Today’s Action: Include Domestic Violence in our Asylum Protections

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed 15 years of legal precedent when he declared domestic violence would no longer be a acceptable reason to receive asylum, calling the battering, rape, and murder of women by their male partners a “private criminal activity.”

This viewpoint — that domestic violence concerns only the dealings between two individuals and is not a shared responsibility — stems directly from the logic that women are property of their male partners, and any assault is simply ‘personal circumstance.’ It means that the Trump regime believes systemic violence against women in their own homes is not a human rights issue, even in countries that refuse to protect them.

U.S. asylum law has always been interpreted by judges, legislators, and executives to include victims of domestic violence but does not outright state it. This is how Sessions and Trump might just get away with this atrocity. To protect these women, we need to change the law.

Call or email your Members of Congress and demand they change asylum law to include victims of domestic violence.

The asylum seeker Jeff Sessions rejected to create this horrific new policy hails from El Salvador, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women. She was abused by her husband for 15 years, beaten (even while she was pregnant), raped, and threatened with death. But Salvadorian police would not step in unless they literally caught him in the act or saw blood. She is one of countless women living with no recourse against this type of terror. And somehow, the president would have us believe this isn’t a human rights issue.

Without anywhere to run, thousands of women are going to die as a result of this change. But even if Trump and Sessions don’t care about their lives, the rest of us do – and we can take action.

Email or call (202.224.3121) your Members of Congress and demand an addition to asylum law to include victims of domestic violence — and thereby acknowledge violence against women as a human rights issue.

PS: Fight systemic racism and the war on the poor — join the Stand Against Poverty Mass Rally & Moral Revival in Washington D.C. on June 23rd!