domination. Examples include the Yazidis under ISIS, women in Congo’s civil war and many others. Why wouldn’t the US government draw a list of such countries and declare that a female citizen of one of them showing a credible threat of persecution should be treated as a political refugee and granted asylum? Women coming from other countries whose tragedies are purely personal should get to the end of the line. This would solve the problem; but of course, drawing such a list would require consulting experts and understanding other cultures, so it’s not going to happen.
3
Unfortunately, I think this is a wise decision. There is not enough room in this country to invite every person in the world to come in. Those who are abused without protection in their own country, those who can't find work in their own country, or those who prefer to live here rather than in their own country.
History is replete with stories of people who decided change was necessary and, through revolution or peaceful politics, made those changes happen.
7
So all a person had to do was claim a fear of domestic abuse if he/she were returned to a home country? No wonder the asylum numbers jumped from 5,000 in 2009 to 94,000 in 2016. I agree with Sessions. Domestic abuse was not meant to be covered under the asylum provisions. These women should be sent back to their Central American countries or they can try to enter Mexico.
8
It is so sad that this once great country shrinks into itself and sees no need to help those who desperately need help. If we as a country cannot step up and help those with great difficulty among us then we are losing our moral grounds for living our lives as a great country.
I feel sad about women, wherever they are, who are abused by their husbands or boyfriends, even if the relationship is generally somewhat voluntary, at least at the outset, and I feel even worse about gangs terrorizing entire populations. And I never thought I would agree with Sessions on anything. But I do agree with him on most of this. If the USA is not the world's policeman, which it isn't, does it need to provide a "rescue" service to every abused woman in the world, or even just those who can make their way to the border? Obviously these individual foreign women are not solely, or even slightly, responsible for how well or poorly their government works in terms of protecting women, and it is, I think, ultimately a human rights issue... but even so, the problem is not close to an "asylum" issue, in any political sense. Some of these women almost certainly need protection. What does make sense is that IF this kind of asylum is to be provided, the whole thing needs to be properly administered and funded and managed. That's why we have a Congress and laws and regulations, etc.
2
"The number of people who told homeland security officials that they had a credible fear of persecution jumped to 94,000 in 2016 from 5,000 in 2009"
Clearly, our policy needs examining. The incentive to make claims of persecution was elevated.
7
For a very long time the uncorroborated assertion of domestic abuse or fear of gang violence was enough to have an immigration judge grant a hearing for amnesty -- often years after the application. Any alien with a pulse never returns, and we have no means of tracking them down. They simply disappear into America and add to the massive illegal population. Undoubtedly some of the claims are valid, but a great many are not. Those wanting to enter the US know how to play this system, and we are scammed time and time again. It's time to stop this free ride.
6
How did the US get to be the moral beacon of domestic abuse (or human rights, for that matter) anyway? We sacrificed the presumption of innocence and jailed lots of men on testimony alone, and wound up with a substantial amount of recanting and unjust imprisonment, with hardly anything to show for it- no deterrent effect at all. So I'm sorry if it's politically incorrect but this doesn't bother me at all.
5
I agree, if it was, we would have a billion people that qualify for asylum. We are not the worlds dumping ground for citizens of other countries...
6
I am no fan of Trump or Sessions, but it is difficult to see why all outrage over this decision. Under international law asylum is the granting by one state of refuge to the citizens of another state from persecution (by act or neglect) from the authorities of that other state. If domestic abuse is widespread in a state and it is tolerated or encouraged by the authorities of that state against a group based on matter such as religion or ethnicity, it may constitute grounds for asylum, but an individual criminal act does not. If personal abuse constitutes grounds for asylum, what of other suffering - poor housing, poverty, unemployment. Europe is seeing the consequences of such broad interpretations of asylum as it suffers a huge influx of chancers and the like from sub-Saharan Africa with not better reason to move than they "want a better life"; we all do, but that doesn't give us the right to pick which country we live in.
8
I would like to see some reporting on how the Christian supporters of Donald Trump, both laypeople and clergy, feel about this ruling. My guess is that it will be hard to reconcile their support for this action with the principle “what would Jesus do”.
2
I think you give them too much credit. If they asked “what would Jesus do?” Trump wouldn’t be president. Fundamentalists and evangelicals believe men have dominion over women. The Bible says so after all. Listen to the sermons televangelists like Pat Robertson and others give about submission, such as wives need to pay their husbands with sex if he does chores around the house or staying with abusive husbands because marriage is more sacred than the well-being or lives of women. His ideas are as ancient as he is.
Excellent decision, Mr. Sessions!
4
Yes but all our ancestors..stole land from the Native Americans in doing so effectively wiped out an entire people and way of life. The influx of immigrants into this land was an program of genocide. That’s a potential outcome in such mass human migrations throughout history.
Why don’t you think that could happen again? Why don’t you see that there are some Americans who are saying that having so many immigrants is changing a way of life and threatening their cultural identity. There is some truth to that.
Immigration must be dealt with legally by congress and people need to stop crossing our border illegally. Immigrants also need to respect the laws of this land. They must adopt western ideals of freedoms and equality and acculturate if they are to successful and their children are to be successful.
Domestic violence is a global phenomenon under patriarchy. I would could argue it’s a form of political terrorism to control women, and under certain circumstances violence against women is covered under asylum laws but we have a domestic violence and gang problem here in the US. I don’t see other nations giving our people political asylum because of it.
Nations need to elect moral visionary leaders that work to solve their nation’s problems and give their People a better way life for all socioeconomic groups. Currently very few nations are doing that..and I include the US in that list.
I am no Trump or Sessions fan but I do see a problem with our current immigration problem.
1
I have often wondered why Jeff Sessons is willing to endure such abusive and demeaning abuse from President 45. Then I see the decisions that Sessions gets to make with the power of an Attorney General. Decimating the asylum system, attacking gay rights, undermining police department consent decrees, attacking voter rights, prosecuting marijuana cases, supporting ownership of attack rifles, and ignoring civil rights cases. One can only assume this is to demonstrate the high principles of Christian evangelism. I suppose that the power to inflict such hate and misery must make it worth enduring 45's abuse.
3
Agree with this decision as it’s the law. It’s terribly sad that women are abused - but it is a global issue. We do not have the resources in the United States to take on every domestic violence victim seeking asylum when we don’t even help our own women. Democrats - and I am one of them - have got to stop playing the immigrant card if we want to win in November. Our first priority has to be our own citizens. We are going to lose even more moderates if we keep making DACA and immigrants’ rights such big issues. You don’t think the Republicans know that with decisions like these? They make a decision against immigrants and then sit back and watch liberals react. You think it’s an accident? Keep getting riled up on immigration Democrats, and we have no chance of taking back the House. Stick to the economic fairness and healthcare for all AMERICANS first if Democrats actually want to be back in power in 2018.
13
I’m fairly certain that we, as Americans, are quite capable of taking care of our own as well as those from other nations. Unfortunately, the resources that you speak of are being sapped by the greed of the 1% and the big businesses they control. The game is rigged. Don’t let them fool you with their zero-sum game nonsense.
Really Brett? You're willing to be taxed to the extent that you'll be able to "take care of those of other nations""? Fine., but you don't speak for the rest of us.
So an entire category of people seeking asylum based on their suffering severe human rights violations, including beatings, torture, and death threats - i.e., terrorism - often enforced by their native countries, cultures, or political terrorists - will now be denied asylum in this country.
Why? Apparently, because Sessions and this administration do not recognize domestic violence as human rights violations - since they do not recognize that women have human rights.
Beware, American women: if our government refuses to recognize the human rights of women of other nations, it will recognize the human rights of women here. In fact, that's already happening.
Tearing children from their parents' arms - and now this. I don't recognize my country anymore.
2
I meant to write: "if our government refuses to recognize the human rights of women of other nations, it will NOT recognize the human rights of women here."
1
“What this decision does is yank us all back to the Dark Ages of human rights and women’s human rights and the conceptualization of it,” she said.
We were yanked back into the Dark Ages when large numbers of USA citizens failed to vote in the 2016 election. Did those of us opposed to Trump do enough to prevent his election and rouse the moribund to vote? Obviously not.
If it is not a good reason for asylum should it still be a ground for a conviction that leads to deportations?
2
Well, as U.S. citizens are convicted and jailed for domestic violence offenses, why shouldn't immigrants be subject to the same laws, even if enforcement of such results in deportation?
Unless you feel that immigrants and citizens should be subjected to differing standards of justice?
2
Right now Sessions hits at women again. Me too where are you? Before Obamacare spousal abuse was accepted as a preexisting condition. There are still 8 states and DC that accept that idea. So now women in an abusive situation may not look to the US for refuge and those good Americans who are abused in this country can lose or have insurance delayed and it may be more expensive. And Sessions and Trump support separations of mothers, fathers and children.
I have a thought. If all the readers who think Sessions made a heartless decision were to take in one or two of these unfortunate people that would go a long way in solving the problem.
I for one would be willing to do my part. I have four extra beds in my house. I can’t afford to feed those four so I would need help with that. I only speak English so there would be need someone to help us communicate with each other. They would probably need medical and dental care. No problem the government could take care of that. If any of the four were children they could be enrolled in the local school district.
Since my home is not in an urban area , and I only have a small car some kind of transportation would have to be provided.
I’m sure there are other things I have not considered but the government can handle them as they come up. If we all do our part just think of how many millions of suffering souls we can help.
1
How many people in the world are victims of gang violence of domestic abuse?
Sadly I would bet around 300 million.
Is the US in a position to admit 300 million more people to this country?
Whatever happened to ZPG?
3
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Well, I guess as long as they’re not too tired, too poor, or yearning too hard.
It is interesting that Stephen Miller dismisses an entire category of asylum requests that he says are based on an “unproven assertion up front of having quote unquote credible fear.” Yet such “quote unquote credible fear” is the basis for the so-called “stand your ground” laws, which Miller does strongly support.
I understand that changes are required in some of our immigration and asylum laws and enforcement models. But as with the approach taken in so many areas by the Trump administration, we need to ask several questions. Why must they totally destroy things rather than improve them? Why must they destroy things before having plans for better replacements? Why must they be so nasty and cruel in the process?
Isn't it a shame that individual countries are unable to control the violence and crime within their own borders and to provide their citizens with functional economies ? One of the reasons which account for the flood of immigrants coming to our shores and for the USA being expected to be The World's Policeman and Wallet , very costly roles to play.
5
Refugees flood into many countries around the world.
The United States is one of the most selfish, accepting a fraction of the number of refugees who are taken in by much poorer countries.
It's sickening to hear from Americans who feel "persecuted" for being asked to have compassion for their fellow human beings.
Asylum was never about local crime, domestic violence etc.
Seems odd we even have to re assert the obvious.
7
This administration has demonstrated time and time again their wholesale disregard for anyone that is not white and male.
How anyone can still support them is beyond me. Given Trump's current popularity, whatever results from the midterms is on us.
2
According to a poster in the New York City subway, there is NO such thing as a joke, there is ONLY sexual harassment.
While domestic abuse is deplorable and needs to be stopped it is not something which the government is doing. Lots of American women suffer domestic abuse at the hands of husbands and partners. So do some men. I myself have had a telephone thrown at me by my wife which cut my eyelid. Was that domestic abuse?
Which country should all these American women - who suffered domestic abuse - emigrate to? Sweden? But Sweden has the highest rate of rape in Europe.
Domestic problems cannot be solved through massive emigration.
But I know how to read the NYT. "Sessions is a bad guy, just like Trump."
2
Self preservation is a human instinct and need to survive, how humane is it to block one from doing so? This isn't right and completely unfair for the women and families that are affected.
I am always suspect when Jeff sessions speaks about what is legal.
He interprets law according to his beliefs not according to the actual law. Just because it might not spell out exactly the Domestic Abuse issue, would it not be a possibility to interpret the law "as being in fear for her life if she remains in" whatever country you want to insert?
Is this Sessions true feelings about women in general, that they should be barefoot, pregnant and keep their mouth shut?
Given his proclivities to lying himself, think his Congressional hearings when he declared he did not meet with a Russian Diplomat and the lie resulting in his confirmation, could it be he would mis-interpret whatever law he wanted to? Or actually lie about it? I have to wonder.
4
I don't like Sessions but think that this idea is sound. It's unfortunate that it is being framed as a domestic violence issue. The US can't fix all the ills in the world.
12
Not when he is too busy creating ills for Americans with loss of health care for pre-existing illnesses (which will include high blood pressure), loss of voting rights by purging lists (if more than 2 john jones in a state they all get purged as duplicates), loss of life for refusing any kind of gun control, increase in hate crimes, on & on. Yes an admin to be proud of. Human rights violations are on rise in US of T(rump).
Maybe you’re right that we cannot fix all the ills of the world. But, if we don’t try, who will? Do we sit idly by while thousands (if not millions) are slaughtered around the globe? If we can’t at least try to help these people, who will? We can do better.
I am not a fan of Sessions (and hate Trump, just so you know) but on this one I have to say I agree with him. Domestic violence shouldn't be a free pass to a green card. I'm not saying the person should stay in the marriage but since when are the only choices stay in a abusive marriage or go to the US. A better idea might be to support battered women's shelters in their home countries. Let them work within their own country to solve the problem, you think the US was any different to start with? Until fairly recently, and perhaps still in some states, there was no such thing as marital rape.
10
"'I'm not saying the person should stay in the marriage but since when are the only choices stay in a abusive marriage or go to the US. A better idea might be to support battered women's shelters in their home countries. Let them work within their own country to solve the problem, you think the US was any different to start with?'"
Support battered women's shelters in their home countries? Have you seen some of these countries? They aren't exactly bastions of tolerance and equality that will welcome battered women's shelters here, there, and everywhere on their soil. As for our "support" of those battered women's shelters on international soil, I'm assuming you mean support with kind words and thoughts, because this administration isn't going to give a dime to support abused women in other countries, especially if those women are poor as dirt, as a lot of them unfortunately are in these instances. On the domestic front, this administration's only concern for its women seems to be in limiting our access to birth control, gynecological services, abortion, and adequate birthing options. We can't even get them to reasonably fund food, educational, and healthcare programs, for crying out loud. Do you think they're really going to care if a bunch of poor women in another country that half of their low-information "base" probably can't find on a map are getting beaten into the next world by their spouses?
Abused women usually don't have the power to evade their relationships, much less the resources to work to change conditions in their own countries.
If they did they would not be making the perilous and uncertain journey to seek asylum in a more "humane" (/s) country like the United States.
2
Domestic violence is a reason to leave town. Unless your abuser has psychic powers, it is not a reason to leave your country. How will he even know where you are? And if he does have superpowers, he could follow you to the US also (while saying truthfully he fears gang violence), so you won't be safe in the US either. You may not like Jeff Sessions, but not only is he not unreasonable on this matter, everyone who disagrees with him on this matter IS unreasonable.
6
On a planet where roughly 40% of women are abused in male dominated societies it makes no sense to let all of them into the United States. Just a formula to fill up the USA with people with PTSD. Sessions corrected another Obama era overreach. Good job.
8
End all asylum seeker applications, except under the most extraordinary circumstances and on a prolonged case-by-case basis with a low quota. Accept only the best and the brightest--those foreigners who are ready and willing to contribute to the greatness of America immediately.
To use the law as a method of human rights abuse by the United States is DEPLORABLE. I am humiliated as an American.
4
Yet another example of this administrations mind set that women are second class citizens or should be show pieces.
2
Gang violence and domestic abuse were never grounds for asylum either in U.S. or international asylum law until King Barack I decided it would be so, to satisfy the extremist advocacy groups that were part of his electoral coalition. The current administration is simply restoring U.S. asylum procedure to what it had always been and bringing the U.S. back into line with continued international practice. That's all, despite the huffing and puffing from the Left.
8
The Istanbul International Convention on Domestic Violence, passed in 2011, has been the new international standard on how the issue of domestic violence ought to be dealt with. It includes very specific language on the question of receiving asylum as a refugee. The Convention was passed in 2011 by the Council of Europe, signed by 46 countries and ratified at this point by 35 of those. That is an essential context in which to place Sessions' actions, but your reporters seem unaware of it. Here is the relevant info, please do better background research next time: https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/21...
5
Did America ratify this convention? If not it is meaningless in this debate
Your link is invalid.
Raise your hand if you think Jeff Sessions has experienced domesice violence and gang violence? Each added cruelty by this swamp makes me really sad and red hot angry. It's stunning that so many American's subscribe to this philosophy. I'm deeply embarrassed for our country, but will never forsake it. Fight back. Vote!
all you Democrats .. don't you think it is more reasonable for you to go to El Salvador and make changes there? Surely there are more than a few woman there suffering the same issues and if you get the government to make changes there then many more women and families will benefit .. isn't that the more direct response to help these women .. ?
4
Domestic abuse asylum seekers jumped from 5k to 94k in the last 7 years. That's a million people every 10 years and doesn't account for the fact of additional growth once the doors are open. I feel for these women but it's just not sustainable to have them move here. Further, we do a horrible job dealing with domestic violence in this country. What makes anyone think these women will be better off here.
11
Yesterday, in Orlando a man killed his two children and his partners two children. I guess that not a problem for Sessions.
I am not an immigrant, or associated with any immigrant group. That immigrant groups speak up for refugees is hardly news to anyone, but what do Americans with no skin in the game think? That is what you need to report!
I am a Christian and my religious beliefs tell me that speaking up for refugees is an essential part of my faith. Didn’t the baby Jesus and his family flee from the threat of violence to a foreign land? How different the world would be if instead, he was caught and murdered, or like the poor drowned Syrian boy on the beach, died when his boat capsized.
