On March 15, 2010, Senators Leahy and Levin introduced the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 (S. 3113). This landmark legislation, co-sponsored by Senators Durbin, Akaka, and Burris, reaffirms the United States’ commitment to all those fleeing persecution and torture, and, among other critical reforms, includes key provisions that will assist women and girls seeking asylum in the United States. When introducing the bill, Senator Leahy noted that the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 would “repeal the most harsh and unnecessary elements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, a law that had tragic consequences for asylum seekers. It also corrects agency and court misinterpretations of law that limit access to safety in the United States for asylum seekers.” See Senator Leahy’s press release here.

Help Sustain Asylum Advocacy

Originally scheduled for April 1-30, 2010, the Protecting Lives Giving Challenge is a fundraising campaign among the generous attorneys and staff at our pro bono partner law firms, with the goal this year to raise $50,000 to help sustain our gender-based asylum advocacy. Due to an exciting donation match opportunity with Lexis Nexis, we are delaying the start date until May 1, 2010, and are excited about the opportunity to raise more support for immigrant women and girls fleeing violence! Read More >

In the months preceding the introduction of this important legislation, Tahirih called the attention of the public and policymakers to the many obstacles to protection faced by women and girls who have fled gender-based persecution. In September 2009, Tahirih held a Congressional Briefing and released a new report that highlighted how current US law and policy prevents many women and girls from finding the safe haven they desperately need and deserve here. Tahirih followed up these awareness-raising activities with direct outreach to urge Congress and the Administration to enact a number of long overdue reforms to the US asylum system.

In particular, Tahirih worked closely with Senator Leahy’s office to ensure that the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 strengthens the United States’ commitment to protect women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution. In addition to eliminating an arbitrary one-year filing deadline (a procedural hurdle that is applicable to all asylum-seekers but that has a particularly harsh impact on women and girls), the bill also clarifies the proper legal framework to apply to gender-based asylum claims.

The Refugee Protection Act of 2010 is supported by over 20 organizations around the country; in addition to Tahirih, endorsing organizations include Amnesty International, Human Rights First, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (at UC Hastings School of Law), and Refugees International. (Visit Human Rights First to learn more about the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 and to take action.)

Tahirih is also grateful for the recent introduction of other legislation in the House of Representatives that will help our asylum clients receive a fair hearing and obtain justice. Following Tahirih’s briefing and report release, several Congressional offices reached out to Tahirih to better understand the problems currently faced by women asylum seekers and to explore solutions. As one critical step forward, on March 10, 2010, Representatives Jim Moran, Pete Stark, and Diane Watson introduced the Restoring Protection for Victims of Persecution Act (H.R. 4800), a bill which would eliminate the one-year bar to asylum and re-focus the attention of asylum officers and immigration judges on the actual merits of an applicant’s appeal for US protection. Representatives Jim McGovern, Yvette Clarke, and Raul Grijalva have recently also signed on to co-sponsor this bill.

Tahirih looks forward to working with these Congressional champions and other allies in the months ahead to ensure that women and girls fleeing gender-based violence can access safety and obtain justice in the United States.

Photo by Sergio Pessolano.

Olga Sanchez (Colombia), Reim Kazam (Sudan), Martha Alicia (Central America), and Melei (West Africa) made heartfelt remarks on behalf of the current and former clients of the Tahirih Justice Center. They thanked these legislators who have helped Tahirih so much and gave them a real sense of the challenges that Tahirih’s clients face and have to overcome in order to build safe, peaceful lives for themselves and their children.

After enduring long and painful struggles, these women are now doing well and have renewed hope for their futures. Olga is now a professional with a software company, and supporting herself and her daughter. Melei, a dentist by training, has her own elder-care business and is also now pursuing her US dentistry accreditation. And inspired by their mothers’ experiences with Tahirih, Reim’s son and Martha’s daughter are now considering becoming lawyers themselves. Through sharing with the Congressmen these sorts of simple but meaningful steps forward, the group impressed upon the legislators how their support helps ensure that Tahirih can touch and transform the lives of many other women and families.

