Very Important!
27 February 2003, 4:38 PM

For your information:

Please send letters immediately -- see below for details
National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women
Co-Chaired by the following organizations

Now Legal Defense and Education Fund Immigrant Women Program
1522 K Street, N.W. Suite 550
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 326-0040
iwp@nowldef.org

Family Violence Prevention Fund
383 Rhode Island St., Suite 304
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 252-8900
leni@endabuse.org

National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild
14 Beacon St., Suite. 602
Boston, MA 02108
(617) 227-9727
gail@nationalimmigrationproject.org

URGENT ACTION
NEW REGULATIONS TO LIMIT ASYLUM-SEEKERS FLEEING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, HONOR KILLINGS, AND SEXUAL SLAVERY

SUMMARY: Ms. Rodi Alvarado fled Guatemala and applied for asylum in the United States in 1995, after suffering ten years of horrific domestic abuse. Her husband raped her repeatedly, attempted to abort their second child by kicking her in the spine, dislocated her jaw, tried to cut her hands off with a machete, kicked her in the genitals, and used her head to break windows. Ms. Alvarado sought assistance from the Guatemalan police and the courts but was refused official protection. A U.S. Immigration Judge granted Ms. Alvarado asylum in 1996, finding that the abuse that she suffered, together with the government's unwillingness or inability to protect her, constituted persecution. But the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) appealed that decision, and in 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) reversed that grant in Matter of R-A and denied her asylum based on the BIA's finding that Ms. Alvarado was not persecuted because she was a woman, since Ms. Alvarado's husband would have persecuted any woman to whom he was married. In 2001, Attorney General Janet Reno vacated the decision in Matter of R-A-, issued proposed regulations that recognized gender-related persecution claims, and directed the BIA to decide Matter of R- A- again after the proposed regulations became final. Those regulations never became final, however. Now, Attorney General John Ashcroft appears poised to issue regulations that may restrict gender-related asylum claims and to reinstate the BIA decision in Matter of R-A-, denying protection to Ms. Alvarado and, thereby, jeopardizing the safety of all victims of domestic violence who flee to the United States.

NATIONAL NETWORK'S CONCERNS: If the Attorney General reinstates the BIA's denial of asylum to Ms. Alvarado and issues regulations that fail to recognize gender-related violence as a legitimate basis for an asylum claim, it would have wide-reaching, negative implications.

Ms. Alvarado will be returned to Guatemala, where she faces battering and likely death at the hands of her husband.

Battered women fleeing unrelenting, governmentally tolerated domestic violence in their home countries will find no protection in the U.S. Women fleeing honor killing, sexual slavery, rape and other gross human rights violations may not find asylum in United States. United States law will conflict with UNHCR guidelines, international law and the laws of other countries around the world that recognize government-tolerated gender-related violence as a basis for asylum, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED: Send letters immediately urging the Attorney General NOT to reinstate the Board of Immigration Appeal's decision in Matter of R-A.-Urge the Attorney General NOT to issue regulations that deny asylum to women victims of domestic violence and other human rights violations whose governments fail to protect them.

SEND YOUR APPEALS TO:

The Honorable John Ashcroft
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Room 440
Washington, DC 20530
Fax: 202 307 6777

President George W. Bush
The White House
Office of the President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Fax: 202 456-2461

The Honorable Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3553
Fax: (415) 956-6701 (San Francisco Office)
E-mail: Boxer@senate.gov

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senate
331 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
E-mail: Feinstein@senate.gov

Your Congressperson

SAMPLE LETTER
RE: Protecting Women Fleeing Domestic Violence and Other Human Rights Violations

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft:
[I/we] am writing to express [my/our] concern and dismay over reports that your office is taking steps that will endanger women victims of domestic violence and other human rights violations who seek protection in the United States. [INSERT WHO YOU ARE AND WHY YOU CARE, i.e., you work with lots of victims of domestic violence, care about women's human rights, etc.]

In 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals overturned a grant of asylum to Rodi Alvarado Pena. Ms. Alvarado fled Guatemala and applied for asylum in the United States in 1995, after suffering ten years of horrific domestic abuse. Her husband raped her repeatedly, attempted to abort their second child by kicking her in the spine, dislocated her jaw, tried to cut her hands off with a machete, kicked her in the genitals, and used her head to break windows. Ms. Alvarado sought assistance from the Guatemalan police and the courts but was refused official protection.

An Immigration Judge granted Ms. Alvarado asylum in 1996, finding that the abuse that she suffered, together with the government's unwillingness or inability to protect her, constituted persecution. This ruling is consistent with international refugee and human rights law, and similar grants of asylum have been approved by the highest courts of the United Kingdom and Australia, and are routinely made in Canada, New Zealand and other countries.

But the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) appealed that decision, and in 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) reversed that grant in Matter of R-A-. In 2001, Attorney General Janet Reno vacated the decision in Matter of R-A-, issued proposed regulations that recognized gender-related persecution claims, and directed the BIA to re-decide Matter of R-A- after the proposed regulations became final.

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and Amnesty International report that your office is poised to issue regulations that would restrict the scope of gender-related persecution claims, and to reinstate the BIA decision in Matter of R-A-. Such actions will severely harm women survivors of domestic violence and other human rights violations who seek protection in this country.

I urge you to reconsider this reported action, and to continue the U.S. tradition of being a leader in the protection of the rights of all human beings, including women.

Sincerely, [Insert Your Name]

This is just appalling
27 February 2003, 4:09 PM

This is just appalling:

Mr Rogers...
27 February 2003, 3:50 PM