Christians have always provided sanctuary to people in need. You would think that a Bible thumper like Sessions would know this? Apparently not.
SESSIONS IS Breathtakingly savage in his treatment of those who are less fortunate, abusing the power of his office to enable famlly members who fear for their lives due to death threats and violence from family members--most often wives and children fleeing the domestic violence perpetrated by the men in the family. What Sessions has done is to take the position that the anti-Semites took against the Jews during WW II, when the were barred from the US and sent back to Europe where they often faced certain torture and death. Sessions is a monster--a conservative of the most dangerous sort--a so-called conservative without conscience.
1
which countries that we wish to emulate offer asylum for domestic abuse victims?
5
Thank goodness sanity is restored to our immigration and asylum system.
7
While it sounds harsh the policy is in line with other countries. The only issue with it is that the US takes in so few refugees to begin with that one can only wonder if the ultimate goal of the Trump administration is to ensure no one who is not white and christian be denied entry to our country?
4
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me"
(Matthew 25:40, 45).
You would think that a self-declared man of faith like Sessions would be guided by the WWJD (what would Jesus do) principle. I can’t imagine Jesus would turn desperate and victimized women and children away and back into the arms of their tormentors.
I suppose in Jeff Sessions’ mind why offer foreign women protection from domestic violence and sexual abuse by granting asylum when we republicans don’t do a thing to help American women. He and his ilk want to keep women where they belong in the kitchen fixin’ up some vittles and in the bedroom churning out those babies, preferably males. I am so riproaring angry!
Sessions and this administration are the ultimate all boys club. From Trump’s multiple infidelities, Pence’s fear of being in the company of a woman not his wife, Sessions’ sexism, and the rest of the boys. Also let’s not forget their female enablers, Kellyanne Conway, Huckabee-Sanders, and the rest of the “Phyllis Schlafly” wannabes.
It’s time to fight the good fight and get the Equal Rights Amendment ratified! NOW!
2
Grounds for asylum are spelled out here:
https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum
Under US and international law, asylum is granted to people seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to their:
-Race
-Religion
-Nationality
-Membership in a particular social group
-Political opinion
That's it! Come on, you've heard this before. Mr. Sessions has not changed a single thing about the grounds for asylum and all the liberal, open-borders, sanctimonious blubbering cannot change these facts.
8
The US is only a haven for those with money and especially, those who will invest millions with Trump & Kushner.
2
Yesterday's headline read that a man killed himself after killing his four children in what originated a frantic call from the wife who had been beaten by that man. Where does Jeff Sessions get his news?
1
Jeffie Sessions wouldn't last a minute in a room with the man who abused me, my mother and my sister. I'd like to see him try. What a revolting group these pathetic men are. I have to wonder what Sessions would enjoy more: a good old-fashioned lynching of a black man, or a gang rape of a Mexican teenager?
2
Everybody wants a free lunch. Time to end all asylums. Period.
4
Institutionalized Misogyny on All Accounts
1
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
I'll lock them up and take their kids away,
Unless they're white and rich from old Norway!
3
No asylum for M-13 victims? This is a very ugly American administration.
3
MS-13 originated in America and is still here. The Mexican drug cartels have members and affiliates here. Most international criminal organizations have ways of reaching people in America. You’re not necessarily safer here than abroad.
3
Send a woman, or any women back to be abused again?
You will answer to God, you so-called Christian boy.
3
Donald Trump, Steve Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Larry Kudlow and Rudy Giuliani have three wives and counting among them. None of these chauvinist misogynist boorish big dogs believe that they have domestically abused their herd of fifteen breeders, cleaners, cookers, mothers, sexual toys and washers.
And Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III is all Confederate States of America "gentleman " in his condescending paternalism towards the belles. Protecting the little ladies is his prime directive.
Donald Trump honored the torch carrying marching mob chanting "Jews will not replace us " in Charlottesville. And Jeff Sessions has designated "black identity politics" groups like "Black LIves Matter" as a primary domestic terrorist violence threat. America's drug addiction and gun fetish builds and fuels gangs throughout the Americas.
1
Jefferson Beauregard voted against the Violence Against Women Act
so #notyoutoo
should not surprise anyone.
So after the white people from Europe invaded North America and killed or pushed the natives onto barren reservations, they want to close the door behind them.
1
“The prototypical refugee...”
What fresh hell is this? While it is perhaps understandable that Mr. Sessions may be trapped in a certain antebellum mindset, some of us are only alive because the United States once accepted the plight of refugees fleeing from State-sponsored pogroms and tolerated gang violence.
White Russians are more than just the preferred cocktail of Jeffrey Lebowski.
There's a special place in hell for Sessions.
Domestic violence is a “personal matter” but not a women’s right to choose. Republicans hate women.
3
Nobody said that abortion isn’t personal. Just that there is another life to consider. And no, Republicans do not hate women.
2
I really want to be eloquent here. But all I can see is an awful heartless stupid man who has no values or compassion. I keep looking at that picture and just think "jerk".
Kim P.
I suppose Sessions had to get back at women somehow, after women in Alabama failed to elect a Republican pedophile to succeed him in the Senate.
Congrats, America, on continually electing members of this morally bereft party to office.
1
Gee, I wonder if Stephen Miller's parents would be allowed to immigrate today? Oh, right, they are not brown people so yes, Welcome!
1
You have a fight with your spouse and all of a sudden that entitles you to come here?
I don't think so.
8
More like you beat your spouse, almost kill him/her a few times a year, they go to the police for help and get told nothing can be done and sent home every time, a child or two gets killed and they know next fight will probably be the end for them and any remaining children. What is it that inscribed on the statue of liberty? Something about give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...
If you are a victim of domestic abuse leave the abuser or get law enforcement to deal with it. You're in a big country. Go somewhere else. That you are a victim of domestic abuse does not give you the right to come here.
Think of what an utterly despicable clod like Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions is. He then climbs upon the Trump bandwagon and is appointed AG. Some conservative Dems - I said some, boy - now view Mr. Magoo as one of the Demagogue-in-Chief's not so bad picks. Were it not for that terrible pick (terrible for the lawbreaker-in-Chief) Comey would have fired and there would be no Special Counsel. Strange world indeed.
DD
Manhattan
I wonder if Sessions extends that to domestic violence in this country? Does he believe laws against domestic violence in the US should be weakened as well?
5
U.S. asylum law is based on, and closely tracks, the international law definition of refugee as established in the Refugee Convention to which we are signatory. Asylum is a very specific construct that is only intended to address specific types of problems. If we, as a nation, wish to make other issues grounds for receiving legal status in the United States, that would require Congress to pass legislation that says so. It should be noted that Congress has indeed previously created immigration provisions for persons with fears that do not come under the rubric of asylum, such as the programs under the Violence against Women Act and special visas for certain victims of human trafficking.
29
The Violence Against Women Act is great as long as it is enforced. Let’s not forget Sessions, along with the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate voted against reauthorization in 2013.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2013/h55
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/113-2013/s19
Under international law, asylum seekers must file their application in the first safe country they they arrive at, which would not be the US.
45
Reading these comments, there are essentially two viewpoints being expressed here. One is essentially, "Jeff Sessions is a mean and uncharitable person." The other is "Unfortunately, the law of asylum doesn't really apply to these people, so this is a correct decision." I'm in the second camp, and note that not only US law, but the international convention on asylum is written in such a way that the only reasonable interpretation is the one the AG has issued. If the question comes down to whether the attorney general's job is either to apply the law correctly or "not be mean," I think most people would conclude that the AG has to apply the law. If we want Mr. Rogers to be the chief law enforcement officer of the US, we really need to rewrite the job description.
58
Let me clarify that "being mean" here means sending people back to abuse and death. That is not "being mean", but "being inhumane".
1
The cruelty of this decision is in keeping with others by this administration and Republicans in general. Whether it's women's rights at home or abroad, they want to turn back the clock and slam the door in the faces of those least able to defend themselves. Shame on eggs government, shame on all of us for allowing them to continue this travesty.
16
Every day, I wonder what the bottom is for this administration . . . guess, we haven't hit it yet. What perfectly vile excuses for human beings all of them are, and yet they constantly proclaim how their lives are driven by their belief in God. No God I know.
24
Most NYT readers wouldn’t even allow a homeless shelter or affordable housing to be built in their vicinity, claiming its “out of character with the neighborhood.” But they’re more than willing to volunteer the rest of the country for every problem afflicting the world.
Anyone with a modicum of legal education knows that Sessions is both within his AG authority and conventional legal thinking with regard to asylum claims based on domestic violence or fear of gang violence. Foreign government inaction or ineffectiveness in curbing these scourges isn’t sufficient to gain asylum. Just think how in the recent past, domestic violence and gang violence were ignored by some local governments in America. Did that give residents of Chicago or Baltimore the right to asylum in Sweden or Canada?
There’s a limit to what one country can do for the world. For people claiming the United States has the resources to do or pay for everything, we can’t even provide decent schools and healthcare for our own citizens. Homelessness is burgeoning in cities and suburbs everywhere. Pension funds across all levels of government are underfunded. There are quotas on the number of green cards and visas for a reason.
80
Immigrants create economic growth. They're the ones helping us, statistically. We need to enforce the law, legal immigration doodle be increased for the economy, but be mindful of the consequences of minimizing immigration in a cruel and arbitrary manner with no warning. This used to be a Christian nation.
1
And yet we have billions left over for tax giveaways for the 1%.
This subject is more complicated than it is presented in the article, and obviously more complicated than the generalizations that Jeff Sessions is using. There are several factors that have to be proven to get asylum based on domestic abuse, and that's been that way since the first such cases in the 1990s.
As for the other contention, that people are uttering a few simple words on crossing that makes their cases long and drawn out, there's also some nuance there. If people are coaching people on what to say, as was done in a case in New York regarding some Chinese several years back who were learning Christianity to prove persecution, it can be illegal. If it's coaching on how to present facts already in the person's case history, it's know your rights.
Suffice it to say, if Mr. Sessions doesn't like the backlog, he can come up with a budget and process the cases more quickly. Just as no one is guaranteed immigration into the U.S., no government office is guaranteed a light docket just because they want one. People who have a right to humane treatment have that right no matter what the budget targets, they are a necessary cost to the government.
How would it be if we held up all gun sales because we didn't want to process the registrations to save money? The same people that are claiming these cases are "clogging the system" would be furious that they weren't being afforded their rights. In a free country, the other guy has rights too.
11
The man has lived a sheltered life. While I have not experienced domestic abuse thankfully, I certainly have read the horror these women live under. Cold hearted, arrogant and frankly ignorant Jeff. While your heart appears to be limited thankfully most of us would open our hearts and lives to embrace these victims.
9
Jeff Sessions, slight in both character and stature, has a big chip on his shoulder.
12
This is unreal!
1
PT Barnum is reincarnated via drump.... "there's a sucker born every minute." Only those who support these draconian measures fall within that slogan.
2
And the pro-life party spews its hypocrisy yet again in the voice of Jeff Sessions. Blatantly dismissing the life/lives of those subjected to the horrors of domestic violence. Somebody please call Robert DeNiro and ask him for a quote on today's atrocity.
4
When Sessions along with Pence and Trump knock on heaven's
door it will be slammed in their Evangelical faces.
10
We will have a full referendum on the character of the American people in November. We'll determine what shade of purple we really want to be, and how we want to declare those colors for "the people's house".
How far back are each of our immigrant ancestors, what drove our parents to this country, and how were they welcomed? Do we really fear lost jobs from people fleeing domestic and gang violence? Locking victims of violence out of protections offered by the Statute of Liberty as a "punishment" for their county's poor policies and ineffectual governments? Is that the justification for the logic behind the policy? (And might the people who hold this view be willing to increase government subsidies for policies to correct the real problems in the affected countries.)
My parents were mixed first and second generation immigrants. My grandfather immigrated to help rebuild San Francisco after the Great Earthquake of 1906. My mother and father immigrated after having spent World War 2 under Nazi occupation, in 1947. All were welcomed; and greatly appreciated what the Americans at the time considered a way to help others, and grow a better society. I was born and raised in the USA to be a proud citizen of a great country, and have tried to understand and foster the best attributes that I've understood America to represent as a global role model.
I think, I hope, we're still that same kind of people I was brought up to believe in as representatives of that role model.
Nov 18:VOTE
8
Our generosity is being absolutely abused. Most of these people are economic migrants who lie and make up stories of persecution, fear of return, violence which can not be proven and other stories and they are let loose in US for years. This MUST be stopped. I commend Attorney General Sessions tp put an end to this.
34
"Most" is a very vague term. Do you have any proof that?
1
Can men claim asylum because of domestic violence?
8
Yes, they can and do.
2
Domestic abuse should NEVER be grounds for asylum. Genocide and natural disaster should be the only grounds. Sessions is correct and should be part of the new standards in determining if a person qualifies for asylum. Gang violence and domestic violence is not grounds and never should be. That includes grounds for kids seeking asylum as well. This is just another way of firming up our immigration policies and standards. Keep up the good work and lets speed up the processing of these so called asylum seekers and illegal aliens who cross the border illegally.
30
Domestic abuse is no more grounds for asylum
that any other common crime.
Absolutely no reason why America ought to take in all the victims of all the crimes from all around the world.
America has no obligation remedy all the wrongs perpetrated all over the world, certainly not by allowing immigration of all the victims.
43
Headline should include note that gang violence is not grounds for asylum, a far more impactful decision. This administration must go.
3
Because the US is so tough on gang violence, and it's not prevalent here?
Add a Napoleonic complex to southern racism and voila - you get Beauregard.
The South has risen again.
2
Racism? What does this decision have to do with racism?
Mean, uneducated and not Christian.
3
Oh, now the Left is arguing FOR a theocracy here?
Any one who practices asylum law knows that domestic violence and gang violence itself is not grounds that qualify for asylum.
There have to be other reasons for example the threat is from a person in power like the chief of police or any other high ranking person who the authorities have no power over and can and has manipulated the security forces to cause harm based on personal belief or political affiliation.
So you see it is not that straight forward of a situation and most people will not qualify anyways due to the international law on asylum.
30
If the US opened doors to those seeking refuge from economic or personal circumstances or simply better economic opportunities, there is no limit to the number of people who will come in. This is a sad but an unfortunate reality, and recognized as such by the US Congress. The United States Refugee Act of 1980 clearly states asylum eligibility results from" ... persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." If you don't like the law, have it changed. Don't blame Sessions for not having a heart.
37
Does anyone remember some article - in this newspaper or another, can't remember - interviewing women who voted for Trump, and a couple of them said they were feminists? The idea was, for them, that there was nothing about voting for Trump that was anti-woman (of course there was a lot of evidence to the contrary, but no policies yet since he hadn't taken office). I think that this pretty much seals the deal on whether or not you can be a feminist and a Trump supporter. No, you can't. You have to give up one of those labels, sorry. I don't even think you can be pro-woman and be Republican anymore, frankly.
1
You don't own feminism, nor do you get to define it for all woman.
1
Have polls showed his surprising support among women dropping off precipitously? I don't think so. Women understand that some women are hopelessly attracted to the most violent males, for whatever reasons, probably evolutionary, and nothing will change that.
1
I cited the ARCG case (the first major case that stated that domestic violence can be grounds for asylum) in a brief I wrote in law school to get a woman and her minor son released from an immigration detention center. We won.
The rationale behind ARCG is that asylum, which may be granted based on persecution by ones government, should be extended to victims whose governments are unwilling or unable to protect them from their abusers. Sadly, this is often the case - I will never forget hearing about how my client was hunted by her abuser and members of the drug cartel he belonged to, and the police and local government who were unwilling, and frankly, unable, to help her because of the cartel’s control. On top of this, we also had to show that she had no way to safely relocate to a different part of her country, and that she faced extreme persecution (e.g. threats to her life and serious bodily harm).
ARCG’s precedential value is in doubt because of AG Sessions’ actions. I am thankful for my client and her son’s release, but am afraid for those who will seek asylum on the same basis after this.
To refuse entry to the truly desperate who meet the high legal requirements of asylum goes against our country’s values. We are the land of the free and of the brave - not the land of the unmerciful and unwilling. The world looks to us for notions of what is right and wrong - why must we show them this?
14
Is the US Government able to protect ITS citizens from domestic abuse? Not really, though we've gone so far as to sacrifice lots of cops by adopting policies that have them busting in to apartments pre-emptively and getting shot, with hardly any change to show for it.
1
Sounds like your client and her son may have known some drug cartel secrets, and that awful drug cartel higher-up ex of hers and his paid goons were trying to silence them both.
In such a case, they're practically good candidates for US federal witness protection too, in exchange for information that can help the transnational fight against drug cartels.
Thank you for helping them.
That said, other women who are unfortunately stuck in marriages to loser nobodies (ex. drunk farmers, truckers, etc. who are less likely to engage a bunch of goons or extended clan members to vengefully terrorize escaping mates & kids) honestly should find ways to relocate to other parts of their home country to start over.
What many are seeing though are women dragging their many kids w/ them into uncertain US futures, hoping to earn some US dollars as they are being exploited in crummy low-skill work, getting free charity or blue state health care/K12 school w/ meals, etc., while perhaps also looking to hook a US citizen spouse & make US anchor babies . . . and never learning to find their own strengths of character, vocational/academic growth, etc.
It's one thing to help brave women help convict transnational drug cartel players they were once married to.
It's another thing to enable a damsel in distress/freeloader mentality for immature women always begging to be state-nannied, while they keep on mating w/ losers & birthing more mouths they can never feed on her own, in any country, IMHO.