In addition to expressing their own gratitude, the group presented the Congressmen with hand-signed cards filled with thank-you notes like the one below from a Tahirih client who, upon being told that we were able to secure her legal status, wrote us:

“I am so happy that I dont know what to do. I have danced , danced and laughed endlessly and only pray for Tahirih Justice Center that may God give them more strengh, knowlegh and diplomacy to handle more of this cases…thanking you so much.”

The group’s visit to Capitol Hill was special in other ways as well. They also met briefly with the Chief of Staff to Congressman Al Green (who represents Houston, where Tahirih has opened a new office). And in an exciting turn of events, the Congressmen were unexpectedly called to the House floor for votes, so staffers escorted the group to meet with the Congressmen right outside the voting chamber.

As they waited, the group saw at least a dozen other legislators bustle about House business, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They also spoke with Representatives Corrine Brown and Kendrick Meek, past Honorary Congressional Co-Chairs for Tahirih’s Benefit. In addition, staffers for Congressmen Moran and Wolf graciously gave the group a tour of the Capitol. Given their disempowering pasts, these women were especially moved to be treated like dignitaries in the seat of governmental power – among other highlights, they were thrilled to be escorted through the original Supreme Court chamber, and brought to stand on the exact same spot where the President begins his walk for the State of the Union address.

Jeanne Smoot, Tahirih’s Director of Public Policy, came with Tahirih’s Wings to Capitol Hill and reflected, “I was so proud to accompany these fine ambassadors – as I said to the Congressmen, Tahirih’s staff take inspiration every single day from the strength, dignity, and perseverance of our amazing clients, and especially from Tahirih’s Wings’ desire to uplift each other and to transform our world into a better place.”

Pictured from Left to Right: Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos; Chief Michael Dirden of the Houston Police Department; Rebecca White, CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Center; Congressman Ted Poe; Houston City Council Member Melissa Noriega; Anne Chandler of the Tahirih Justice Center; Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia

The legislation prioritizes approaches with proven efficacy such as promoting women’s economic opportunity, addressing violence against girls in school, engaging men, and working to change public attitudes. By investing in local women’s organizations overseas that are successfully working to reduce violence in their communities, I-VAWA would have a huge impact on reducing poverty – empowering millions of women in poor countries to lift themselves, their families, and their communities out of poverty.

I-VAWA was conceived and drafted by Women Thrive Worldwide, Amnesty International USA, and the Family Violence Prevention Fund with the input and support of Tahirih and a broad-based NGO coalition around the country. On January 29, 2010, Anne Chandler, the director of Tahirih’s Houston office, joined other prominent supporters of I-VAWA in Texas (pictured above) to provide remarks at an event convened by Congressman Poe to celebrate the launch of I-VAWA. Tahirih’s Houston office has participated in many other important outreach and awareness-raising events this past quarter, and looks forward to continuing to build strong partnerships in the Houston NGO and service-provider community for the benefit of Tahirih’s clients and to advance the fight to end violence against women.

As highlighted in Tahirih’s September 2009 briefing and report, “Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution,” the one-year filing deadline can have devastating consequences for women and girls seeking refuge from gender-based persecution. Enacted as part of the 1996 Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the one-year filing deadline bars individuals from receiving asylum if they apply one year or more after their arrival in the United States. Following Tahirih’s briefing and report release, all three legislators reached out to Tahirih expressing particular concern over the one-year bar, and their offices have worked with Tahirih, together with Human Rights First and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (at UC Hastings School of Law), to better understand the problem and craft a solution.

Although this arbitrary deadline impacts all those seeking protection in the United States, women asylum seekers—especially those who fled or fear domestic violence, female genital mutilation, honor crimes and other forms of gender-based persecution in their home countries—often face particular complications that delay their applications for protection and place them at greater risk of being denied asylum due to the one-year bar. [For more information about the impact of the one-year filing deadline on women and girls seeking asylum, please see pp. 31-39 of Precarious Protection.]

As Congressman Moran noted when introducing the bill, “The United States has always been a beacon of hope for refugees fleeing discrimination, whether political, religious, or gender-based. The one-year filing deadline for asylum applications is unnecessary, and its elimination will guarantee all qualified individuals have the opportunity to restart their lives free of persecution.” See Congressman Moran’s press release here.

