Sessions rewrites asylum law to quash domestic violence victims' best chance at safety

Sessions rewrites asylum law to quash domestic violence victims’ best chance at safety
He took care to remind immigration judges, in person, that they have to do as he orders.
Alan Pyke
Jun 11, 2018, 4:03 pm Updated: Jun 11, 2018, 4:34 pm


People seeking refuge from intimate partner violence and gang violence no longer qualify for official asylum in the United States, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ruled Monday.

The sweeping decision could also bar other victims of what Sessions called “private crime” from using their home country’s failure to protect them from their abusers as the basis for an asylum claim. It is the second time in a month that Sessions has personally rewritten immigration rules through the attorney general’s little-used statutory authority to refer cases to himself.

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Marching orders, not friendly advice

The attorney general also took care to remind the judges that his decisions aren’t advice from a fellow lawyer but binding instructions from their one true boss. Though they are termed “judges” and wear robes behind a bench in court, the immigration judiciary is essentially a staff arm of the Attorney General rather than the independent arbiters that most envision when hearing their job titles.

Sessions’ frank expression of expectations was jarring to retired immigration judge Paul Schmidt. When attorneys general addressed the training conference in the past, Schmidt said, they stuck to the kind of collegial rah-rah stuff common to executives addressing underappreciated staff — but also stressed an expectation of careful, diligent, and independent professional conduct.

“I’ve never seen an AG come and basically tell the judges they’re part of the border enforcement effort. It’s outrageous,” Schmidt said. “Whether they’re inside DOJ or not, this is supposed to be an administrative court that exercises independent judgment and decisionmaking. And he’s reduced to to where they’re little enforcement officers running around carrying out the AG’s border policies.”

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https://thinkprogress.org/jeff-sessions-asylum-domestic-violence-5e1a3e1aa996/