1
There is gang violence and domestic abuse in the United States, so escaping foreign countries with these problems does not ensure that immigrants will escape these problems in the United States. Why are they moving towards the same problems? These problems are international, and if the US made these problems grounds for automatic asylum, the US would have to admit millions of people. The US itself has limited resources, and it should protect the existing survivors of domestic abuse who are already American citizens. The US is not a perfect country that can support the entire world on its shoulders. At some point American citizens have to say they cannot be everything to everyone. These people have sorry lives, but so do a lot of others, and they can resolve their problems in their own countries.
42
I thought ONE of the commitments that came out of the recent G7 summit, was that all participants had agreed to a fund of $3.4 billion to help girls go to school. Particularly where that is still so difficult, if not impossible.
I take it that Trump, in his temper tantrum, has reneged on this too.
America has lost all moral authority.
10
What does your comment have to do with Sessions' decision?
12
"Some viewed it as a return to a time when domestic violence was considered a private matter, not the responsibility of the government to intervene, said Karen Musalo, a defense lawyer on the case who directs the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law."
What??? Since when is it the responsibility of the US government to intervene in domestic violence cases that occur in foreign countries involving people who are not citizens of the USA?
30
You are missing the point. The US government does not intervene in domestic violence cases that occur in foreign countries, same as always. However, the US government - yesterday, if not today - recognized the importance of government intervention to stop intimate partner violence. When the government of another country turns a blind eye to intimate partner violence that is a human rights problem. Now, the US government is also not going to act to protect the handful of domestic violence victims who are able to escape their own government's indifference and seek protection here. That is a human rights problem. Our human rights problem.
3
Completely appropriate. Such situations are local, policing and advocacy issues and not appropriate for asylum. What is best is for other countries to address their citizen needs and citizens to act and bring about concrete positive change in their countries of origin on the primary relationship, family, community, culture, and national levels.
Further, to continue such a misguided policy is only systemically enabling and perpetuating the bad behavior of the country of origin, their apathetic citizens, local police forces, local governments, primary relationship partners, families, communities, social service agencies, NGO's, churches, culture, and national representatives who do nothing to address and respond to the needs of their own citizens.
34
There are those who think the criteria for entitlement under the Refugee Convention has been expanded to include huge swaths of different groups. I recall reading in this paper some time ago about a woman in New York City who was granted asylum based on the fact that as a woman in Saudi Arabia she was discriminated against. Would the US have the resources to grant asylum to the whole of the female Saudi population if they sought it? The Refugee Convention is considered by some experts in the field to be unworkable in its current form. "Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World" by Michael Betts and Paul Colier. Published March 30, 2017.
18
One thing to consider while grieving or being newly outraged by this development- is that the US government doesn't do too great of a job of protecting domestic violence victims either. Violence like that suffered by Aminta Cifuentes is an un-rightable atrocity. I provided (free) legal services for a profoundly traumatized woman and her special needs child right in Brooklyn, NY. She was convinced her (now adult) son suffered and was fully dependent because of the beatings from her husband, including being thrown down stairs repeatedly, while pregnant. And yes, she called the cops.
Women don't "win protection" in the US- but they do get away from their abusers/ enabling community and gain the chance at a new safer life.
10
Thanks Maria, yes we are a bit better, that's true. But that begs the question of whether that difference means we are obligated to take in the world's domestic and gang violence victims, and what effect that would have here to be able to keep supporting them. Restraining orders only work so well, as I'm sure you understand.
Why is the American government involved in the domestic family affairs of citizens of another country?
Just about anyone in central America can have a credible fear of gangs.
Sessions is right on this one. Too many people gaming our well meaning laws. The NGOs have told migrants to bring children as it ensured they would be quickly released and could disappear. No more.
27
Too many "gaming" our system? Based on what criteria? Genuinely curious.
1
I dont see why domestic violence would be a valid claim for asylum. Asylum is generally regarded as something for large groups of people fleeing persecution.
While some have argued that domestic violence survivors are a special group that deserves it's own designation, I find that argument goes too far. A domestic violence survivors perpetrator is not the same for every person. Each violence survivor has 1 persecutor. If all it takes is a single person persecuting another to create a valid asylum claim,then why wouldn't everyone on earth have a valid asylum claim.
I'm a transgender person. If I am discriminated against by a government or a tribe or a group of individuals who persecute other transgender people too, I think that I should have a valid asylum claim. If I am abused by my boyfriend, do I suddenly have a valid asylum claim to anywhere in the world?
Also if you are fleeing gangs why would you flee to the place all the gangs end up? I mean all that violence in Central America just feeds up to violence in America. Gangs are in every city and every state so I dont see why you getting here makes you safe. The same gangs operate in both places. If they really wanted to actually kill you they could easily kill you in America. In fact, to truly escape the same gangs that are in Central America youd have to go to Europe.
21
I have wondered about that type of argument by asylum seekers they are fleeing gangs and then what about gangs in the new safe country? The same type of rationale used by some asylum seekers from the Middle East and Africa, that they are persecuted because they are Christians in Muslim countires. So they flee to Europe which has large Muslim populations in some countries. Then here in Canada there was a Sri Lankin asylum seeker who fled because he was threatened in his home country and sought safety in Canada. He was murdered by a serial killer and his family back home did not want to alert the Canadian authorities because they thought he was trying to hide from deportation because his claim had been rejected. He would have been alive if he had never left Sri Lanka.
3
To be eligible for asylum in the United States, an applicant must:
(1) establish that they fear persecution in their home countries;
(2) prove that they would be persecuted in their home countries due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or social group; and
(3) show that the governments of their home countries are either involved in the persecution, or unable to control the conduct of private actors.
Being a victim of domestic abuse does not fit the criteria.
44
@William Case: It’s fits the third category when the country from which the applicant is fleeing has a documented history of letting the applicant’s particular demographic be abused with impunity. That is the case in El Salvador (as our own State Department recognizes).
13
Domestic abuse victims do not compose a racial group, a religious group, a nationality, or a social group.
3
Prong #3 would be the applicable provision. From Matter of ARCG:
“Under controlling circuit law, in order for the respondent to prevail on an asylum claim based on past persecution, she must demonstrate that the Guatemalan Government was unwilling or unable to control the “private” actor....If the respondent succeeds in establishing that the Government was unwilling or unable to control her husband, the burden shifts to the DHS to demonstrate that there has been a fundamental change in circumstances such that the respondent no longer has a well-founded fear of persecution. Alternatively, the DHS would bear the burden of showing that internal relocation is possible and is not unreasonable.“
Asylum based on DV is not based on the DV itself, but on the government’s inability to protect the victim from her abuser - a “private” actor. This is the same concept as a government who is unable to control a terrorist organization that is persecuting someone based on their religion, who would be eligible for asylum.
A victim’s asylum claim will also likely fail if the government can prove that they would not face persecution if they returned to their home country, or if they could internally relocate to a safe part of such country. Asylum seekers who would be protected by what AG Sessions just dismantled are among the most desperate and vulnerable applicants - their cases are truly extreme and they have nowhere else to go. These kind of cases are what asylum is supposed to remedy.
1
God bless Jeff Sessions. He may think he has endured trials under this president, but the trials he and his cohorts will experience cannot compare when we all get called to account . Remember God loves you, especially the lost.
7
God may bless him, but in a way that may surprise you. Blessings can come in a form that requires spiritual growth.
3
Trump and his despicable cronies do not care about human rights, do not understand human rights, and are daily chipping away at the great hope and promise, the beacon of liberty and justice, that is, that was, the United States of America.
I want my country back.
We are sorry world, for these monsters.
9
Indians living in the Middle East are treated like second-class citizens. Should they all be able to claim asylum and move to the U.S.?
Many Afghan, Pakistani, and Indian wives are abused by their husbands or in-laws. Should they all be able to claim asylum and move to the U.S.? Just how many of these people could the U.S. accommodate?
Talking theoretically that we should help women who are being abused is fine and dandy. However, we have to be a lot more practical when it comes to action. The U.S. should not get involved in private disputes or the issues of other countries. I don't want our government spending precious resources solving domestic violence issues in other countries - spend that money to solve problems at home.
Sessions is absolutely right in the decision he has made. Just because your husband abused you does not mean you get a pass to come to the U.S.
20
What an inhumane crew, and nation we have become. Just shameful, but what else can be expected.
5
Is this what Jesus would do?
The Christian Right is Neither.
12
53% of women who voted chose the T.P. ticket.
2
But only 20% or so of the population even showed up to the polls. And I'm sure there is a lot of regret over that now.
4
And only roughly 50% registered. And Trump can be blamed for a lot of things. But he cannot be blamed for the lack of enthusiasm and voter turnout on the Left. It should've been the opposite! And I don't believe that Russian meddling with social media and disinformation could have caused intelligent, rational people not to vote, or vote 3rd party. It was something else.
Is Jeff Sessions a member of the Southern Baptist Convention? But if Paige Patterson can be deposed for ignoring claims of rape on the campus where he was president and advising abused women to submit to their husbands, can we depose Sessions too?
4
Mr. Sessions - do you attend church? Do you read the bible? Do you believe in the teachings of Christ? If so, then you understand that you are being judged every day by the evidence of your acts of compassion on this earth. Praying for forgiveness later - that only works for people who don't comprehend the evil of their ways. You are smarter than that - you know exactly what you're doing, how much suffering you are inflicting on your fellow human beings while playing this shallow political game. Pack light - you won't need warm clothing after your very brief interview with St. Peter.
7
He is doing his job. If the terms need to change it is up to others to cahnhe them.
This is a national disgrace...These are the words of someone who would turn his back on slaves feeing from their masters in 1860...It is clear who's side he is on...It seems that Mr. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is determined to bring back the 19th century...History was not on the side of slavery, it will not be on the side of Mr. Sessions or the boss he is so desperately trying to impress...Kicking abused women will never make us great.
9
As trump and most of his administration are misogynists, should this surprise anyone? No asylum for domestic abuse or rape, no abortions for any reason, and no health care unless you can afford it, and once your babies are born, we don't care about THEM either. A fetus, yes. An actual, living, breathing, suffering child...absolutely not!
7
Well, glad to see that the US government still shares the values of that iconic symbol, the Statue of Liberty. "
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
6
Did France adopt that policy and then shift gears?
Coming up next: Justice Department rules that domestic violence against American women should not be prosecuted because it's a private matter. Government can save tons of money and put women back in their place at the same time.
Win-win for Sessions and his ilk; and women keep dying at the hands of their abusers.
8
I'd gladly trade this loathsome Sessions for a deserving asylum seeker. I look forward to the time when he can be referred to in the past tense.
6
Protections of the weak are easy to take away. History has taught us that more are to follow. Who is to say where that might lead if unchecked? As in Germany, the Nazis punished those who were "different" - such as these women asylum seekers (and their children) are today. It would be well for everyone to remember the words of the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984): "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
4
History is replete with examples of evil little people.
Add Mr. Sessions to the permanent role of infamy.
7
Well done Sessions...what a horrific little man...
4
Sickening Sessions shills as a sycophantic stooge of Trump.
4
I hate to say this but Session is right for a change. Asylum law was never meant to be for resolving personal problems. We are a generous country but we can't afford to be reckless.
37
Moral outrage in this matter is absolutely the right reaction here, but I'm also completely bewildered by Sessions' legal reasoning. He justifies eliminating asylum eligibility for domestic violence victims by stating that asylum protections do not extend to persecution by private actors. This is dead wrong. Harm inflicted by private actors is considered persecution, so long as the government is unable or unwilling to control the private actors. This is why, for example, a Christian from Iraq targeted by ISIS could qualify for asylum, even though ISIS is not a government actor. The fact that our attorney general could be so legally inarticulate on a matter that is well-settled immigration law is pretty terrifying.
12
As a Presbyterian pastor and as person who loves this nation, I cannot help but point out the error of my fellow Christians who support our President and who want to claim that we are a Christian nation that stands for family values. As of today, we refuse to protect women seeking refuge, fleeing husbands who have raped them. Apparently, spousal rape and sexual violence is insufficient suffering to merit political asylum -- or sufficient outrage from us as a people to speak against our leaders who perpetrate these evils on the most vulnerable in our name. As Jesus said: "Truly as you do it to the least of these, you do it unto me (Matthew 25:31-46).
13
Is this surprising to anyone? If you see someone who has little to no empathy, what would you expect? The takeaway here is if you vote for people who have little to no empathy, this is what you should expect. Don't vote on issue by issue, but on how much empathy someone has.
6
There are lots of considerations raised by the question here, which is why courts have gone back and forth on the subject. Withholding judgment for lack of sufficient facts, I'm going to take on an analogous issue which I think sheds light on the matter,
Female circumcision is a widespread practice that many governments do not bar. It is barbaric, it is practiced by organized social groups, and women have little ability to resist. Most women who attempt to flee the practice apply for asylum in European countries and many of these countries grant asylum after carefully reviewing the facts of each case. However, asylum is almost never granted to those who have already been circumcised on the grounds that it is too late to help them.
This tells me, among other things, that asylum is a remedy for a specific widely practiced harm, and is generally a case by case matter reviewed by those granted the power to do so.
By analogy, the question of asylum for domestic abuse should be answered like all asylum questions are answered --based on all the facts. Some cases fit the mold of asylum law and some some don't. A general policy for or against asylum is simply too broad. If that's what Sessions intends, he is making a big mistake.
3
This is necessary. Domestic abuse and gang violence are awful, but asylum should be limited to cases of war and political persecution. We can't, as a matter of practicality, take everyone who suffers in the world.
47
How would you like to be beaten and raped repeatedly by some man and forced to submit to it? Why wouldn't you try to flee to a place beyond his control? But don't try to enter the US because that would offend the AG? When your church won't help and your govt. won't help what would you do? Where would you go?
3
Phyllis, I wouldn't like it. But the US can't end every kind of suffering that the people of other countries inflict on themselves. It just isn't possible. There are literally billions of people in the third world, facing all kinds of miseries. There are people who are being killed by poison gas, enslaved and made into sex slaves, who are starving or watching their children of dying of juvenile diarrhea. There's only so much we can do.
Phyllis, lack of church assistance should be eliminated as a part of the equation. Then, the people in these countries must make their government work for them - as was done in the US. There were times when that sane behavior was allowed it tolerated by our government, too, but we got it changed.
2
At any other time in our history, this decision would have shocked and angered the overwhelming majority of Americans.
Today, however, this news is buried by Trump’s foray with NKorea, but even if it weren’t, the story will soon move off page one, and out of mind. Hardly anyone will recall the decision by the time the mid-terms roll around.
Accident? Coincidence? Hardly. These disgusting decisions are choreographed to be rolled out by an Administration that is brazenly immoral, but eager to hide or obscure its handiwork. A fake summit with a madman dictator is just the distraction Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions needed to whisper this latest obscenity.
Sadly, it is working.
10
Paul, although I recommend your comment, be assured that the inhumanity of trump, sessions, miller and all the other racists and misogynists in this cruel and warped administration is only "working" on people of the trump administration's ilk. The rest of us will not forget what is going on with the disgusting decisions and the moral obscenities of trump and his administration. What a foul bunch of haters these people are! And let me just tell stephen miller, that miserable hater that he is, that a poem on The Statue of Liberty does mean something...It means a lot. "Give me your tied, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore...give these, the homeless, tempest, tossed, to me...I light my lamp before The Golden Door." I memorized this as a little girl, and 60 some odd years later, it resonates with me still. I thought that was what America was about. Even though we have had periods in our history of such pernicious racism and unbelievable cruelty...I thought that somehow, over so many generations, we had wound our way to more compassion, and more decency. I realize that we cannot "keep" everyone, but we can certainly try to help, and certainly treat these people, who come to our shores, beaten down, frightened, and abused...with some respect and kindness. I will NEVER understand why they are being treated like garbage...especially when it is the perpetrators in the trump administration who ARE THE GARBAGE.
6
Hear! Hear!
It's important that asylum be limited to political persecution. Otherwise, any man or woman could claim abuse in order to seek a better life in the West.
34
"It's important that asylum be limited to political persecution. Otherwise, any man or woman could claim abuse in order to seek a better life in the West."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right, Rolf. And GOD FORBID anyone should seek a better life.
7
Are you suggesting that people might lie about abuse? And that bothers you? What hypocrisy.
2
'Are you suggesting that people might lie about abuse?'
Well, yes, of course. To get United States asylum and possible citizenship, of course they might/would lie.
If someone years ago told me that one day I would be ashamed to be an American I'd have thought them crazy. That day has arrived
18
If you''re so ashamed. It probably a good time to leave.
13
No, it's time those of us with different values make sure that people - in those important mid-section states - vote! Because people on the coasts' votes don't count for much, thanks to the antiquated electoral college - which was contrived to protect the slave states.
1
No ... time to rally to make the change needed to purge the people bringing shame on the country.
2
Snuck that one in while everyone is watching Singapore. These are horrid people.
10
I no longer recognize my country, and I am ashamed of it.
13
OK, you know this is what Putin wants for you, shame. This is not your fault or mine. I will not bear their shame for them...
Shame ON THEM! Because you hurt, the flame of Liberty is STRONG! Keep the faith! VOTE!
9
Sessions is a long time racist and long time hater;he spent his years in Congress voting against any bill that strengthened the Voting Rights Act; he always called the Voting Rights Act "a bother" and believes, like his daddy, segregation is best;Leading Liar Mitch McConnel prevented Sen.Elizabeth Warren from reading Coretta Scott King's letter from the 80s where she objected to Sessions appointment to the federal bench and the court agreed with King and Sessions was not appointed;she clearly stated that sessions treated blacks like the plantation owners did with prods and switches, that he fixed grand juries, that he worked against everything that would improve the lives of blacks and poor whites;he is a corrupt soul who weaseled his way into Trump's offices outlining how he could take Democracy away from blacks and all Americans;he lies under oath "I cannot recall", his good ole boy act is nauseating; a young boy was just sent back to Mexico and when the gang he ran from realized it was him, they slit his throat; does Sessions read real news or does he just make it up as he goes along; an immigrant who was jailed by ICE, who are violence personified, and separated from his wife and kids, hung himself in his jail cell because he could not go back and would not be without his family; Sessions is a cold hearted corpse who is determined to destroy rights of the poor, blacks, the disabled,and the imprisoned.