On September 30, 2009, the Tahirih Justice Center, together with Human Rights First and the Women’s Refugee Commission, convened a Congressional Briefing to call attention to the many challenges facing women and girls seeking asylum in the United States. The Briefing offered policymakers and the public a critical opportunity to learn about the harmful impact of unsettled policy and current immigration laws on women and girls fleeing gender-based violence.

Tahirih’s Executive Director, Layli Miller-Muro, gave opening remarks thanking attendees for their interest in increasing protection for women and girls fleeing violence. A former Tahirih client (who also served on Tahirih’s Board of Directors), Gisele, courageously recounted how she was forced to flee her home country after being arrested and beaten for resisting a forced marriage to the chief of her village. Gisele’s story about her struggles to find safety in the United States drew in the audience and gave a vitally important human face to the consequences that can result from US asylum law and policy decisions. Award-winning actor and human rights activist Sam Waterston (D.A. “Jack McCoy” on NBC’s Law & Order) and longtime Tahirih supporter Congressman Jim Moran also gave compelling remarks, reflecting on the prevalence and severity of violence against women around the world and calling for the US to improve its response to women and girls in desperate need of refuge.

Tahirih’s Director of Public Policy, Jeanne Smoot, next outlined the problematic state of gender-based asylum law in the United States, as well as the devastating consequences of a one-year filing deadline that can bar applicants, especially women and girls, from receiving asylum. Joining Jeanne on the speakers’ panel were Annie Sovcik, Policy Counsel at Human Rights First (relating the experience of women who flee persecution only to face expedited removal, i.e., deportation without a hearing, in the US), and Emily Butera, Detention Program Officer at the Women’s Refugee Commission (addressing the damaging impacts of detention on women and children who, under current US policy, can be imprisoned while they await decisions on their asylum cases).

As highlighted in the Washington Post (“Clearer Rules Urged For Asylum Seekers”), findings from a new report by the Tahirih Justice Center, “Precarious Protection: How Unsettled Policy and Current Laws Harm Women and Girls Fleeing Persecution,” were also presented at the Congressional Briefing.

Drawing on the compelling stories of Tahirih’s clients and our direct services experiences, as well as cutting-edge research gleaned from recent reports by other organizations, Tahirih’s report represents a new level of research and analysis that has only been made possible in the last year as our public policy department has grown. The report critically examines how the lack of clarity and coherence in the field of gender-based asylum law, together with the severe implications of current immigration laws and policies of general application to all asylum seekers (including the one-year filing deadline, the expedited removal process, and restrictive detention policies with limited access to parole), can prevent women and girls fleeing persecution from finding the protection they need and deserve. Read the full report (PDF).

We are pleased and hopeful to think that through public outreach and education efforts like this recent Congressional Briefing and report, Tahirih can achieve true justice not only for one client at a time, but also, through system transformation, for all women and girls who seek safe haven in the United States.

Tahirih is serving on the Immigration Committee of the VAWA IV National Task Force and is helping to collect input from our colleague service-providers around the country, as well as from Tahirih’s own staff and our extensive Pro Bono Attorney Network (with over 650 lawyers from 110 firms).

Our Approach

For more on the strength and importance of the direct services & policy model, please see Director of Public Policy, Jeanne Smoot’s article “Advocacy on a Shoestring.”

Our work on VAWA’s reauthorization has underscored the vital importance of our combination of direct services and public policy advocacy. Tahirih’s unique organizational model ensures that challenges posed to individual immigrant survivors can be translated into proposals for lasting systemic reform, so that laws, implementing regulations, and agency protocols all become more powerful and coordinated mechanisms for protection. Specific proposals we will make as part of the VAWA IV National Task Force include:

