Obama Administration Supports Asylum in Some Domestic Abuse Cases

The Department of Homeland Security has submitted a legal brief supporting asylum in some domestic abuse cases, reversing the position taken by the Bush administration.

The brief (PDF posted by the New York Times) says abused women would be eligible for asylum if they can show their abusers treat them as subordinates and little better than property, the New York Times reports. They would have to show wide tolerance for domestic abuse in their home country and a lack of institutions there to protect them.

At issue in such cases is whether domestic abuse victims qualify for asylum under a requirement that they must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution because of “membership in a particular social group,” the Times says.

The brief was filed in the appeal of a Mexican woman who said she feared her common-law husband would murder her if she returned home. He had previously raped her at gunpoint and tried to burn her alive.

The Associated Press also has a story on the development.