18
How many of these women come to ports of entry to request asylum? I read that Sessions said he didn't think people had a right to request asylum if they are arrested breaking through the border at other places.
Of course I suppose one reason someone would attempt to enter somewhere else is lack of faith that asylum will be granted if requested formally. This decision will make people even less likely to believe their chances are good.
2
I’m astonished at those who respond saying or implying that immigrants are nothing but a menace and a drain on our coffers. They are not.
Recent immigrants, many asylum seekers, have revitalized central cities, turning once abandoned stores into vital tax-paying enterprises. I witnessed that transformation in Long Branch, New Jersey.
Migrants are essential to our agricultural economy, working under back breaking conditions to produce the food on our tables.
Go into a restaurant in much of the USA. Who is washing those dishes? Who are caring for the elderly, the disabled, and very young?
Don’t let Trump and his henchmen men distort our understanding and divide us with hatred.
Yes, we can’t, nor can Germany bring in the world, but who is asking for that.
16
Illegals are a drain on my coffers. My tax dollars pay for all those social programs.
4
The US cannot accept every person that wants to be here. We do have a limited carrying capacity. But why would he make a blanket policy such as this? We only accept people from Scandinavian countries?
9
Given that the very first English immigrants to these shores in the 1600's came in search of gold, land and other riches, it would seem that these most recent arrivals have been offering the wrong reasons for wanting to come here.
Oh, wait! Didn't some of those early arrivals come to escape religious persecution, abuse of power and limited opportunities under a monarchical system based on the "Divine Right" of kings?
My goodness, gracious! The pot just called the kettle black.
11
Yeah well last time I checked it was 2018 not 1600. That kettle is long rusted and gone and the pot too.
5
We do not treat domestic abuse like the crime that it is.
But it is also a social problem that needs family counseling and the support of the abused, since so many women (and some men) refuse to prosecute their abusers. Even if they had options, there would still be a significant percent of women
who would return to their abusers. I suspect this is a big problem throughout the world and the best we can do is to support the advancement of women's rights everywhere. Is every woman who is abused eligible for asylum in the US? This is obviously untenable despite our best intentions.
14
If Mr. Sessions, people he cares about or his associates and allies were subjected to such treatment, would he recognize the inhumanity of his position? Anyone who has been subjected to abuse, anyone who cares about someone who has been abused, will recognize the moral bankruptcy of this position!
7
Ah, the humanity.
5
It is very odd for a man with a deep racist background dictating the guides for entry into this country. I'll never accept that the current attorney general and his minions can represent my values. Will The nightmare ever end!
18
"Will The nightmare ever end!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lawrence, the answer to your plea resides in this statement: "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
3
Sure. The decision makes sense. In every single country on earth countless women suffer horrific, unspeakable cruelty from men, who should love and care for them as human beings, let alone dear domestic partners. We know. It happens how many times daily in our own country? Abused women are such a common occurrence globally that to grant asylum in the U.S. might just open the flood gates
25
The precedent was set by Obama. That means that, for the previous 230-odd years, domestic violence was not a legitimate grounds to gain asylum. 230 years of precedent means more to me than some 8 years.
15
There were 300 years of precedence that kept slavery legal, but hey I'm sure that during Lincoln's time that didn't mean anything.
14
For most of US history, up until the 1940's, immigration rules have not been terribly restrictive. Your argument is nonsense.
4
Yet another policy driven by the underlying theme of what the United States cannot do for our fellow human beings. There is no looking to the future, no appeal to our better selves, no helping of those less fortunate than ourselves. This is where the battle is fought. It has become pointless to try to convince the Republicans to help those less fortunate. We should not resort to name calling or denigration, we only debase ourselves with those actions. If we desire change it is up to us, and it will not be the result of persuading our political opponents.
4
The international rules are asylum spell out the grounds for granting asylum.
"A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group."
Having Marital problems are not a reason to grand asylum. Also I think that most central American are asylum shopping - there are closer countries that are peaceful - Costa Rico, Belize, Panama etc. All are closer then the US - these cenrral Americans are asylum shopping and none should be granted asylum. If you are truly in fear you go to the closest county - not one 2000 miles away.
34
Rape is not a problem; it's a Class 2 felony in my state. You seem not to understand violence between spouses is the same as among strangers. That's the problem.
You think personal violence is justified. It's never justified, other than in self defense. It's just done by those who choose to because we are permitting it with our tolerance. Session is seeking a lower low of same.
This suggests Session is willing to leave women at the hands of their lawless husbands because rape is just a personal issue in his squirming mind. These women would rather run than live a life of violence in a lawless state. They aren't the animals. But Sessions is those animals' best friend, right now.
7
This is an incomplete reading of the statute. It goes on to say, in Title 8 Chapter 12 Section 1101 of the U.S. Code:
"(i) subject to section 1184(p) of this title, an alien who files a petition for status under this subparagraph, if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that—
(I) the alien has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of having been a victim of criminal activity described in clause (iii)"
"(iii) the criminal activity referred to in this clause is that involving one or more of the following or any similar activity in violation of Federal, State, or local criminal law: rape; torture; trafficking; incest; domestic violence; sexual assault; abusive sexual contact; prostitution; sexual exploitation; "
We are not talking "marital problems" here. We are talking domestic violence and rape.
The commentary from those who think Session has a point is utterly disturbingly lacking in humanity.
7
@judyweller, No free bennies available in Costa Rica, Panama, etc. Nor do those countries want them either.
13
"the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune.”
so says the privileged old white man.
18
Well said. And perhaps what would your dad say? Turn the other cheek, "fear not that he will smite thee again for thy forbearance." Maybe...
This administration has made it clear that the Statue of Liberty is irrelevant and that Emma Lazarus's poem "The New Colossus" at the base of the statue is meaningless.
This administration has proven that they do not believe in the words on Lady Liberty that read " "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Jeff Sessions is a known racist and seems not to care one bit for people who are in danger of being killed by gangs or my domestic violence.
He should be removed.
9
"He should be removed."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Removed." Oh, you are too kind. And they should ALL be removed, not just sessions This entire despicable, cruel administration.
And they should be tied to a post, and horse-whipped...just like the masters used to do to the slaves. I'll bet good 'ol boy, jeffie, would like that. EXCEPT: He is WHITE AND RICH...ain't gonna be no horse-whipping for that boy, and his rotten compatriots. Horse-whipping is for the people who are not the same color as jeffie...and for the people who are already terrified, worn down, weak, and desperate...for the people whose children are ripped away from them at the border. And maybe for the children, too. Believe me, the trump administration will get there...to harming the children even worse. After it becomes apparent that ripping the children away from these desperate people will not stop them from trying to escape torture and death in worse places, the trump administration will have to come up with something MORE CRUEL. I have no doubt that they will; I have every confidence in their ability to devise more and more cruelty, sadism, and mental anguish for these already vulnerable people.
1
The Statue of Liberty was never meant to be a substitute for immigration policy. It's a shame readers cannot discern the difference between a symbol and policy.
Emma Lazarus wrote the poem that appears on The Statue of Liberty. She was a great activist in helping Jewish immigrants from Russia to the U.S., who were being systematically murdered in Russian pogroms. "Lazarus contributed towards shaping the self-image of the United States as well as how the country understands the needs of those who emigrate to the United States." -- She is now turning over in her grave. I think she would be especially "enchanted" by little children being ripped from their parents by the border patrol. THERE IS NO LAW MANDATING THIS. trump and sessions CAME UP WITH THIS "POLICY."
I personally don't like his use of the word "alien. It's demeaning. Its says "you are not like us", "you're different". We are all citizens of the world.
7
We are all citizens of the world until we actually try to settle in another country and then our passport dictates our citizenship and we are asked to leave. A country is first defined by its borders. The term “alien” is a legal term of art and has been used to identify citizenship status since at least the 1700s in, for example, Blackstone Commentaries on the Laws of England, a foundational document for American jurisprudence.
10
So true. Session's the one who's the alien.
1
I ask you, what planet does this guy Sessions live on?
7
I believe he lives on the planet largely similar to that which we all inhabited prior to the Obama administration, wherein domestic violence was not generally recognized as a justification for an asylum claim. One need only look at the exponential rise in asylum applications predicated on domestic violence claims, cited in the article, to see that domestic violence is now being used as an easy pretext for an indefinite stay here in the U.S. People really can and do game the system and it is naive to think otherwise. This does not mean that no claim based on domestic violence will ever be entertained, it simply means that the on its face acceptance of such a claim is at an end.
13
The ravages of gang violence in Central America have their background in a policy of deportation of young men from the region who had developed their skills as gang members in the United States. It is typical of the hypocrisy of our ‘justice ‘ system, as currently administered, that we deny asylum to individuals fleeing the violence we exported to their countries.
8
Well, if we didn't deport them what should we do? Nobody should tolerate gang violence or harbor the perpetrators.
3
Session will finally get some of the Trump love which he dearly craves since you can never go wrong with Trump in blaming President Obama for anything and everything. Here, Sessions actually has the gall to state that President Obama created "powerful incentives" for people to "come here illegally and claim a fear of return." Nobody disputes that the woman granted asylum from El Salvador had been raped and abused, but Sessions would have us believe that her "claim a fear of return" is insincere, and that she only sought asylum because President Obama's "powerful incentives". At this rate Sessions will also say that any person who flees genocide is not sincere and does not have a valid claim of fear of return. It makes one wonder how Jeff Sessions defines sincerity. The simplest conclusion is that Sessions has one impossibly forgiving standard for white male Christian right-wing hypocrites like himself, and another, impossibly hard to meet standard, for everyone else.
Anyone like Sessions who seriously states that he believed white supremacists "were OK until I learned they smoked pot," disgraces everything a US Attorney General is supposed to represent should not hold the office. This typifies what Trump and Sessions are all about: misogyny, bigotry, violence, and lies. As long as Republicans remain in power things will like this will keep happening until America as we have known it is no more, and the country is reduced to nothing more than a tin-pot dictatorship.
7
When 90% of asylum seekers are not granted asylum based on review of the circumstances there might be some concern the reason for claiming asylum was not within the criteria. And, remember, this is under the Obama-era rules.
I think there are people and systems that can assess these situations better than me based on their experience and skills at determining facts.
So, do most readers suggest America welcome every battered wife on its soil? And would it be from the world over? Or bordering countries only? Come on, guys, common sense! Domestic abuse is just that: a “domestic” issue and not an international one.
36
When a woman was seen abused and battered by a man, the workers from a large chain of an American Supermarket, surrounded her. They did not ask for her nationality, or her religion, her wedding certificate, but proceeded to do the right thing and protect her. This is the America I recognize. Where are you?
We have a president who is not well and his behavior is deteriorating. Congress could call a special meeting and find a solution to this unprecedented event which is impacting on the country. Half of us are in denial, others are just trying to get through the day, few of us champion violence on any level, and this administration has run its term.
The world is watching. If I were to call my Canadian childhood friend whose father was with NATO, she would tell me quietly that she was sorry. She has been the victim of domestic violence, and America, as a country, is being battered in ways that our Constitution could not have perceived.
11
When I was a college student in New England, I had a few c room mates who were asylum grantees on account of the Bosnian war of the 1990s. Many commenters are criticizing how asylum grantees receive automatic citizenship. That is simpy not the case. They first receive a special residence card while their case is verified and investigated, green card eventually, and then must then apply for citzenship over a process of several years. One of my dear friends has been here for nearly 20 years and is just not receiving her citizenship. Often, employment and education are part of whether they are successful. With regards to Sessions repealing domestic violence as a reason for asylum, how shamelful. When I think of my Bosnian friends, they faced much misfortune in their home country for several reasons, but violence against women was one of the reasons they feared returning after Bosnia somewhat stabilized. Of course, it was not domestic violence in the narrow sense defined, but violence nontheless. When does it stop? In this unfortunate era in American politics, it will now be up to other countries to uphold democracy and human rights.
10
Domestic violence is abhorrent. It is also very common across the world.
In at least 20 countries, domestic violence against women isn’t even a crime. In many countries, where it is a crime, the law is rarely enforced.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/08/countries-no-domestic-violence...
The vast majority of these countries are highly populated lands with low levels of education and high levels of poverty. If domestic violence were a basis for asylum, then we would have to accept one billion poor, uneducated new immigrants. This simply isn’t feasible.
The best we can do is to encourage these countries to address domestic violence. Sadly, such efforts will likely be ineffective, since these behaviors are ingrained in the religion and culture of these lands.
31
Interesting that the ME/NA/EU countries can withstand millions of illegals literally flooding their countries without collapsing ... yet the US can't manage to accommodate a relative handful. Yes, those countries struggle but have managed to deal quite successfully with the situation, especially since many start from a position where they were already struggling.
The US starts from the, supposed, position of being the strongest economy in the world ... but our "leaders" are deathly afraid of a relative handful of under/uneducated migrants "taking" our good paying jobs and destroying our economy. Curious.
12
The United States birth rate is down. Immigrants are good for our economy. They are resourceful and energetic, whereas a lot of the white mid-section thinks they are picked on. They don't make themselves useful.
Once again the misogyny, xenophobia, racism and cruelty of the Trump administration rears its ugly head. They only want to rid the country of all immigrants, and the asylum seekers were accused of being "cheaters" who were trying to get in to the US in some nefarious way.
The United States used to be compassionate, fair, merciful and welcoming of the oppressed. No longer. The U.S. is now officially mean-spirited, exclusionary and, oh yes, completely and totally racist--as befits Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions--our most raciest AG since reconstruction.
12
Why Your Vote Matters
Chapter 7,548
12
“The asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune,” which conveniently eliminates asylum for almost all women from Central/South America and Mexico. How convenient! So what exactly does the asylum statute provide redress for Mr. Sessions? Wealthy Swedes who are opposed who live under the tyranny of Universal Health Care?
14
As to his right to exclude people from the asylum process, he certainly has that privilege. It would just be so much more refreshing if he had the moral courage, instead of moral turpitude, to state the obvious: enough of these people from south of the border. We don't want them here. Period. History will judge Mr. Sessions, as it will judge all who say and do nothing. It is all the more ironic when you consider that much of the criminal plague that has devastated that part of the world is due to our abysmal war on drugs, Iran-Contra, Cold War geo-politics, and flagrant abeyance of our laws to arm the region with weapons of war.
11
As we have seen with the whole MeToo movement, it is very difficult for victims (female and male) of sexual violence and assault to report to authorities what has happened to them, especially if they're abused by men in positions of power. This has been the case even in the US and many European countries, where the legal justice system provides at least some means to prosecute these crimes. How then will a victim of domestic violence be able to report this as part of an asylum process where s/he is likely to be returned home with no protection from the perpetrator(s)?
5
Jeff Sessions will go down in History as Trump's Roland Freisler.
We are doomed to repeat any History we fail to remember.
10
Huh? Isn't Sessions a victim of domestic abuse at work? You'd think he'd have some sympathy.
13
To be able to do this is worth all the abuse that Sessions has to endure from Trump. The so called Justice Department is really the Department of Domestic Abuse.
8
Ladies - Get out and vote. Every election. Every time. Bring your husbands, sons and brothers.
17
The ladies voted in 2016 and here we are.
Seriously, domestic violence can lead to death of the weaker, smaller spouse. How is it that Jeff cannot understand this?
10
Do us all a favour and ship the statue of liberty back to France where it belongs.
9
Jeff Sessions is a "Christian"? Hardly? Just? Not even close. Disgusting and unforgivable? Yes. May he suffer the wrath of a vengeful God.
9
This administration is pure evil.
23
In justifying his ruling that fears of domestic abuse or gang violence are not grounds for asylum, Attorney General Sessions says that the asylum statute "does not provide redress for all misfortune".
A lawyer could not use such imprecise language without intent to obfuscate. The subject at hand is not all misfortune, nor even a fear which presumably could be redressed in the asylum-seeker's country, but one for which the only redress is escape.
The distinction between a refugee whose government has persecuted her and one whose government countenances private persecution, or lacks the means to provide safeguards against it, is academic. In each case, the country is one in which the victim has nowhere to turn.
10
Congrats. By your logic, 3 or 4 billion people are entitled to asylum within the US. And I suspect the costs of processing and maintenance for these folks are far more per capita than US citizens receive in social services. NO, we do not have the responsibility to provide safe haven for everyone in the world who is mistreated.
21
Crusader Rabbit, thanks for your reply. I see your point about the 3 or 4 billion people.
Let's remember, though, that while billions of people may have been entitled to asylum for years by my admittedly rough logic, they've shown no sign of applying for it. The actual numbers are a bit more manageable.
I doubt whether a compassionate approach to asylum-granting is a slippery slope into ten digits.
3
"Everyone in the world" doesnt want to come to the U.S. (which, with Trump at the helm, is becoming a third-world country). But the ones that do, should have the right to an asylum hearing adjudication if they are beaten on their home country and have no recourse there.
7
How did my dad used to say it? "Six, Two and Even", he's taking this position because he believes most claims of fear for ones life due to domestic violence or gang violence are false. Instead of raising that point he makes this assertion that justified fear of harm or death due to domestic violence or crime the country is unwilling or unable to protect the asylum seekers from, does not merit asylum. Note the argument almost instantly becomes of of global proportions "we can't take care of everyone..." BTW We, the US (mostly under reagan) made these countries so dangerous that gangs have taken over and the governments are feckless.
https://ijrcenter.org/refugee-law/#Who_Is_a_Refugee
The last sentence of the overview pretty much puts the lie to Sessions assertion.