• US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) should be required to engage in expedited processing of visa petitions for battered immigrants, given how precarious their situation often is until they receive their approvals. USCIS has set a nominal goal time of five months for processing VAWA self-petitions, but in Tahirih’s experience, processing times can stretch to 18 months or even longer. In that interim, many of our clients are not entitled to work authorization. The ripple effects of this chronic legal, physical, and psychological uncertainty are profound. Among other things, it can be extremely challenging for our clients to find a safe place to live, particularly when domestic violence shelters often only permit stays of up to 30 days and long-term shelters (transitional housing) often require residents to work.
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be prevented from deporting victims with a pending U visa petition (a type of visa available to non-citizen victims of certain serious crimes who cooperate with the police). Currently, ICE has the power to grant stays of removal (an order preventing deportation) to U visa petitioners, but does not always exercise it. In a particularly egregious case, ICE refused to grant a stay and deported Tahirih client and her small child back to her home country on the same plane as her abuser. Given this disturbing lack of sensitivity to basic safety concerns, ICE should be legally restrained from deporting these vulnerable victims.
• Procedural regulations need to keep pace with changes in VAWA to ensure that victims get the full benefit of those improvements. Important new provisions were added to VAWA in 2006. For example, while human trafficking victims are typically required to cooperate with law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, VAWA III provided that they could be exempted from doing so if the experience would be too traumatic. This humanitarian provision was included to acknowledge not only how painful it is for victims to relive their experiences as witnesses, but also that victims’ cooperation can place themselves and their families at grave risk of retaliation from the trafficker’s criminal network. Unfortunately, because no regulations have been issued that clarify how to prove that trauma, what kind of application to prepare to get the exemption, and where even to file it, we are unaware of any instance in which this vital exemption has actually been used.

In addition to the above, Tahirih is also developing a number of proposals specifically regarding the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA), legislation incorporated in VAWA III that Tahirih helped draft and champion to protect so-called “mail-order brides” from abuse and exploitation. Among other priorities, we hope to clarify and strengthen IMBRA to ensure that the government puts a comprehensive enforcement regime in place—including technical assistance to international marriage brokers (IMBs) on their obligations, a hotline for women to report non-compliant IMBs and get referrals to domestic violence service-providers, the capacity to conduct investigations and bring prosecutions—as well as to specify which government offices should be assigned those responsibilities.

We look forward to continuing this work in the coming years and making exciting progress with our coalition partners toward realizing the full potential of all federal laws intended to protect vulnerable immigrants from abuse.

Before and after introduction, Tahirih worked hard to build a broad base of support for SB 1436, including outreach to new faith-based and law enforcement allies. The bill was off to a strong start, with a favorable referral from the Senate Courts of Justice Committee followed by unanimous passage by the full Senate. However, when SB 1436 crossed over for consideration by the House of Delegates, the Speaker unexpectedly assigned the bill away from the House Courts of Justice Committee (House Courts). House Courts had held a hearing just last year on a similar bill, SB 441, and passed it (SB 441 fell short of passage by the full House by only six votes, so we had high hopes to carry the bill over the finish line this year).

A last-minute scheduling of a subcommittee hearing on the bill at 7:30am prevented testimony by some key police witnesses.

We had laid years of groundwork before House Courts and had developed solid bi-partisan support. Five co-patrons of the bill sat on House Courts, including the chair of House Courts and the chair of a key subcommittee. The referral of SB 1436 away from House Courts stacked the odds against the bill’s further progress. An additional obstacle was the last-minute scheduling of a subcommittee hearing on the bill at 7:30am, which prevented testimony by some key police witnesses.

Despite the early hour, we were grateful for a very strong showing of support from allies around the state—from the Richmond Police Department, the Virginia Organizing Project, VSDVAA, the Virginia Interfaith Center, the Virginia Coalition of Latino Organizations, the Virginia Poverty Law Center, as well as the Tahirih Justice Center. Many others who could not make the hearing, including Fairfax County Police Chief Dave Rohrer and Alexandria Police Captain Eddie Reyes, made calls, wrote letters, or sent emails encouraging passage of the bill.

Still, on February 19, 2009, the subcommittee voted against the bill. This decision prevented SB 1436 from reaching the full House for a floor vote, and ended our hope for the bill’s passage during this legislative session.

Although SB 1436 will not move forward this year, an incredible and growing coalition is mobilized to advocate for this legislation in the future. Thank you again to the many organizations and individuals who stepped up in support of SB 1436. While we are deeply disappointed by the turn of events this year, we plan on redoubling our efforts to get this vitally important bill passed during the next legislative session!

