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Guatemalan Woman Is Ruled Eligible for Asylum in U.S. on Basis of Domestic Abuse

August 31, 2014 (1 min read)

"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.  The decision on Tuesday by the Board of Immigration Appeals in the case of a battered wife from Guatemala resolved nearly two decades of hard-fought legal battles over whether such women could be considered victims of persecution.  The ruling could slow the pace of deportations from the Southwest border, because it creates new legal grounds for women from Central America caught entering the country illegally in the surge this summer in their fight to remain here." - Julia Preston, New York Times, Aug. 30, 2014.