"Despite differences at the national and regional levels, the overarching goal of the modern refugee regime is to provide protection to individuals forced to flee their homes because their countries are unwilling or unable to protect them."
This move by Sessions in essence violates the Non-Refoulement section.
12
So I'm being beat up at home or by gang members where I live and local law enforcement can't or will not do anything to stop it, sounds like state sponsored violence to me, which is definitely grounds for asylum.
Only Trump and Sessions would say otherwise.
16
Not sure, as a process matter, how the USAG declares US law is with respect to immigration. Certainly he can state what the Justice Dept will prosecute or defend as a matter of policy. He cannot state what the law is. Without having litigated it and having it ruled on. What has our country turned into?
10
What would Jesus do?
Matthew 25:35-40 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'LORD, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'
15
Except that he didn't say sisters. As soon as I see people misquoting Jesus for their own political ends I suspect their motives
4
But you know what, JerseyGirl? Don't you think that Jesus also MEANT sisters? I think that he most assuredly did.
1
there's some comments here that again show how ignorant New York Times readers choose to b when all you have to do is have the right Search terms and spend a couple of minutes to find facts.
Other countries such as Great Britain, Australia, All European nations and Cambodia, take in refugees seeking Asylum due to domestic violence. They mandate equality for women needing assistance that their own country does not provide.
Germany even amended their Bill of Rights to their National Constitution. by the way, the Daily Mail is a British newspaper that is considered very conservative. In case anyone out there thinks this is fake news by left-wing...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3970740/Female-refugees-seeking-...
10
Everyone’s is the definitive word, thanks. You realize don’t you that you are New York Times reader right now, so watch who you criticize for being ignorant.
1
The "Daily Mail" is the British tabloid. A version of the NY Post or maybe closer to the National Enquirer.
It is most certainly not to be taken any more seriously than you would Fox news. Pretty much all British news papers even the BBC are not to be trusted unless you can verify or have honest corroboration.
2
You are saying we should go and google it and "find facts"?
I do not need to go on google to understand right and wrong, good and evil. If someone begs you to save their life, and you spit in their face and throw them back to their tormentor to suffer and die - that is evil and that is wrong. You have done wrong. You have sided with evil.
If you are interested in compiling a list of rationalizations and excuses for why wrong is not wrong and evil is not evil - sure. Google away. I understand from conservative friends that google will also explain to me why ripping a terrified child out of her screaming mother's arms at gunpoint is justifiable and correct as well.
2
An absolutely unconscionable, repugnant decision. He should be ashamed!
7
"Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Dr. King has your number, Jeff Sessions, and so do I. Those you torture and demean today will soon out vote you, out live you, and wipe your evil legacy from the face of the earth.
6
In fairness ... this unchristian male does hail from Alabama circa late 1940s. George Wallace country even in early 1960s.
The man who displayed no kindness ever. (Sorry progressive Alabamians, unless you disown him ... he does represent you).
But a church-goer, praise the Lord! And as un-american as the master he serves (not our nation, but the one who insults him, belittles him and wishes he were gone).
7
How so much self-righteous evil and malice can be packed into one little man is beyond me. Shame.
10
Jeff Sessions: a disgusting, small and profoundly flawed facsimile of what it means to be genuinely human.
8
Off topic, I guess, but I can’t get over removing children from their parents custody. These people are not sitting around reading the New York Times. They’re on the move, living rough. What are we doing to apprise these asylum seekers of what they face regarding the confiscation of their children at the border? If nothing else, house the children with at least one parent. This is inhuman.
7
Is our system not capable of case by case review with decisions based on an individual set of facts, or are we just going to establish unyielding policies that result in the deaths of mothers, sisters, and daughters?
Christianity on the march again and Sessions is back in the good graces of the hater in chief.
4
They're coming here for economic reasons and the generous welfare system if Mexico gave away the freebies we do they would all just stay there/Bottom Line.
17
How do you presume to know why they are coming here? If your own motives are basically economic, perhaps it is because you have never been the victim of systemic violence. The good luck of where, and in what socioeconomic class, you and Sessions were born does not make y'all superior to your fellow beings. There is only one race: the human race.
1
How depressing it is to be a woman in the world of this cruel little man. All over this planet women and girls are abused, enslaved and oppressed because they are female. Now we know they should not look for aid or comfort here.
9
How can Sessions, the Attorney General, overrule a judge? Do we not have laws and courts of justice anymore? Is Sessions empowered to overrule judges and make legal decisions all by himself? Why bother even having a judicial system when Sessions can simply make all those decisions? Save a lot of money if we didn't have judges anymore...just Sessions and his own paculiar and cruel form of justice.
4
This is part and parcel of the reactionary vision that is in the ascendant in America today. That vision holds that women are not fully human. It really is that simple, and I wish that I were exaggeration or kidding. But the facts support no other understanding of announcements like that of Perjuror Sessions.
8
Trump's base- as well as many others - are probably totally unaware that long-time US support of corrupt Central American regimes is a critical factor in producing this tragedy.
7
Let me get this straight...this is the same Jeff Sessions who said that a little tough questioning from Kampala Harris made him nervous, but he is willing to send a woman back into a situation where she has already been beaten and raped by her ex-husband. Really?
9
Trump, Sessions, and the rest of the crew are sadists, period. At least some of them undoubtedly derive sexual satisfaction at the thought of desperate people suffering.
5
Male violence against female partners and children is the most common form of terrorism both in the U.S., and around the world. The Trump/Sessions GOP message: Go ahead, kill her. American laws will not protect her.
8
Justice demands mercy and equity. Sessions's directive demonstrates neither. This racist is unfit to be the Attorney General, and this heartless one-man ruling marks a very sad day for these United States. Shameful.
5
On the flip side, should American women who face repeated domestic abuse be allowed by the Mexican or Canadian governments to claim asylum in those countries. Should Switzerland open their doors to them?
23
absolutely! and, if it were *your* mother, sister, or daughter seeking sanctuary from rape, beatings and torture, I’m guessing those countries would be far more representative of what the Statue of Liberty stands for than our own.
7
What a grim prospect that someone like Jeff Sessions can brush aside rape and brutality when it's only a mere woman whose life is in danger. One protection after another is being knocked down by this administration, and it's getting closer to home all the time.
6
If one were to start counting the number of human beings in America and around the world who will die or be brutalized because the United States elected Donald J. Trump, one would be counting for a LONG time.
9
It used to be okay with the law and the church if a woman was beaten, maimed, tortured and raped, as long as her husband was doing it. You can't rape property, right guys? If you break something you own, you're just hurting yourself. No outsider got to question what happened inside a man's household.
Republicans liked the old system, so that's what we are telling asylum seekers too. Listen, sweetie, says Sessions: if a government militia did it, it would be one thing, but your husband's got every right. Doesn't matter what's going to happen to you - it matters if the person doing it has the right to do it. It's a domestic issue.
6
Funny how Sessions and Trump justify violent sexual actions by vicious men, a "misfortune" Sessions finds undeserving of attention and protection. Funny. Anyone out there who can investigate what such men and their friends have done--like marital rape-- (and perhaps are doing) that they want to make legal again?
5
I know I'm saying what others here have said, but I am so tired of this evil empire doing the exact opposite of what would be the thoughtful and sympathetic thing to do. I'd say the "American thing to do," but I don't think that won't be true until after this administration ends. They just don't like brown people and women. It's repugnant.
5
So today in Trumplandia, the court okayed voter purges, Sessions turned away battered women, Trump called concerned Americans haters and losers, dissed Canada, lauded Putin and net neutrality died. And people wonder why the suicide rate is higher?
6
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Time to tear down the Statue of Liberty. The symbol of America throughout the world.
2
Emmanuel Macron should ask for her back.
1
No, that would be premature. Hang on. This too shall pass, and Lady Liberty, whose skirts are now bedraggled, will again be able to hold up her head if we don't abandon her.
1
So the 'rape rooms' of Saddam Hussein's Iraq weren't political? One would have thought so, the way Condi Rice shouted about their destruction. Sexual and domestic violence are political, whether the regime explicitly or implicitly supports it. Women are a distinct group.
1
This is the guy Democrats have been praising for his so called courage in recusing himself from the Russia investigation. In the meantime he is carrying out Trump’s racist policies to the letter.
1
If anyone was considering Sessions for a humanitarian award, it's probably off the table.
The world is full of people who have nothing left to lose. You can spend billions on walls and make speeches about law and order but you're trying to deter people who have nothing left to lose. Does something need to be done? Sure, a streamlined immigration system with a wait less than 10 years would be a start.
2
"Whatsoever you do... to the least of my brothers....
that you do unto me...."
-- Some Dude (not sure who.... Evangelicals? Any ideas?)
3
It is funny how both sides quote scriptures they like but then tell everyone that we should not be ruled by the Bible.
1
Inhuman administration.
2
In a world of nearly eight billion people, many hundreds of millions are at risk from violence. How can or should we bring them all to the US?
13
No one is saying that. Trump is also defunding organizations that help women in other countries.
5
He's right. Asylum is a specific thing. It's not just feel-good emotions. Personal misfortune is not grounds for asylum, period.
37
The question is: should asylum - and eventually citizenship - be awarded on the basis of domestic violence? To whom does America grant its highest and most valuable honor? I agree with the Attorney General on this issue.
25
Including your daughter.....your mother.....your sister.....your aunt? How about you?
5
Sickening. I am also confused as to how he alone is able to overrule an appeals court. Doesn't it take a higher court to do that?
3
Unfortunately, it's not in a court. It's an administrative process. And the Attorney General is the final decision maker in that process.
4
I continue to be shocked that someone who professes to adhere to the Christian faith as devoutly as Jeff Sessions turns their back on the basic tenants that Jesus taught. The kind of violence that asylum seekers are fleeing are not simple "misfortunes," as Sessions calls them. They are life and death situations that target specific groups. Those who would turn their backs on these people have no right to insist that this is "Christian Nation."
3
Is Mr. Sessions' overruling of the Justice Department immigration appeals court subject to review by any courts outside the DoJ?
3
This would mean, then, that Sessions' viewpoint is that no government should intervene in any domestic affair.
This is both lawlessness and largely misogynistic.
3
Anyone and anything associated with the Trump administration makes me want to vomit, but I have to admit a tiny thread of understanding about Sessions' position on this issue. If the rule of law is that only specific people under specific circumstances are allowed into the US, it is difficult to see how allegations of domestic violence - which typically occurs behind closed doors - can be sufficient evidence to admit a person to the US. The problem is made worse because many male-dominated 3rd world countries neither prosecute nor track husband-on-wife violence so there is unlikely to be a public record of the alleged conduct. How do US authorities verify that an immigrant was in fact the victim of domestic violence? In a perfect world nobody would ever lie about anything, but people seeking a better life for themselves and their children might choose to lie rather than be refused entry to the US.
2
So, fears of “domestic violence” are insufficient grounds for seeking asylum in the U.S. according to the current Attorney General. How about non-domestic violence? Systemic violence? Gang violence? Government-sanctioned violence? Why not just throw out all agreed upon standards of humane behaviour and state the naked truth: the U.S. is no longer an asylum from the violent world but part of it.
4
Unless, of course, they are white!
1
Reason over emotion is exactly what we need in the Justice Department.
7
Why is religious persecution considered grounds for asylum? Religion is a choice. Being a woman and subject to violence simply because you ARE a woman with a government that will not protect you - is not. I know which one I consider more deserving.
3
1) Its not often I agree with anyone on this administration but this time I do. Domestic violence, as heinous as it is, is not government persecution no matter how inept the government is. El Salvador is the size of New Jersey. Is there no place else there to go to? How about neighboring Honduras or Guatemala. I feel these asylum seekers chose US for the too generous benefits available for our poorest and know that our rules can be gamed.
2) This is not a partisan issue.
32
Completely appropriate. Such situations are local, policing and advocacy issues and not appropriate for asylum. What is best is for other countries to address their citizen needs and citizens to act and bring about concrete positive change in their countries of origin on the primary relationship, family, community, culture, and national levels.
44
Agreed!!
5
Those "local" forces are broken and often corrupt do mainly to what we the US did during the reagan admin and before possibly since to undermine and otherwise make them ineffectual so that American Corporations could continue to exploit them.
https://ijrcenter.org/refugee-law/#Who_Is_a_Refugee
The last sentence of the overview pretty much puts the lie to Sessions assertion.
"Despite differences at the national and regional levels, the overarching goal of the modern refugee regime is to provide protection to individuals forced to flee their homes because their countries are unwilling or unable to protect them."
This move by Sessions in essence violates the Non-Refoulement section.
2
Why did Congress send an Act allowing the Justice Department carte blanche to act without legal standards, to allow arbitrary discriminatory inventions by the Justice Department? The president said the GOP is the party of law and order, but arbitrariness is neither law nor order. Congress does not need an Act when it does not want to impose standards because in that event Congress can pass a resolution transparently passing the buck to the Justice Department to exercise arbitrary ad hoc rules, ungoverned by authorized legal standards. In that event, Sessions is the right man for the job.
Has anyone at the New York Times knowledge whether Congress authorized arbitrary Justice Department action without standards, and if yes, why has it not said so? Just because the Times withdrew its old motto about all the news does not compel ignoring relevant monumental news.
Immigratiion courts are under the purview of the Justice Department, not Federal courts or Congress. The AG is the boss. Period.
Congress did not want to give every would be entrant the same rights as American citizens.
1
What a mean-spirted, amoral policy. He seems to be saying that violence, especially against women, is just their lot in life.
Will Mr. Christianity turn people away who suffer from domestic and other violence equally, or will rejection depend on a person's country of origin?
We are in a sad and inhumane place.
6
I'm so grateful he announced this publicly. So when his daughter who is an adult and his wife beat him up there's no place he can run to...
4
Underground Railroad. Just saying.
5
Domestic violence is not included in the Geneva Convention. So why all the criticism of Trump?
21
Because he is dishonest deceitful, racist, misogynystic, and incompetent. He actually should have been jailed years ago.
2
What if the woman is granted asylum and ends up being a victim of domestic violence in this country? The U.S. has its own domestic violence issues.
10
Why could she not go somewhere else in her country? El Salvador is a very violent country in general, but that was not the reason she gave.
20
What a cruel response. Shame on you. Although I doubt someone that could make a comment like that is capable of feeling shame.
9
Keep at it Lori!
2
It’s about time.
For years the key to avoid deportation has been to claim to be a crime victim, especially a especially a violence victim. Most men married to non-citizens learn the hard way that bringing a fiancé or wife to the U.S. guaranteed they’d eventually be falsely accused of domestic violence. It’s a cost-free way for foreign women to stay in America, and as a bonus - collect free money as a “crime victim.
Why would any alien pass up a chance at free money and a way to bypass immigration laws.
33
@Rational Person
And you know all this exactly how?
Based on your comment, I suggest you omit the word "Rational" from your handle, just so you won't be accused of misleading the readership here.
4
Really - most men? You’re both irrationally fearful, and also cruel and unchristian
1
Please provide verifiable citations of fact for you claim, and state its source.
it's all about walking in other people's shoes clearly mr. sessions doesn't understand what it's like to be held hostage or terrorized by someone in one's own home or family.
shame on these Republicans and their callousness.
even worse they propagate policies for Americans and non-americans which likely causes more domestic violence for people regardless of their color!
think income inequality...Health Care... guns.
it goes on and on and on.
10
Like many news items involving the Trump Administration, there is an overreaction here which ignores the context of the policy. Most immigration judges had already declined to hold that domestic abuse, which is horrible, qualifies as state persecution under the asylum statutes. For political asylum, it is essential to demonstrate that the applicant has a well founded fear of improper state based persecution based upon a prohibited category such as race or political affiliation. Attorney General Sessions is not endorsing violence against women; he is stating that it is not state based persecution, which many other immigration courts have already concluded. Simpy put, not every person who has suffered adverse consequences in their home country, even something as horrible as domestic abuse or violence, qualifies for political asylum under our immigration statutes. If you disagree, you should ask Congress to amend the act
52
@
Christopher Rillo
"Most" immigration judges is not "all" immigration judges.
As far as I can tell, this is not a settled issue.
And, of course, in so many places, even in our own fair land, being a woman (or a person of color, or a Muslim, or a homosexual, etc.) constitutes a "prohibited" category without being documented in the law.
1
'The Board of Immigration Appeals had found in December 2016 that the woman was part of what the asylum system refers to as a “particular social group.” She therefore qualified for asylum, the court said, because women in El Salvador are often unable to leave violent relationships and their government has not been able to protect them.
Mr. Sessions said that the category of “particular social group” has become too broadly defined.'
Has Mr. Sessions decided this? To what end?
I understand what you're saying, and immigration isn't a problem with a simple one size fits all solution, but let's be clear - taken with everything else that's happened in the past year and a half, this isn't about this case. They're trying to legitimize an agenda.
2
Trust me, we will be doing everything in our power to see that a different Congress is seated in a few months.
2
That's our old old-fashioned conservative cold-hearted Attorney General!
4
Would that we could shield every innocent human from the evil and brutality of this world. As heartless as it may sound, I agree with him. "Asylum" cannot be every misfortune in your home country. That's just common sense. We have children being raped and abused right here, citizens of this very country.
40
Domestic violence should not be the litmus test for asylum in the U.S. However, there are some countries where violence against women in all its forms is so pervasive that nations have a moral obligation to deal with it.
