June 12, 2018_Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a very controversial verdict that victims of gang or domestic violence are not members of a particular social group for asylum.  This follows on the heels of the BIA landmark decision in Matter of A-R-C-G- et al., 26 IN Dec. 388 (BIA 2014), which found that women of domestic violence share a common immutable characteristic, that of gender; that marital status may also be an immutable characteristic where the spouse is unable to leave a relationship.  The BIA found that this particular social group has particularity and is socially distinct.  In Matter of A-R-C-G,  the lead Guatemalan respondent was beaten by her husband, her nose was broken and she was raped.  She contacted the police but the police did not want to get involved in a marital relationship and failed to protect her.

AG Sessions reversed an immigration appeals court ruling that granted asylum to an Salvadoran woman who declared she had been physically abused by her husband.

Mr. Sessions says he has authority to overturn the Board of Immigration Appeals decisions because immigration courts fall under the Department of Justice instead of the judicial branch.  He added: “An alien may suffer threats and violence in a foreign country for any number of reasons relating to her social, economic, family or other personal circumstances.  Yet the asylum statute does not provide redress for all misfortune.”

We made a lot of progress with A-R-C-G but we just regressed decades to a time when domestic violence was considered a private matter and not the responsibility of government to protect victims.