Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled strict new limitations on asylum applicants Monday, asserting that victims of domestic abuse and even gang violence would no longer qualify for such protection.
The decision represents a dramatic shift from past practice, including those involving Central American women who have sought safe haven from troubled domestic relationships in which they were subjected to repeated physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
“Our nation’s immigration laws provide for asylum to be granted to individuals who have been persecuted, or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of their membership in a particular social group,” the Justice Department said in a written statement, accompanying Sessions’ opinion. “But victims of personal crimes do not fit this definition — no matter how vile and reprehensible the crime perpetrated against them.”