Still, the number of women who have the resources to get to our borders is so infinitely small that the global community has no alternative than confronting the practice that allow women to be victimized.
1
Unfortunately, domestic violence happens everywhere, even in the USA. It's not, however, a special category for claiming refugee status according to the agreements made by most countries in the world defining refugee. And, like it or not, Sessions is correct for calling it. Domestic violence is a disease that needs to be addressed at the root. Allowing refugee status for this is like trying to cure a symptom of this disease. Any person who sees a doctor who tells them he's going to cure their symptoms had better get a new doctor. Clearly, to press the world into achieving a more progressive model of political righteousness and justice, everyone needs to pressure those countries who are the worst offenders into proactively protecting its own citizens. In this way, the whole world will advance. In the meantime, we, right here, should get our own house in order in regards to domestic violence. Otherwise we have nothing to offer as a collective role model.
29
As an equal-opportunity policy, will immigration also be denied to perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault?
(Please?)
10
Out of ALL of the cases he could single out to get involved in - it's horrific that THIS case, of a woman raped and in fear for her life with a local justice system that can't protect her - THIS is what Sessions chooses to take a stand for: sending a woman back to her rapist.
Trump has clearly picked a man in his own image.
9
Actually NYC Dweller, it's been proven by economists who study numbers, and not color, that immigrants have a net positive on public budgets because they contribute more to the system than they take out (through sales taxes, property taxes, payroll and income taxes (75% of immigrants are on formal payrolls, using taxpayer IDs)). Immigrants paid about $7 billion in social security taxes that they will never be able to reclaim (measured in '05). Unauthorized immigrants are also ineligible for public services like welfare because of their immigration status. In short, unauthorized immigrants consume goods and services like food, clothing, computers, phones etc - generating economic activity and creating jobs, but do not consume comparable public funds in return. Immigrants also comprise nearly 20% of all small business owners - employing others. I'm not so liberal that I wouldn't deport an immigrant who commits a violent crime - and I'm not so stupid that I would deport immigrants who are working in jobs that our citizens don't want or whose only crime is paying taxes using a false ID number (we should all want that money pumped into the system!)
14
Can you take her in so she doesn't have to go back to her country? Will you house her, feed her clothe her?
1
Yes....what if it was your mother, daughter, sister?
1
There is a difference between claiming domestic abuse and actually experiencing it. The spousal abuse claim has been opening doors for women entering illegally for years. I would say the majority are just playing the immigration game.
12
Mr. Sessions should arrange to have "The New Colossus" sonnet at the base of the Statue of Liberty removed, as it no longer applies.
"Give me your tired, your poor...."
4
About what I would expect from a white, southern, wealthy male Republican.
So much for the shining light on the hill eh?
6
So disappointed in this statement, in Sessions and in this administration as a whole. When will they hit the bottom of their callousness to human suffering? You can tell me until the cows come home that policies must be enacted for the so-called 'good of the country', but a country that has lost it's soul has no goodness in it. How can Sessions look in the mirror or go to church where he claims to be a Christian? Does he not understand the words,"As you do unto others, you do unto me." ?
He will be eating on fine china tonight while this woman will be in pain and fear for what her future holds. Shame on him. And shame on this administration.
6
Ah, whatever happened to W's compassionate conservatism? It dies once the baby is delivered. Then it's every man, woman, and child for him/her self.
6
This decision clearly communicates GOP views on so many topics. First, for them, pro life means from conception through the next 40 weeks until birth. After that they could care less what happens, especially if you are not lily white or god forbid, you are poor. Shredding the safety net as best they can while giving the fat cats tax breaks galore.
After you are born, you're on your own and tough luck if you have parents that are unable to care for you. Too bad if your father beats up your mother. Like a good evangelical Christian pastor would advise, she should learn to submit and just keep praying. Of course, she's at fault--who was the bad influence in the garden of Eden? Why, it was Eve.
Tough luck if you have parents who try to cross the border with you. You'll be taken away and put into foster care or lost, but hey, at least you are alive.
I am so tired of the hypocrisy and the cruelty. I feel like it has been 500 days of hell and our only consolation is that karma has a long and excellent memory. I also hope with the midterms 5 months away that they all keep up the epic stupidity and that voters turn out in record numbers.
11
Peter Navarro - Now is an appropriate time to say "there is a special place in hell."
7
Mr. Sessions, let's say a young woman were to present herself at the border seeking asylum because her husband or rapist or family or home government was trying to force her to have an abortion. Would you grant that woman asylum? By the logic you are espousing, you would not.
Just so you understand the implications of your policies in terms you might actually care about.
Remember also that "whatsoever you do for the least of my brethren, that you do unto me."
Oh, and by the way... just because a certain person or party is voted into power doesn't mean they have a mandate for everything they want to do. In your case, Trump received 3 million fewer votes than Hillary so he did not have any mandate. Moreover, people who voted for him might have agreed with some parts of his platform but not other parts. So, don't think you actually have a mandate for the horrific changes you are making.
9
At long last, have you no sense of decency?
6
Which countries of the world accept refugees under the context or claims of domestic abuse? Or are we the only one?
16
Look it up.
1
I'm having a real problem with elderly, white male like Jeff Sessions deciding an spousal abuse claim isn't worthy when a womans native governments can not provide the police, courts and security they're entitled too. This AG seriously needs a trip to Ellis Island ASAP to learn what helped the US become a great nation and the envy of the free world.
12
And once again, we are reminded: despicable people will do despicable things. We are all shamed, as they do these things in our name. God forgive us.
9
I trust you are speaking about the abusing spouse and not the United States of America. Sorry, John, your comment is a bit dramatic.
2
This decision by Mr. Sessions is absent all logic and illustrates just how tone deaf the DJT enablers are. Women and children are abused, raped by gangs and/or their husbands while the governments, from which they flee, sanctions the violence via inaction and condemnation. These women are fleeing those lawless governments that sanction that violence perpetrated by gangs and spouses. Forgive me, please. This policy as proposed simply implies and clearly announces that violated, abused women and children do not count and are unwanted in America. So sorry. I forgot whose is POTUS, etc. and misspoke.
7
Once again the Trump Administration causes heartache and suffering. What happened to a country that proposes freedom for all....founded on the hopes of people from all over the world looking for a better life. It sickens me. Sessions seems removed from human suffering. We are saying it is ok for women and children to be raped and beaten.
YUCK
5
"“The prototypical refugee flees her home country because the government has persecuted her,” Mr. Session wrote in his decision. “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.”
Indeed.
The prototypical white, male Christian leader of the GOP supports actions and legislation that seem cruel and inhuman because he is casually or willfully blind to systemic, political, and judicial misogyny at home, so how can we expect him to understand that violence against "alien" women who have no redress is political, and not just a "misfortune"? Or to know that just to be a woman is, in many places, a "misfortune"?
The internet is awash with the shameful statistics of domestic abuse and violence in the US, the poor chances of abused women receiving justice -- and the relation between lax gun laws women murdered by domestic partners. Google and weep.
Violence against women is an age-old political tool of subjugation and a weapon of war. These acts are political, not an "accident" of a woman's social, economic, or personal circumstances.
Women who seek asylum fleeing violent abuse or in fear of FGM have in the past been granted asylum. With this new posture, Sessions, like the rest of his lot, is taking the USA backwards as fast as the GOP can peddle.
What kind of nation are we, anyway?
8
He's right. If this were grounds for asylum we'd have 100 million women clamoring to get in this country. We have our own problems with domestic violence. 25 % of American women are abused.
27
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Emma Lazarus
Jeff Sessions is a sick man in desperate need of love and compassion. He is a huge part of the dark heart of the GOP. November cannot come soon enough.
8
Jeff Sessions is following the letter of the law. Decisions cannot be made on emotions.
11
Apparently ethics and morals play no part either.
3
I imagine if Melania Trump had been the victim of domestic violence in Slovenia, she would have been able to seek refuge in the U.S. It's not the content of the character, it's the color of the skin.
10
It is obvious that Sessions regards women as chattel whose lowly status makes them useful for sex, childbearing and cleaning up. That women are people with equal or better intelligence than men is
an idea that has not occurred to him.
That they shouldn’t be beaten or maimed by men has also never occurred to his senile 19th century ?christian? brain. Why to him women are no better than Mexicans or black folk—all of whom he denigrates. He is a perfectly dishonorable Trump kiss up.
10
Has this administration lost all of its sense of decency and compassion? Or did they just not have any to begin with?
16
The next Democratic (every sense of the word) President will have a busy, busy time reversing every order the #1 Traitor in America has signed. But worthwhile...
16
The term "domestic" angers me because it indicates it is less important that other types of violence in the eyes of our justice system.
8
The title of this article caught my attention, “Sessions Says Domestic Violence Is Not Grounds for Asylum.” I sometimes follow political articles and will say I am not as educated about certain political issues as I would like to be. However, I do know about Domestic Violence. I am a survivor. With my comments I hope to infuse some humanity into this discussion. I understand the United States cannot give asylum to everyone, but let us not down play what this woman has gone through. I left my hometown; away from family and all I knew to start a new life in another state. I did all this to escape a brutal husband that I eventually divorce. I know what it is to escape and I know the fear of the possibility being found by a violent spouse. This woman I know is frightened and needs a safe place from harm. You may not agree with the United States, giving her asylum, but please be sensitive to her situation. She has been violated by someone that was supposed to love and care for her. Now she may have to return to that situation. Unless you are able to walk a mile in someones shoes, you cannot fully understand their struggles. All I asked is that if you are not able to empathize then please sympathize.
16
Keep in mind it is what this woman said she went through, not necessarily the reality. The spousal abuse claim has opened the door to gaming our immigration system for years.
5
Because women always lie, right?
2
Seriously? You assume the women mostly lie.
1
Since the USA has played a role in exporting violent gangs, it seems that we should accept victims of those gangs. It is not enough to say that their governments should protect them.
Domestic violence has similar connotations, although the USA hasn't caused that. People who are suffering need a place of refuge.
We can't save everyone, but that should not deter us from helping some.
8
Help one and millions more will come, living off the American taxpayer
1
This policy is just common sense. In general, victims of domestic violence and gang violence in the United States don't flee the U.S. for "safety" in Canada or Mexico or Europe. Why should citizens of other countries be doing so?
This policy leaves room for those rare situations where police generally will not protect a victim anywhere in her country. But that does not mean that, if a man beats his wife in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that alone should be a ground for her to travel through more than a dozen other countries (claiming asylum in none of them) and seek the protection of the United States, rather than move to some other state in the country of Brazil (which has a land mass as large as the continental U.S.).
What the uproar over this policy exposes is the desire of many to open our borders to anyone and everyone. Asylum laws have been abused for years. I am no fan of Jeff Sessions but on this issue he desired a resounding round of applause. Bravo!
51
When the Democratic party platform called for funding safety nets for US citizens, the Republicans cried "What about the deficits?" When the Democratic party platform called for affordable access to health care to reduce the number of uninsured US citizens, the Republican party cried, "Too expensive." When big donors to the Republican party demanded tax cuts as payment for their political contributions, the Republican party said "Yes, Boss." Deficits, lack of budget money were ignored for the Big Donors because they were actually Fake .
The Republican push to lower the number of total immigrants to the US and to lower the number of refugees accepted is also based on the same Fake accounting they used with deficits and budgets. The US is nearing full employment with many jobs going unfilled that were previously filled by seasonal workers the Trump administration no longer allows to come---except for those allowed in for Mar-a-Lago and the businesses of Trump's friends.
There is room for refugees. There are programs and organizations waiting to help those refugees from violence find healing and peace in the US. Taxpayers and US job seekers will not be harmed by the women and children who are the victims of abuse being allowed into the US. Taxpayers and job seekers have not been harmed by those long-term employees of meat processing plants recently raided by ICE. The US has room and jobs for people who have been in the US for decades as stable community members.
9
There is much heartbreaking injustice in the world, and its painful to read of this woman's situation. But the US cannot be the pressure relief valve and the option for all who have encountered injustice in their homelands. As sad as this case is, it seems the right decision.
38
Gee, who know that continued rapes and beating could be classified as "misfortunes.<" rather like losing your car keys on the ay to work. Bodily harm is not a misfortune- it is adisaster and causing it is a crime. Apparently Mr. Sessions is ok with the infllicting such harm as long as the victms are not Americans or White. Gotta admire a mann. that obtuse and bigoted who never misses a chance to show exactly how dese and mean spirited he can be. What a shame the woman in question didn't have a child he could remove from her custody.
11
This is a heartless administration. God help us all.
11
Gee, do you think that in 10 or so years we will be wondering why people from outside the U.S. hate us so much?
6
Funny. I'm betting they'll all still want to come here. Which will still be impractical, no matter who is in the WH.
8
Wouldn't these victims of domestic abuse be better served by seeking asylum in a neighboring country that is closer to their home and where their native language is spoken rather than travailing thousands of miles to a place that may end up refusing them asylum when all is said and done?
28
Ah, the Roy Moore defense. Rape. your fault. Under age sex your fault. The United States has no place for you.
Nice place Alabama.
15
That's what the "A" stands for in "USA".
2
Jeff Sessions is in favor of rape and assault, as long as it doesn't happen to white women. There's no other way to spin this. Sessions is a violent extremist, and real Americans must not stand for this treachery.
15
As a adult who spent a childhood living in fear and silence because of domestic violence it appears to me that perhaps Mr. Sessions has not experienced this specific and life altering terror. Domestic violence is domestic terror. It is religious people of Mr. Sessions type whose ignorance about the impact of domestic violence stole my ability to have faith in organized religion. The very same people who each Sunday ignored black eyes, bloody lips and bruised limbs because one of their own was the abuser continued to stand in judgement of others and hold firm to their moral measuring sticks. The Jesus I have come to know through my own private journey would be so very disappointed that one who claims to follow Him is so unchristian in his thinking and beliefs. Shame on you Mr. Sessions. The whole world is watching.
17
Every possible time, in every possible way, Republicans are on the wrong side of history
21
In 1865? In 1964? At the end of the cold war?
1
Unless we believe in open borders, then we must accept that every nation state has the right to limit immigration and protect its borders.
Even if a person is telling the truth about being the victim of domestic violence in her or his nation state, it does not follow that every Central American or South American must head for the USA when there are are so many other choices in Central and South America.
Religious persecution is not a factor because almost all the so called refugees from domestic violence are Roman Catholics. If we are being abused by our partner, then we have a moral duty to fight back. If we know that we live in a failed state, then we have a moral duty not to have children. We need to change our government. Work for a better society. Not just run away.
30
“Yet the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune,” Mr. Sessions wrote.
I'm curious to know exactly how this shiny new tool will be used. No redress for all misfortune.
One stroke here, another there and before you know it our country has lost the plot and it's soul to the point where we now call all this the rule of law. Normalized. Done.
This, the separation of families, the incarceration of people looking for refuge, turning away people with literally nowhere else to go, the mistreatment of our own citizens based on identity alone.
I don't know how to live in a country that can rationalize and legislate this kind of inhumanity.
7
"And let's face it, these women have a high chance of getting involved with other men of violence against women. Let's get real."
So these poor abused, beaten, raped, women have a high chance of getting involved with other men of violence? How so? Because of the color of their skin? Because of their poverty?
Show some humanity. Learn some tolerance. Please.
14
The United States is a wealthy country, but even with our resources we cannot solve all the world's problems, including domestic violence outside our borders. We just can't. If we try, we may do more harm than good.
Much as it saddens me, the attorney general is correct.
35
Says yet another man.. "Alexander"?
4
Says yet another man..
3
Absolutely unbelievable. What a disgrace. And this from an Administration that never let's a chance go by to lecture us about what it means to be an American and what American ideals are.
9
There are distinct differences between the law and morality. I quite imagine Mr. Sessions is very happy he has an opportunity to give us another lesson in Republican government. He could have said the same thing in different ways that would let you think he actually cared about the abused women.
5
It comes as no surprise that the Trump "regime" would do this. Sessions is a clear reflection of his "leader's" treatment of women. Trump's demeaning and abusing of women is legendary. Even by his own admission. This bullying/thug sets the tone for his staff. We will need to fumigate the white house to remove the foul stench of corruption when this group of mobsters leaves..
5
What else would you expect from one of the most corrupt and cruel administrations?
This is the type of "Trump family values" that typifies the swamp culture of the Trumpists.
7
So is America to become the safe haven for all the women or men in the world who find themselves in a bad relationship? We can't afford that. Let's help their own government make changes so this people don't think their only way out is to move to America.....
39
But the only way we know how make changes elsewhere is with Black Ops. Do we really have enough to station one in every bedroom in Central America?
Thank you progressives, for showing us how you really feel. Now, anyone on the fence about open borders, sees just how far the left will stretch our asylum rules to pack more people in.
Progressives are upset because abused women everywhere can't use it as an excuse for political asylum? Nice. I think that blue "wave" just became more of a ripple.
22
As this evil man, small in every way, passes judgment on who and who should not be allowed to enter the United States, he would do well to examine the history of American foreign policy in Central America. I know it is very much in vogue for Republicans to dismiss intellectual ability and historical knowledge as desirable leadership qualifications, but this is really beyond the pale. They are "unable to police themselves," is that it Mr. Sessions? I wonder how it came to that in Guatemala and Honduras? Open a book on this country's role. What a sickening sycophant. I wonder when this national nightmare is going to end? Scenes of children at the border being ripped out of their parent's arms reminds one of scenes from "Sophie's Choice." This is not my America.
19
Let there be no doubt this administration hates women and children.
18
To quote the GOP, there is a "special place in hell" for Sessions and his ilk. For shame.
23
Sessions lies. He knows that sexual assault is not the reason for seeking asylum, but rather, the lack of a functioning justice system in several countries, which have been recognized for their generalized conduct towards those of protected status. Meaning, because of race, religion or gender.