This ongoing issue highlights Tahirih’s three-part approach to protect immigrant women and girls fleeing gender-based violence. Along with the public education and public policy intiatives described above, Tahirih continues to provide legal services to directly serve the clients we have seen affected by increased immigration enforcement (see full article).

Female Genital Mutilation as Grounds for Asylum

“The immigration judge concluded that the abuse Marie suffered in Guatemala was, in fact, persecution…”

On September 22, 2008, the Attorney General issued a positive decision welcomed by advocates that effectively ordered the Board to redecide Matter of A-T-. The Board’s decision, now in question, was devastating for women who have been victims of FGM. In A-T-, the Board found that a twenty-eight year old woman from Mali was not eligible for asylum based on the FGM which she had suffered in the past, because the procedure would not be performed on her again in the future. The Board also concluded that the FGM she endured was not related to her fear of being forcibly married to her cousin, if she returned to Mali. The Attorney General ordered the Board to reconsider their decision. In his own decision, the Attorney General criticized the Board and properly concluded that FGM can, and frequently is, performed more than once on a woman and that the harm which an asylum applicant fears in the future does not have to be identical to the harm which she has already suffered.

Recently, Alice,* a Tahirih client, was granted asylum on facts very similar to those in A-T-. Alice, a forty-two year old woman from Burkina Faso, was circumcised first at the age of five in a brutal ceremony. She was taken to a small village with fifty other girls and then held down by four women while she was cut with a scalpel. Alice was cut again when she was fifteen years old. Because of these procedures, she suffered emotional and physical harm, including two miscarriages and two stillborn births, and she feared that her own daughter would fall victim to the same procedure. The US government granted Alice asylum, allowing Alice and her daughter to remain in the United States. As directed by the Attorney General, the Board should correct their mistaken reasoning in the Matter of A-T- decision in order for other women like Alice also to be eligible for asylum in the future.

Domestic Violence as Grounds for Asylum

Three days after his decision in Matter of A-T-, on September 25, 2008, the Attorney General issued a second negative decision widely criticized by advocates that lifted a long-imposed injunction on the Board and ordered the Board to move forward to decide an asylum case based on domestic violence, known as Matter of R-A-. The applicant in that case, Rodi Alvarado Pena, came to the United States from Guatemala fleeing a decade of severe abuse by her husband, a former soldier. In 1999, the Board denied asylum to Ms. Alvarado, and her case has bounced back and forth between the Board and two prior Attorneys General for nine years. The case had been subject to an injunction, awaiting the finalization of regulations that would have provided critically needed guidance to the Board on how to analyze gender-based asylum claims, particularly those based on domestic violence. With his September 25th decision, Attorney General Mukasey ordered the Board to issue a final decision in the case without the benefit of these helpful regulations, instead relying on its own less favorable judicial decisions for precedent to establish ”a uniform standard nationwide.” The Board’s decision in R-A- will determine if and when a woman is eligible for asylum because of domestic violence. Because the Board’s last decision in the case concluded that the domestic violence Ms. Alvarado suffered was not a form of persecution, and because regulations are still not final, advocates are concerned that the new decision will result in a blanket denial of asylum protection to women fleeing domestic violence.

Again, only weeks after the Attorney General issued his decision in R-A-, Marie,* a Tahirih client, had her case granted by an immigration judge on facts nearly identical to those in Ms. Alvarado’s case. Our client, a thirty-six year old woman, also fled more than a decade of abuse in Guatemala by her common law husband who, like Ms. Alvarado’s abuser, was also a former soldier. The immigration judge concluded that the abuse Marie suffered in Guatemala was, in fact, persecution, and granted her case, allowing her to stay in the United States. If the Board follows their previous decision in Matter of R-A-, which the Attorney General’s opinion permits them to do, women like Ms. Alvarado and our client Marie could be deported to countries where they face unspeakable violence and where their own governments and police will not protect them.

The Board’s new decisions in Matter of A-T- and Matter of R-A- will determine whether Tahirih clients and other women like them who have suffered similar harms will find protection in the United States in 2009. Tahirih is advocating in partnership with other organizations and a broad spectrum of political allies to prevent the regression of gender-based asylum and ensure protection for women and girls who manage to flee the persecution they suffer and demand justice.

