Asylum for woman in abuse case
Source: Agencies |
August 15, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
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A Mexican woman who claimed she was beaten and raped for decades by her common-law husband has won the right to stay in the United States in a case experts say makes clear that domestic violence is valid grounds for asylum.
The Department of Homeland Security found the case of the woman known only as L.R. met the stringent standards necessary to win asylum. An immigration judge found in her favor on August 4 and the decision has just been announced by her lawyers.
"The point has been made, very loud and clear, that cases such as these involving domestic violence, and even more broadly, gender-based violence against women, are valid cases," said Karen Musalo, L.R.'s attorney.
What makes the case remarkable is that traditionally asylum has been given to individuals being persecuted by a government; applicants had to show they suffered persecution because of their religion, political beliefs, race, nationality or membership in a particular social group.
Cases such as L.R.'s increase the scope of who may qualify for asylum by expanding the definition of "particular social group." Women who have suffered genital mutilation, or in L.R.'s case, domestic abuse, have been deemed "social groups" and granted asylum.
The decision ends a long saga that started when L.R. was 19 and first met the man she describes as her tormentor for most of her adult life.
Court records show years in which L.R. said she lived in terror - routinely beaten, forced into sex and threatened with a gun or a machete.
She was only allowed out of the house to work as a teacher, but her husband diverted her checks and controlled her income. Once, when he found out she was pregnant, he tried to burn her alive by pouring flammable liquid on her bed and setting it on fire.
L.R. ran to Mexican police eight times - only to be sent home by officers who didn't believe her life was in danger, or worse, called her husband and warned him. L.R. then took her complaint to a judge, she said in court documents. He offered to help - in exchange for sex.
In 2004, L.R. managed to escape to the US, and filed her application for asylum the next year.
The Department of Homeland Security found the case of the woman known only as L.R. met the stringent standards necessary to win asylum. An immigration judge found in her favor on August 4 and the decision has just been announced by her lawyers.
"The point has been made, very loud and clear, that cases such as these involving domestic violence, and even more broadly, gender-based violence against women, are valid cases," said Karen Musalo, L.R.'s attorney.
What makes the case remarkable is that traditionally asylum has been given to individuals being persecuted by a government; applicants had to show they suffered persecution because of their religion, political beliefs, race, nationality or membership in a particular social group.
Cases such as L.R.'s increase the scope of who may qualify for asylum by expanding the definition of "particular social group." Women who have suffered genital mutilation, or in L.R.'s case, domestic abuse, have been deemed "social groups" and granted asylum.
The decision ends a long saga that started when L.R. was 19 and first met the man she describes as her tormentor for most of her adult life.
Court records show years in which L.R. said she lived in terror - routinely beaten, forced into sex and threatened with a gun or a machete.
She was only allowed out of the house to work as a teacher, but her husband diverted her checks and controlled her income. Once, when he found out she was pregnant, he tried to burn her alive by pouring flammable liquid on her bed and setting it on fire.
L.R. ran to Mexican police eight times - only to be sent home by officers who didn't believe her life was in danger, or worse, called her husband and warned him. L.R. then took her complaint to a judge, she said in court documents. He offered to help - in exchange for sex.
In 2004, L.R. managed to escape to the US, and filed her application for asylum the next year.
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