The US doesn't take every victim of sexual violence. It considers the documented cases of those who petition for asylum. These women have to show that they have sought redress, or it must be determined that there is a pattern of injustice in their local jurisdiction.
Sessions will never recommend legislation to keep US arms dealers from supplying the cartels. He won't reexamine our appetites for illegal drugs. His administration won't come to terms with what dumping subsidized agricultural products on Central America has done, or what climate change is doing to vast agricultural lands. He simply wants to wash his hands of the problems of poor brown people.
11
While the paid foreign agent currently occupying the White House and his Mini-Me enabler may like to imagine that they have control over what is legal and what is not, the laws of the United States are in fact independent of both. Mini-Me can declare as long as he likes - how asylum is administered and on what basis is not subject to his vapourings. As I am quite sure any actual, practicing attorney in the Department of Justice could tell him.
8
A refugee's "grounds for asylum" are enshrined in the Universal declaration of human rights to which the US is a signatory and the various other international conventions governing refugee status. It is absolutely illegal for the executive branch to enact laws or regulations that contravene international treaties. This is a usurpation of power from the courts and legislature, and should be ended immediately.
He is an evil man to even think that abused women (who in this nation can be given police protection--for free....) are somehow capable of remaining in their home nation, and be safely within their human rights.
Grotesque.
16
Even worse than the man who beat his wife. But forget about him, now it’s time for politics. Four o’clock and there’s only one place that. Tonight they’ll be dissecting Trump’s and Kim’s brains for us. They say both are known for spasms. This should be interesting.
1
Glad to know that Sessions believes abuse is a "misfortune".
Seems like one of the GOP/WH goals is put put women back in their place...
It'd be more sensible to drop some of the ways that immigrants do get into this country - for example models do not seem to be particularly talented or unusual a commodity, particularly since Miss America will not be choosen according to looks in future.
7
Thank you Mr. Sessions. Domestic violence, while absolutely horrible, is not a issue that someone can claim asylum under. If there is a war going on, and women are being raped and abused, that is different, that is a war and women are being raped and abused. The definition of asylum seekers has to remain small, otherwise it will be abused more then our borders are already being abused.
15
If you live in Honduras and your husband is abusive, move to another town. Why do have to move all the way across Honduras, all the way across Guatemala, all the way across Mexico, and into the U.S. interior to get away from a lousy husband? On its face the claim is ridiculous.
29
Are you aware women in the US often move two thousand miles away and their abuser still finds them to stalk them and possibly kill them? It's not as easy as 'move to another town.'
18
Well, you could move to Guatemala and be murdered by the military and if you get by there, you can be murdered by drug cartels in Mexico.
Is our compassion so broad and our wallets so deep that we are willing to admit and support every woman who is mistreated, or who claims to be mistreated? And her children? How about srarting with our own?
18
Republican Christian Values - the new oxymoron.
21
To me the whole process resonates with the ideology of slavery, where children were wrenched from parents and women were raped by their masters.
4
Sessions' pronouncement, although focused on immigrant women, also demonstrates a lack of respect for the gravity and lethality of domestic violence itself. It took decades to win professional and judicial recognition of its seriousness -- in fact that recognition is still fragile. Sessions' stance is a slap in the collective faces of survivors and advocates alike -- pun intended.
You are now complicit in murder, Mr. Sessions. On your head be it.
25
If Sessions had two brain cells to rub together, he might be dangerous. As it is, he is talking utter rubbish; assault and sexual violence are increasingly used as weapons of war, where is the compassion? Calls himself a Christian doesn’t he? He is not any kind of Christian I would want to break bread with. His wilful ignorance is wicked.
19
If abuse are grounds for legal entry for women we potentially open the door to a billion people. A convoluted insane interpretation of asylum rules.
25
With all respect Lane, 99.99% of these women are not victims of domestic abuse from Sweden, Japan, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, etc. where domestic abuse is illegal and laws ENFORCED. These are very poor women from desperate situations who face being murdered. They flee like any mother would to protect their child.
8
Why not flee/start over in another city or town within their own country, or move to a neighboring country? Why travel for thousands of miles to come here? Not a Trump supporter but I think the AG is correct on this.
From day one of Trump's campaign it was clear that Trump would run against all immigrants, both legal and illegal, except for perhaps white male northern Europeans. His ignorant Nativist base thinks his plan is working in the short term because foreign nationals are being discouraged from even bothering to come to America for a visit, let alone permanent relocation. Unfortunately, in the long term our aging population and declining domestic birth rates will mean that within perhaps two generations America will have LOTS of old retirees but not enough workers to provide the tax base that supports social security, medicare, and a variety of other programs. We will follow both Japan and Britain in this regard but even if we sell the Statue of Liberty for scrap metal, there is not going to be enough to go around and things will get very grim, very fast.
13
Due to relentless automation we had better adjust to a lower population. Low skilled economic migrants will become an unemployment burden. Even now many citizens are not employable as fewer jobs are available to those without advanced education or technical skills.
On the other hand we should welcome young, healthy and skilled immigrants.
How would you expect Jeff Sessions to understand the terrors of domestic violence in El Salvador while he defends a self-proclaimed misogynist accused of sexual abuse in the White House?
28
How is it possible that so many heartless, compassionless and ignorant people came together in one administration?
Stunning, and the answer lies at the top – Trump.
22
AG Sessions is 100% correct, “The asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune.”
Asylum applies to persecuted minorities, e.g. religious or political or ethnic minorities that face persecution.
Most asylum seekers do not meet this criteria. Who meets this criteria? Increasingly, Christians in the middle east and certainly Yazidis in the middle east. e.g. Christians in Egypt have increasingly been targeted - there have been several terror attacks against Christians in church and assassinations of Christian clergy in Egypt.
Aren't there halfway houses for abused women in Central America? If not, then charity groups should step up to bat and open such refuges for battered women in Central America. That should be their focus, to provide support within the law in the home countries of illegal immigrants instead of advocating for mass migration to the US outside of US law. Or else any would-be immigrant to the US would have a justification for illegally immigrating to the US.
The immigration advocates have historically abused the immigration laws any way that they could - Americans have had enough, the majority of Americans want immigration reform.
37
I’m sure we’d survive as a country by showing some compassion to battered women.
4
Session is wrong, as are you, as I have posted elsewhere.
Read Title 8. It very clearly covers granting asylum for exactly the reasons people here, and Sessions, are claiming it does not.
Of course we are in a post-fact world so I don't really expected the printed U.S. Code to convince those chugging the Trump KoolAid.
3
Paul, the immigration courts are under the control of the AG. He or she is the Supreme Court of immigration departments, as this article states.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/11/politics/jeff-sessions-asylum-decision/in...
"The ruling is the latest instance of Sessions taking full advantage of his authority over the immigration courts -- a separate court system designed by law to be under the auspices of the Justice Department.
The attorney general functions as a one-person Supreme Court in the system, in addition to hiring and evaluating the lower court judges themselves."
Don't like it? Win an election.
It is time for us to elect a new Congress which can direct Jeff Sessions and the other misogynists in the Trump administration that Americans want to protect women who are victims of rape and violence by offering them asylum. The only way to protect our values as Americans is to vote out republicans who have supported an administration that will not take action against violence against women. Do not despair. VOTE in November.
4
Based on the comments here, the average commenter seems to subscribe the theory that the average Salvadoran/Honduran/Guatemalan man participates or at least condones abuse. Yet these same commenters, would probably also reject any stronger scrutiny of those showing up at our southern border. How can both of these things be true? If these countries are truly so overrun with violent, misogynistic men, would it not be wise to subject all immigrants (particularly men) from those countries to the highest level of scrutiny?
24
Please, Mr. Mueller, Hurry. This is an example of yet another in an endless stream of heartless statements. We are witnessing the desecration of our country, action by action, atrocity by atrocity.
5
The Trump administration's war on women is no longer ambiguous or debatable. And assuming no elected Republican stands up to attack this cruel and inhumane policy, they own the War on Women too.
4
This is not only true, but also the only reasonable policy. Otherwise the US would have to take in every victim of domestic violence from the entire world which simply isn't possible (and would also be a nightmare to verify so we would basically end up just having to take people at their word which would even further expand the pool of applicants and completely overwhelm the system).
This is as good an opportunity as any for people to push for reforms in their home country to help the victims of domestic violence.
17
Black women were raped and abused for centuries by slave owners. They were then stereotyped as being immoral and promiscuous by their rapists. On top of it black women have also endured spousal abuse with little to zero help from law enforcement that viewed them as the previous. To make it even worse black women faced racism from the predominantly white feminist movement in America. Then there is the issue of rape and abuse of Indigenous women in the United States which is almost completely ignored to this day.
Yet black and indigenous women in the United States have continued to fight on their own soil. So why can't women in other countries do the same? Oh, did I mention the gang, drug and gun violence plaguing black communities or border reservations which is often fueled by people not from their communities?
The people attacking Sessions are the same people who couldn't care less about certain American citizens. So spare me the fake outrage and it is why Trump just may get a second term.
16
I love all the comments and the people writing them. If we were all in the same hotel, we would have a great weekend. Conversely, this is not a republican issue but a humanity issue. Let’s face it, how many of us would invite this woman and others like her in our homes? Call her.
4
Ronald Reagan likened the United States to a city on a hill whose lights beckon those seeking freedom. Sessions & his boss Trump seek to turn those lights off & slam the door shut. Both are men who excuse and ignore violence against women, minority’s & others. This isn’t surprising & just another example of what a narrow constricted view of justice Sessions has. Sad!
4
Millions of women (and some men) are abused and raped in this country. Are they free to live and escape to Norway, where they receive a full slate of benefits?
I don't belittle the crimes in the least, but where does one set the limits for asylum? Can the USA support 7.5 billion people in this one country?
Disagree with Mr. Sessions all you want, but at least give your fellow citizens a reasonable guideline to work with.
I get the unfortunate feeling from many on the left that a sore tennis elbow is now grounds for asylum. There needs to get a firm framework and as of now, there is not a workable one other than no borders, which also means no country.
Many of us are not willing to get that result.
29
I usually come down on the lefty liberal side of matters but we need to draw the line somewhere. Sessions is regrettably correct here. It is not the US’s responsibility to police social conditions in every countries. I feel terrible for these women but domestic violence is not something we can control outside the US.
41
Sessions is regrettably arbitrary. He was not approved by the Senate to impose personal Confederate views. The United States of America has long controlled matters outside its boundaries. The issue is the standards it follows. A Justice Department functionary's or a decent American standard?
1
Shame on you, Mr Cohen. You are too young to remember FDR's Sec of State Cordell Hull turning back a ship of refugees fleeing Nazi Europe. This approach by sessions & GOP is no different because it says 'human lives not like the white Christian bible thumping variety is not worth anything.'
1
True I was not alive for that tragically sad event but I am fully aware of it. It's not the same thing. Those people faced certain persecution and likely death by the state if returned to Germany, We have no way to truly know what each of these women's situations truly are. We can pressure their government's to do the right thing but given tRump's microscopic interest in human rights that's certainly not going to happen now. Do we just let in everybody who says they are victims of domestic violence? Men too? I am a compassionate man but do believe you have to have defined, verifiable standard for asylum. And just because these women are Hispanic, doesn't mean this is a white Christian thing. It might happily enter into the equation given Sesssion's history, but it applies equally to Greta from Germany and Inga from Norway.
He is right. It is not up to the US to control domestic violence the world over. Imagine the inundation.
26
All these people have to do is claim they are being discriminated against because they a evangelical Christians. They'll get in so fast, one might hear a sonic boom.
4
The Republican War on Women continues.
18
Wouldn't it be something if Session could personally experience a few years of intense abuse in a place where there are no protections and those in power over you think your only use is for sex, having children, cooking & cleaning and being silent.
6
Let's have Jeff Sessions be a victim of domestic violence and see what he would have to say then.
9
Time for France to take back the Statue of Liberty
15
"The Board of Immigration Appeals had found in December 2016 that the woman was part of what the asylum system refers to as a “particular social group.” She therefore qualified for asylum, the court said, because women in El Salvador are often unable to leave violent relationships and their government has not been able to protect them."
That's not our problem. Neither is gang violence and whatever other excuses open borders liberals attempt to use to gain votes and corporations to flood the market with more cheap labor so they don't have to pay Americans fair wages and benefits. Citizens of this once great country should be outraged that reasons for asylum would even be considered outside of government oppression. All these other excuses are nothing but an attempt to bring more foreigners in through the backdoor. Is there really anyone who doesn't comprehend the consequences of allowing domestic violence to be used as a legitimate asylum claim? It would result in every woman across the globe wanting to get a foothold in the United States using it as an excuse to get out of their own countries. Oh and guess what. Their kids are going to get to come with under the pretext of compassion even though the true purposes are more votes and cheap labor. It's no wonder why this country has all the problems that it does. Those politicians responsible for it belong thrown out of office this November. Time to end the insanity. Enough is enough.
7
Of course! Everybody knows that a husband is entitled to "discipline" his wife as he sees fit... I don't know if the rule of thumb still applies other than in England. If women can seek asylum just cuz their man roughed them up little, all women could get "uppity" and way out of line! I'm certain Trump concurs heartily!
2
As I read Title 8, Chapter 12, Subchapter II Part I, Code 1158 - Asylum; and the supporting Code 1101, Session is simply, clearly and utterly incorrect in his arbitrary limitations. The code, in very clear language, allows for definition of a refugee based on:
"the alien has suffered substantial physical or mental abuse as a result of having been a victim of criminal activity described in clause iii"
where clause iii explicitly includes:
"rape; torture; trafficking; incest; domestic violence; sexual assault; abusive sexual contact; prostitution; sexual exploitation; stalking; female genital mutilation; being held hostage; peonage; involuntary servitude; slave trade; kidnapping; abduction; unlawful criminal restraint; false imprisonment;"
The words seem very clear and whether Mr. Sessions likes it or not, this is not a case of ambiguous broadening of definitions. U.S. Code is crystal clear.
He is wrong.
26
This law refers to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act which targets human trafficking and its victims. Domestic abuse is applicable only in the context of human trafficking not domestic abuse in general. Mr. Sessions is correct.
1
Governments of Central American countries don’t seem to do anyone there any good other than the drug lords and their gangs yet all Democrats here want to do is to bail them out with Republican Americans’ money.
7
Once again, our Christian pro-life administration takes a pro-death stance.
4
Sessions's "interpretation" of the statute will cause punitive, deadly discrimination against women. How can one not think of the passage of anti-Semitic laws early in Nazi Germany's regime? Now is the time for judges to invoke a higher moral authority and defy Session's authority to enforce this rule. We will see if Congressional Republicans will be so craven and heartless as to accept this travesty of justice.
5
"Said Senator Collins during her remarks. 'Through these experiences, I have come to know Senator Sessions professionally as a trusted colleague and personally as a good friend. I can vouch confidently for the fact that Jeff Sessions is a person of integrity, a principled leader, and a dedicated public servant.'"
Senator Collins,
Still all in for Sessions?
8
Perhaps Collins' constituents should send her a copy of that proclamation of Sessions' "goodness."
1
Not that Sessions is all that sympathetic to those fleeing political violence either....
2
Let us remember that this is Jeff Sessions and it's only women who are being beaten, raped and maimed or murdered. Not to worry.
Another horrific day in the United States of Hate.
14
The word we're all searching for, is "disgusting".
13
We can't even take care of our own victims of rape and domestic violence. Who in the world thinks we can absorb the rest of the world's victims of violence? And let's face it, these women have a high chance of getting involved with other men of violence against women. Let's get real.
17
Margaret Atwood quote: "Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
Mr. Sessions needn't fear being laughed at. We're much too appalled.
Another quote: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I think you know who said that. One more: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."
And now we have Jeff Sessions, with a quote about how "the category of 'particular social group' has been too broadly defined."
Maybe there should be an asterisk on the Statue of Liberty ?
14
With this heartless decision, Jeff Sessions is simply playing to his base -i.e. Donald Trump and those who voted for him. The gratuitous cruelty shown towards women by the “Christian patriarchs” in this administration appears to be limitless.
13
I never agree with Sessions on anything. On this case, purely based on the law as written, he is probably correct. My answer is to change the law to grant these women asylum. It is also an abuse of discretion for him to have the ability to overturn decisions of administrative courts below him, makes for a kangaroo court system. This relatively judicious, for him, use of this power will continue with truly CRAY decisions.
8
He is right. They need asylum from their homes, in another part of their own country. This is not an international asylum matter.
25
I never agree with the Trump administration but I think they're correct here. Asylum claims are based on race, religion and political views, not on personal problems. If all the ultra-liberal comments are correct, then every woman in a Muslim country has a colorable asylum claim since they are all subject to domestic violence under Shariah law. I don't see the regressive Leftists dealing with that issue here.
25
I am speechless. Because last night Robert DeNiro stole and said all the words I can muster about this heartless administration.
13
Robert DeNiro is an American icon, but his rant is just helping more Republicans to get elected. Foul mouth is not acceptable on the left nor the right.
And I agree with Sessions on immigration.
Black and proud to be against illegal immigration; it hurts poor people of all colors.
11
If a woman in another country is abused by her husband, she should leave him, and the government or non-profits or her family should provide for her until she can become independent, but I don't see why that gives her the right to come here.
Until recently, women in Saudi Arabia could not drive and were effectively living under house arrest. That was terrible, but I don't think we should have allowed all Saudi women to come to the U.S.
22
There goes any chance for Sessions getting asylum from Trump!
3
God help our country.
13
If there was a god why would he create a trump?