Tahirih, for example, is participating in a national working group that works to appeal adverse gender-based asylum decisions and to explore possible legislative remedies to address systemic failures of protection; leading efforts to draft legislation to recognize asylum claims by parents who fear that their daughters will face gender-related persecution on the family’s return to their home country; and creating public education and advocacy materials to build support for gender-based asylum reforms.

Tahirih is also participating in another select national working group to outline and advocate for more general asylum reforms needed to overhaul the system and offer true justice to all those fleeing persecution; other working group members include the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and Human Rights First. This working group met with the Transition Team for the new Administration in December 2008 to present its proposals and is preparing materials for legislative outreach to the 111th Congress as well.

Other alarming judicial decisions in recent years have threatened to deny protection to asylum-seekers fleeing forced marriage, brutal domestic violence, and the fear of female genital mutilation for their daughters. At each of these legal twists and turns, the lives of real women and girls hang in the balance.

Tahirih is advocating in partnership with other organizations and a broad spectrum of political allies to reverse decisions hostile to gender-related asylum applications and restore the availability of protection in the United States to women and girls fleeing violent human rights abuses.

One valuable opportunity to call the attention of policymakers and the public to these trends of concern was a Congressional Briefing Tahirih held on March 11, 2008, together with Honorary Co-Hosts Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA). The event marked Tahirih’s Ten Year Anniversary and offered an especially timely moment for a critical retrospective on the development of US gender-based asylum law.

Both Congressmen offered inspiring opening remarks, followed by a welcome address that sounded a call to action by Her Royal Highness Princess Dana Firas of Jordan, who serves on Tahirih’s Board of Directors. Her remarks conveyed the urgency of the plight of women and girls fleeing violence around the world, noting how many are subjected every minute, hour, day, and year to domestic violence, forced marriage, FGM, rape, honor killings, human trafficking, and other horrific human rights abuses. Bo Cooper, former General Counsel to the Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1999-2003 and an instrumental contributor to gender-based asylum law in the United States, reflected on the early development of the field. Tahirih’s Executive Director, Layli Miller-Muro, addressed recent legal setbacks. Layli helped litigate Matter of Kasinga (sic) as a student attorney, the landmark case decided in 1996 that established FGM as a valid ground for asylum.

Tahirih clients made particularly moving contributions to the Congressional Briefing. They made the life-saving hope that the United States can offer to women and girls fleeing violence real and immediate for the audience. An anniversary video, Voices of Courage, Stories of Justice, was shown at the briefing that featured several clients’ struggles to find safety and build new lives in the United States. In addition, two former Tahirih clients participated as briefing panelists. Ruth, a current Tahirih Board member, recounted how she had to flee her country after her husband died to save her daughter from female genital mutilation, and herself from being forced to marry her late husband’s brother, as tribal custom would have demanded. Her escape involved a terrifying year of living in hiding with her children before finally managing to flee to the United States and find legal protection with Tahirih’s help. Farida, an Afghani women’s human rights activist and former Tahirih Board member, kindly acted as a stand-in to recount the difficult story of a mother and daughter who were subjected to FGM as young girls. Both women were actually in the audience at the briefing but unable to bring themselves to speak publicly. They powerfully described their suffering in the statement that Farida read aloud as “wounds,” rather than “scars,” to acknowledge the very present pain they feel because of their past experiences.

Although we have made great progress in gender-based asylum law in the last decade, judicial decisions like Matter of A-T- signal a dangerous departure by the United States from its commitment to protect those few brave women—like the mother and daughter above—who are able to escape horrific human rights abuses and seek protection in the United States.

The Tahirih Justice Center is committed to advocating for a change in this trend and ensuring better protections for women and girls fleeing violence. In addition to important awareness-raising activities like the Congressional Briefing, Tahirih has endorsed or authored amicus briefs on critical appeals cases; joined in efforts to urge grassroots and Congressional appeals to the Attorney General to step in and reverse particularly flawed BIA decisions; and helped develop proposals for legislative and administrative reforms to provide much-needed clarity and coherence to this field of law.

