{"id":660373,"date":"2018-12-20T09:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T16:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=660373"},"modified":"2018-12-21T08:08:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T15:08:37","slug":"judge-overturns-white-house-policy-on-asylum-seekers-fleeing-domestic-or-gang-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/12\/judge-overturns-white-house-policy-on-asylum-seekers-fleeing-domestic-or-gang-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge overturns White House policy on asylum seekers fleeing domestic or gang violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_631146\" class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-631146\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Jodi Goodwin\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Border_bridge_barrier_1_VGC_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Ver\u00f3nica G. C\u00e1rdenas \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Immigration attorney Jodi Goodwin, center, talks to Nicaraguan asylum-seekers while they wait for Customs and Border Protection agents on the U.S. side of the international bridge in Hidalgo on Sept. 15.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A federal judge on Wednesday struck down the bulk of a recent White House policy that made it more difficult for victims of domestic and gang violence to seek asylum in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. District Judge Emmett G. Sullivan of Washington D.C. ruled that the policy, which was implemented by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in June, was “arbitrary and capricious” and went against standards set forth in the Immigration and Naturalization Act.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/19\/federal-judge-overturns-white-house-asylum-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Sullivan said the 12 asylum seekers who challenged the new policy “alleged accounts of sexual abuse, kidnappings, and beatings in their home countries during interviews with asylum officers.\u201d Sullivan said they were unlawfully deported and ordered them brought back for new credible fear interviews, which are required for asylum claims.<\/p>\n<p>When Sessions announced the policy change, he said, \u201cThe mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes \u2014 such as domestic violence or gang violence \u2014 or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his memorandum, Sessions cited a 2015 asylum denial concerning a Salvadoran woman who claimed she was fleeing violence. That case was overturned, but Sessions argued the denial “was wrongly decided” and should not have been used as a legal precedent because the Board of Immigration Appeals merely cited another case that involved married Guatemalan women who were trapped in abusive relationships.<\/p>\n<p>In his ruling, Sullivan disagreed, saying that the Trump administration’s new policies on asylum seekers \u201care inconsistent with the intent of Congress as articulated in the [Immigration and Nationality Act].”<\/p>\n<p>The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cJudge Sullivan\u2019s decision ensures that our asylum system remains open to refugees at our border, including those fleeing domestic violence and gang violence,\u201d Eunice Lee, the co-legal director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, said in a statement. \u201cThese individuals raise legitimate claims under U.S. and international law, and have an unequivocal right to seek asylum.”<\/p>\n<p>Austin-based immigration attorney Jackie Watson hailed the ruling, saying immigration attorneys will now be able to focus more on their clients\u2019 asylum claims without having to argue against, or appeal, asylum denials that were handed down because of the Sessions\u2019 memo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a faster way to get to us to where we need to be rather than going through the courts,\u201d she said. Sessions, she said, “just scooped up all these [Bureau of Immigration Appeals] decisions he didn\u2019t like and overturned them, and essentially that\u2019s rulemaking\u201d by circumventing Congress.<script src=\"https:\/\/dot.texastribune.org\/static\/dist\/dot.min.55eef7d282ec435600d1.js\" integrity=\"sha384-kWHbWWrJHsBy04\/FLYpSF8whX7iznTaWu7KCwxjA7qmPD3La29VFha61MJDfKQ+e\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/19\/federal-judge-overturns-white-house-asylum-policy\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Washington D.C.-based judge ruled the policy went against standards set forth in the Immigration and Naturalization Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,142],"class_list":["post-660373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660373"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660388,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660373\/revisions\/660388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}