It's not Mr. Trump's fault that women are raped and abused in other countries. I am sorry for these women but I agree with many here that we cannot take everyone in who has a hard life. Let's help victims of DV in their own nations. we have many here with very hard lives we need to help first.
3
Could the woman A-B seek asylum after being raped, beaten and abused if her husband worked for the government? RAW
5
Why is anybody amazed? These republicans loathe women, especially women of color. Remember who they elected to be their president? Access Hollywood, anybody? And they almost elected a pedophile in Alabama. They use taxpayer money to go on vacation with their lovers while still married. They take nude pictures of their one-night stands and then blackmail the woman into ongoing sex. Need I go on? So why would Sessions allow a battered woman from El Salvador stay in the U.S.? He doesn't care if she will be beaten to death by her husband in a country where women have no protection.
7
So basically you can only claim asylum for political persecution eg. if your government is endangering you? It seems to me most governments do not actually kill their citizens themselves without at least a sham trial. Mostly they just turn a blind eye to social violences and persecutions. People like Malala wouldn’t presumably count because the Taliban wasn’t actually in political power at the time she was shot? But Russian oligarchs who fall afoul of Putin would be accepted?
2
Beau always was fond of returning slaves to their proper owner.
20
It is not long ago when raping your wife here in the United State was not unlawful. With those in office and the recent decisions from the Supreme Court, women from the US may soon be seeking asylum in other countries for being raped by their husbands here. What’s wrong with raping your wife? Is that not Session’s message? Yikes!
15
Devastating meanness, I am beyond understanding such people as the Attorney General.
4
How much more pain must we watch this administration inflict? How many more travesties must we allow them to commit in their nationalistic, racist, misogynistic, classist bullying of all who are "other" than the likes of Sessions, et al? The silent Republicans are cowards, protecting themselves and standing by as the values on which our country was founded, not to mention the Constitution, human decency, and common sense are cast as quaint, outdated, and snowflake. It's difficult to know how to feel: angry? frightened? hopeless? I know I am ashamed of my country.
5
This administration is disgusting. Separating children from their parents, and now this. I hope US women take note and vote accordingly.
7
So you want the children to go to jail with their parents?
2
The original purpose of asylum was for people who were facing extreme harm from those in charge of their country. It was never ever intended to be an escape from poverty, crime or a failure of people to make changes in their own country. If they can fight and demand to get into America then they can fight to make their own countries better.
Not only has the system been abused but it has become profitable for some groups who supposedly "sponsor" asylum seekers. The only thing they do is collect large grants for large salaries for their sham organizations.
This is long overdue and is just a return to the original intent.
Even the hypocrites in Canada are telling people not to come and are actually granting asylum to very few in extreme cases. Only in America do we hear wailing over sensible policies. That's because the real issue is about money and cheap labor.
30
Nothing more unsaintly and ungodly than a vicious, vindictive, venomous Christian with power. Mr. Session's countenance exudes pious pandering and bitterness. Contrast his face with the 93 year old face of Jimmy Carter; that is Christianity-in-action. Unfeigned.
" Pure religion and undefiled is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James 1:27).
Somehow, Jeff Sessions skipped over this.
7
If you think domestic abuse is grounds for asylum then you have no knowledge of the subject.
13
I’ve often wondered why domestic violence and non-governmental street crimes qualify someone for political asylum, which is about political persecution based on religion, other group, etc. The answer is that it doesn’t, and shouldn’t.
14
@DRS: That is demonstrably untrue. For a government, failing to prosecute "street crimes" against a particular group of people, is tacit approval of such crimes.
Lynching, for instance, is widely acknowledged as "persecution" (a grounds for asylum) even though you would be hard pressed to find an example of a state government actually performing such an act. Why? Because lynch mobs were able to exist due to the states' general unwillingness to prosecute the crime of murder when the victim was black. Even police would open up a jail cell and let a torch-bearing mob of private citizens torture and kill a black man. The government knew about this illegality. It just didn't care.
In El Salvador, women and girls are routinely abused (including sexually) with no fear of government action. Our State Department (as recently as 2017) makes note of this on the very first page of its human rights report on El Salvador. If El Salvador generally does not enforce the legal rights of women, those rights are illusory. Once upon a time the U.S. knew that, but the age of Trump is so morally bankrupt that it will attempt to justify almost any specious (or even outright absurd) justification for cracking down on those it deems unworthy. Some imagine petty cruelty as a sign of greatness, but it is just bluster masking garden variety cowardice.
Trump an the entire GOP are getting to be more and more like Germany of the 1930's.
4
The misogyny of the Trump administration and the Trump minions never ceases to amaze me. I guess these women just need to die so they shouldn't bother Mr. Sessions. Maybe we should go back to head of household laws that existed even in the 20th century which allowed men to pretty much rule the household as they should. Up until the 1970s, law makers and police pretty much looked the other way at domestic violence considering it a private matter, but not a criminal one. The women's movement in this country changed that, thankfully, but this wretch seems to think that these women, trying to flee horrors of domestic abuse by asking for help in a country once known to help those in need, deserve what they get. This current administration sickens me.
7
The Republican war on women - especially women of color - continues.
Will enough white women who voted for Trump vote for Democrats in November? Are enough of them disgusted by this administration? I hope so.
4
I hope he takes a beating from his wife when he gets home for his decision to minimize the 'misfortunes' of abused women everywhere.
Shame on Sessions!
2
He's absolutely right. And I'd never thought I'd agree with Sessions about ANYTHING.
28
One cannot robotically state "I comply with the letter of the law", and leave pat. We are reasoning humans. The law has always been, and always will be, one tool among many to answer the question "What shall we be?" It is up to humans to decide what implementation of a law means both in terms of tactical policy and strategically in terms of current social mores. In current administration, humanity we would show to even our most dissolute is denied on flimsy basis of geographic happenstance. I do not suggest open borders; we must live in the real world and accept not all mean well. What I suggest is no document, no matter when written, by who, or however conceived, can fully answer "What shall we be?" This is not what I want the United States of America to be. We can, and must, do better.
4
Thanks to the Trump gang (in which I include his voters), America has lost its humanity.
10
Disgraceful. This kind of abuse certainly is political when the abused woman has no recourse or protection through her government. The ramifications of this stand to be horrific. Why is Jeff Sessions so afraid of foreign abuse victims?
5
For anyone looking for a modern, working definition of evil, I give Jeffery Sessions.
The banality of evil, indeed.
22
Agreed. We are truly deteriorating into Nazi style 'justice ' and inhumanity. But nobody cares until it "comes for them".
3
Jeff Sessions is a powerful Republican of Alabama. We know what that means. When Moore, with an extensive history regarding female children, ran for Session's seat he won the primary. Moore lost the general election, in my opinion primarily because he went into hiding weeks before the election. But Republicans who voted, voted for Moore.
5
Of course domestic abuse is not a reason to accept anybody into our country. Neither is gang violence, police that don't enforce the laws, or many other things. Only a person being abused by the official government can be given asylum. We might want to help everyone, but we have all those issues in the US, and we are already over populated and broke to boot.
22
So what are the grounds for asylum? It seems pretty clear that Sessions thinks the only political persecution worthy of the name is that which can happen to men. Governments allowing or condoning domestic abuse of women are just so omnipresent that we can't be bothered with facing up to them;it's just normal human behavior. Show me a man whose government took away his right to own a military-style assault rifle though and then we are talking!
This might be the paradigm case of white male privilege thinking. All rights and governmental programs and duties are defined in terms of what is necessary for the freedom and well being of healthy white males. This is certainly in the tradition of the Founders but they, on the other hand, thought they were espousing universal principles which could be expanded beyond their limited historical position. Which the United States has been successfully doing. Until this Trump administration came along that is.
3
The Department of Justice used to have the types of domestic violence (physical, emotional, financial) defined on its website. Those are gone - and one scant paragraph remains. Does the Department of Justice still recognize DV as a substantial threat to women? What happened to that webpage?
7
What if an asylum seeker’s home country government does not consider domestic violence a crime or that country does not effectively provide for the protection of such victims? Such circumstances deprive victims of liberty and safety as much as would systematic political persecution. While it isn’t possible for the USA to offer a haven to all the world’s downtrodden, threats to an individual asylum seeker’s safety emanating from the legal system of their home country ought to be grounds for hearing their pleas.
3
Watching Sessions re-enact the events surrounding the SS. St. Louis makes me physically ill.
1
Keep shutting people out this country and watch this country have the biggest collection of nitwits ever assembled. Nothing like a brain trust not having brains in it trust. Just look at who the highest academic achievers and the where next wave of brain trust will be coming from in Science, Math, Medicine, Technology, etc. No, not the US, but from abroad. No, not Norwegians, but from non white countries. Then again, look who voted for this President...nitwits.
8
The GOP and most Trump supporters are highly suspicious of anyone with any intellectual capability or higher education. They do not want intelligent foreigners to immigrate here, they might take jobs away...
1
Well I’m glad you’re not prejudiced against people of European background. This country’s largest ethnic group is German American. Whose ever heard of a German American engineer or scientist of note.
6
Read...next wave, not the last wave or the one before that which were Europeans indeed. In case you didn't notice, most Europeans are NOT looking to come here, not while this misfit is in office. Just look at the ethnicity of those winning the national spelling bee or the Westinghouse Science awards lately. Not Europeans anymore.
Ironically, my own government does not seem to be able to protect me from exposure to insanity, immorality, utter callousness towards human life, and the degradation of my country's standing as a leader in the free world....Guess I am now a protected class.
7
Sessions is correct. It is the responsibility of the alien’s government to protect its citizens. Not the United States.
32
It was also the responsibility of King George to see to the welfare of his colonists. Our country was founded by people fleeing countries where their governments had failed them. That is why we are a great country, because of our diversity. Choke off immigration and we will stagnate and swiftly cease to lead the world in much of anything.
1
Then you believe that women and the LGBTQ community at large is inferior and that they do not have equal dignities and rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This issue is binary, a zero or a one and the Attorney General acting in a manner that is repugnant to our creed. He will be remembered as so overwhelmed with keeping his job that he has completely lost whatever sense he had that women and the LGBTQ community at large are trying to save their own lives because their attackers find it viscerally satisfying if not easy to harm them. If someone is seeking amnesty on the basis of domestic violence, the loss of a single life because We said "No," is blood on our hands. That poor soul will never finish what they started.
6
This will play spectacularly to Trump's misogynist base. Possibly it will even so endear this ferret to his keeper that he'll let him sit on his lap again in Cabinet meetings.
6
One more chapter in the Republican war on women.
14
I am reviewing my position on reincarnation. Although I do not espouse it as a tenet of my faith, if I could be reassured that this heartless little man could come back as a Salvadoran housewife with two black eyes and a tendency to flinch whenever a man raised his hand, I think I'd sign up in a heartbeat.
13
Just as Jesus would do.
14
Another word of wise advice from our racist AG. What does this bigoted individual know about domestic violence? What does this nasty know about people different than him? Nothing.
He is A Trumpite clinging to the shirt tails of a crazy president, bowing and humiliating himself in the name of a false God. How does he justify himself? Disgusting!
13
Why was this even in debate?
Cases like this make one look askance at the motivations of all asylum seekers. Best thing for pro-immigration forces to do? Accept this is the proper outcome and go on to fight another day. Or, of course, try to whip up a liberal frenzy over this and deepen the political chasms that separate us.
22
While Sessions is probably correct on the letter of the law for an abused spouse the abuser is the law. And in countries where law enforcement doesn't protect the victim because of age or gender, sexual orientation, or marital status, religious views etc., one could argue that the domestic violence is government sanctioned persecution. If Sessions doesn't want any immigration to America why not just come right out and say it instead of playing this game of gotcha with immigrants seeking asylum? It would save the immigrants time and heartache and let them make alternative plans.
I will say that the hallmark of a compassionate and Christian country is allowing asylum for people who meet the requirements of the law. But it's also part of being a civilized country when we look at the person's predicament rather than locating our decision solely on what the law allows. Yet as I write this I am reminded that Trump and his merry band of kleptocrats have no compassion for anyone other than themselves and those like them.
I don't suppose that they'd tell law enforcement to stop taking complaints of child abuse and domestic abuse seriously when they originate with citizens and legal residents, or would they?
11
I'm not disagreeing with your argument regarding the decision made by Jeff Sessions. You are certainly correct about the lack of compassion evidenced by this administration.
There are however, innumerable cases where US law enforcement officers have ignored or disregarded claims of domestic abuse. Dozens of women, and I assume some men, are killed or maimed by spouses, significant others and domestic partners every year. Cops routinely fail to protect victims of domestic abuse, even when there is a protective order in place.
3
JScic, I agree with you. I have personal experience with how little law enforcement cares about the victims of domestic abuse. It seems as if the moment the victim asserts herself she is viewed as a troublemaker. The abuser isn't forced to leave home, to have sleepless nights worrying about being killed, to poverty or to have to leave everything familiar behind. Maybe our domestic violence victims should flee to another country to make a fresh start.
2
Political asylum is political asylum. In this I agree with Sessions. I do not agree with him mischaracterizing Obama’s policies.
11
It is ASYLUM, not political asylum. What about religious minorities or racial minorities who are persecuted in different countries. Were Jews or gypsies persecuted by the Nazis because of their political opinion or because of their race or religion? The US law states that there are 5 grounds for asylum: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group and or political opinion. In adopting the UN definition of refugees in adopting the Refugee Act of 1980, the US House and Senate adopted the international 5 grounds the are the basis of refugee and/ or Asylum definitions.
Mr. Sessions blithely calls violent rapes 'misfortunes' - an annoyance akin to fingernail polish smudging as you leave a beauty salon. He demonstrates complete ignorance of why these crimes warrant asylum - because the patriarchal, ineffective criminal justice systems and cronyist governments in the women's home countries do not punish the perpetrators and do not stop the attacks. These rapes are an act of war - controlling, abusing, and now, condemning these women to lifelong imprisonment.
Coming from the U.S. Shariah Christian GOP - with its ugly history, and present, of marrying preteen girls to their rapists and forcing rape victims to bear rapists' babies - Sessions must just understand that, under Trump and Pence, it's not much better here for those asylum-seekers, so he's sending them home. It's probably a kindness in his book.
17
Dear Elizabeth, I personally don't stand for child marriage, rape, and patriarchal practices that denigrate women in ANY religion. The article described a case where a woman is seeking asylum to escape her rapist. The alt-right wing of the Republican Party supports child marriage in many states and the purpose of child marriage oftentimes is to legitimize the offspring of rape. The alt-right wing of the Republican Party is also against allowing rape victims to have abortions. I would hope that you don't support these crimes against women in any religion either.
1
While few people advocate unrestricted immigration, the aperture of lawful immigration set by the Trump Administration is so narrow that they seem set against any immigration whatsoever. That is nothing more than hostility to immigrants under the guise of ensuring the lawful control of our borders.
6
If someone is physically and mentally abused because of their being - in this case femaleness - and the government or courts in their country offer no protection, then this is the very definition of government aided and abetted persecution. But Sessions decision is no surprise. He represents a president who hates women and a country with police and courts that ignore domestic violence. Approx, 15% of all murders are intimate-partner murders and 70% of intimate-partner murder victims are women.
14
If the Republican agenda is to keep going back instead of forward, isn't it the height of hypocrisy to keep using modern technology to do it? Like Twitter. that didn't exist during hte idyllic times conservatives keep reminiscing about. So they shouldn't use it. or facebook, or Russia... Eradicate the white house of all modern conveniences. If, as is reported, that Mr. Sessions Alabama home still has the original linoleum, no upgrades of any kind should be allowed.
2
I would be happy to exile Sessions to permanent residence in Alabama.
2
Men who abuse women feel entitled to do so. Sessions and Trump (and apparently, the Republican Party) all wish to enable men to feel entitled to assault women. What's next? Domestic violence is no longer illegal in the U.S.?
5
All this cruelty toward marginalized populations. Makes one wonder what their end game is...
10
I don’t understand why all of America seems to confuse moral obligation with legislation and process, nor do they realize the limited Article 2 powers of congress. Saving the world from domestic violence is not within the scope of the federal government and citizenship is only within congresses powers to grant. We are broke because America wants to save everyone, but if they continue to jump ship how will they ever face the problem and fight back for change. If you care so much go donate your time, donate your money, sacrifice your things... but don’t obligate me and my resources for something outside of the scope of the social contract we signed in 1792. Lastly, Sessions can only somewhat enforce policy, however in this case it is backed by congressional statutes and immigration policies... this valid and enforceable. I hate the guy too, but I don’t let me emotions cloud simple legislative and political process. If you want change, change congress.
24
" If you want change, change congress."
I assure you that we're working on it.
6
What a sad betrayal on all the principles upon which our Country was founded and allowed to grow into the most prosperous place on earth. Immigration based upon fear of harm, and the lack of redress, moved the most significant human migration in history to our shores. But Jeff Sessions (whom while he is absorbing almost daily personal abuse from Trump) seems to have no bounds in his own need to turn a blind eye to the most vulnerable of human beings that being of both women and children. They should rename his Cabinet position to be the leader of Department of 'Just US', rather than Justice.
5
Another day and another step back for America. This country is no longer a shining beacon of hope in the world.
8
Jeff Sessions now joins a long list of other notorious US Government officials who have shown no empathy towards persons being abused. How a person claiming to embrace the teaching of Christ can neglect this most basic teaching is beyond comprehension. Sessions will now be remembered as a monster. . .a well earned title. Shame on him and shame on what remains of our country.
19
Mmmmmm, I don’t want these decisions based on the religious feelings and interpretations of who ever is in the office.
Go down that road and you find yourself siding with the county clerk who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses because “god” whispered in her ear.
1