Together, we are making some progress: in September 2008, one year after Matter of A-T- was decided, Attorney General Mukasey remanded the case to the BIA for reconsideration, rightly noting that FGM is capable of repetition in certain circumstances, and that it can also represent only one way in which a woman may be subjected to persecution in some societies.

But much more progress is needed. While encouraging, the Attorney General’s decision in Matter of A-T- did not take issue with other deep flaws in the BIA’s decision. In addition, this step forward for gender-based asylum was offset by a major step backward when, just a few days later, the Attorney General also remanded to the BIA Matter of R-A-, the landmark case of a Guatemalan asylum-seeker fleeing brutal domestic violence. To do so, Attorney General Mukasey overruled two previous Attorneys General (Ashcroft and Reno) who had imposed a stay on the BIA pending the issuance of final regulations governing gender-based asylum. Without regulations to guide them, particularly on how to properly analyze claims based on domestic violence, there is a real risk that the BIA will decide R-A-‘s case based on a line of judicial decisions that is not favorable to such claims. Responding to this risk, Tahirih and other advocates are renewing efforts to press the Administration for the release of carefully and clearly elaborated gender-based asylum regulations.

For their financial support of the Congressional Briefing, Tahirih is grateful to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; Arnold & Porter LLP; DLA Piper; The Estee Lauder Companies Inc.; Goldman, Sachs & Co.; Lifetime Television; Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP; and the Washington College of Law at American University.

Many of the immigrant crime survivors that Tahirih serves, in fact, are women and girls who do not have legal status when they first turn to us for help, but all are eligible for legal status under federal laws—the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA)—that recognize these exploitative dynamics. These federal protections, painstakingly elaborated over 15 years, are intended to encourage immigrant survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and certain other violent crimes who do not have legal status, or who depend on the perpetrator of the crimes against them for their legal status, to escape violence, seek help, report crimes, and cooperate with law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of crimes without fearing that they will be automatically deported.

Yet, a rash of proposals introduced in recent years at the state and local levels in Virginia to step up immigration enforcement activities threatened to undermine these prudent, safety-centered federal protections and to cause the attention of local authorities to revert from a victim’s safety, to her status. Tahirih has spearheaded the efforts of the survivor advocacy community to defeat such measures.

Where defeat was not possible, Tahirih has also tried to minimize the terrible “chilling effect” that such measures have on immigrant victims, who invariably fear that seeking help from the authorities may then lead to their deportation. For example, at Tahirih’s urging, when the Town of Herndon entered into an agreement with federal immigration authorities to deputize certain of its police officers with immigration enforcement powers, the Town Board agreed to include in its public information materials an “FAQ” addressing concerns of immigrant victims. Tahirih has also testified at hearings before the Board of Supervisors in both Prince William and Loudoun Counties. As a founding member of VA-SCOPE (the VA Alliance for Sensible Community Policing Efforts), Tahirih also helped convene two state-wide summits in Summer 2007 that brought together a broad spectrum of interested advocates to build consensus and develop strategy around responding to these developing state and local threats.

In addition, Tahirih has engaged in extensive education and outreach to the public and policymakers, through candidate questionnaires, media interviews, published articles, and presentations at statewide domestic violence conferences. Tahirih has also given testimony at the invitation of the VA State Crime Commission’s Illegal Immigration Task Force on Tahirih’s work with immigrant crime survivors, the dynamics that render them particularly vulnerable to abuse, and federal protections available to them. Tahirih also testified at public hearings held by the Governor’s Commission on Immigration. Finally, together with the VA Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, VA-SCOPE, and legislative champions, Tahirih drafted and mobilized support for a statewide, uniform law that would prohibit state or local law enforcement from asking victims and witnesses to crimes about their immigration status. This bill nearly passed the Virginia General Assembly in 2008.

Tahirih is redoubling our coalition’s efforts and expanding our outreach to critical allies, to ensure passage of this vitally important statewide law in 2009. Immigrant crime victims like Tahirih’s clients need, and deserve, an unequivocal message that their lives are valued more than their status in this Commonwealth.