In First for Court, Woman Is Ruled Eligible for Asylum in U.S. on Basis of Domestic Abuse

Article here. No mention if men are afforded the same right. Excerpt:

'The nation’s highest immigration court has found for the first time that women who are victims of severe domestic violence in their home countries can be eligible for asylum in the United States.
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Since 1995, when federal officials first tried to set guidelines for the immigration courts on whether domestic abuse victims could be considered for asylum, the issue has been reviewed by four attorneys general, vigorously debated by advocates and repeatedly examined by the courts. With its published decision, unusual in the immigration courts, the appeals board set a clear precedent for judges.

"Women who have suffered violence in these cases can now rely on the legal principles established in this ruling,” said Karen Musalo, a professor and director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, who was an adviser to Ms. Cifuentes. “A judge can no longer say, ‘I believe these horrible things happened to you but this is just a criminal act, this is not persecution.’”'

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Comments

"Asylum" has historically been about political persecution. But I agree that if one lives under a legal/judicial system wherein no actual redress for serious, valid complaints about crimes that place one in serious personal jeopardy of life/limb, the result is as bad as what a "classically persecuted" person faces. So really, I get it. However as Mastodon asks, will male DV vics get the same opportunity to apply for asylum under this same ruling?

Many men and women all over the world live daily in fear of violence/experience it and have little or no chance of getting real redress or protection against it, esp. if it's their own gov't inflicting it on them. Should they also not be eligible for asylum? Or only the females among them?

Concerns that the immigration deportation appeals system will be overwhelmed by appeals from women for asylum based on fear of DV victimhood to a degree are valid, but the ability to process asylum apps is limited by the no. of case mgrs./investigators the INS and/or State Dept. together can assign to handle them. So I suppose in the mean time, female asylum applicants will probably be allowed to stay in the US. Meanwhile, I wonder how male asylum applicants will be treated? Allowed to stay pending outcome of evaluation or immediate rejection since they don't fit the gender-specific scope of wording in the judicial wording? The promise of "equal protection" doesn't apply to non-citizens in immigration matters, but I suppose it's hard to tell the difference anyway when it doesn't actually apply even to citizens, given that, like male non-citizens, male citizens claiming DV victimhood don't get taken seriously either.

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