Thread: Court Suggest Asylum For Guatemalan Women

Court suggests asylum for Guatemalan women
Paul Elias Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO – So many women are murdered with impunity every year in Guatemala that a federal appeals court said Monday that they should be considered for political asylum, opening the possibility of U.S. citizenship to similarly situated women in other countries.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the deportation orders of two immigration courts. The San Francisco-based court ordered the immigration judges in the U.S. Department of Justice to reconsider granting asylum to Lesly Yajayra Perdomo, an illegal immigrant in her mid-30s who settled in Reno, Nev.

Most important, the court ordered the Board of Immigration to determine whether all Guatemalan women can qualify – a decision that could open the door to similar claims from other countries such as El Salvador, Honduras and others with history of widespread gender abuse.

Such a determination would continue an expansion of asylum eligibility beyond the traditional claims of political and religious oppression. Successful asylum applicants have to show they were persecuted because of religion, political beliefs, race, nationality or membership in a particular social group.

Courts in recent years have granted asylum to an increasing number of people claiming persecution of a social group: women fearing genital mutilation, victims of domestic violence and other gender-based claims.

But courts have never opened the possibility of asylum to such a large social group as all the women of Guatemala, which has a population of 13.5 million.

More than 3,800 Guatemalan women have been murdered since 2000 and fewer than 2 percent of the crimes have been solved, according to the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California, San Francisco’s law school.

“This is not a phenomena limited to Guatemala,â€

That's all we need, another excuse to let this country be destroyed from within by flooding it with even more third-world mentality after the floodgate to asylum claims are opened.

LatinAmerican values. We have more than what we can handle now.

Originally Posted by forest

That's all we need, another excuse to let this country be destroyed from within by flooding it with even more third-world mentality after the floodgate to asylum claims are opened.

LatinAmerican values. We have more than what we can handle now.

Ditto! This government will reach for any opportunity to offer asylum to as many third-world peasants as they possibly can.

Reckless!

victims of domestic violence

I really disagree. This is not something America should be dealing with. We have our own victims of domestic violence to deal with.

Guatemala has one of the highest per-capita murder rates in the world. It's around 5,000 people a year. 3,800 women in 10 years really isn't very many compared to the men. I would have to say, more men die in a year.

I don't think these women deserve a special classification for asylum.

Dixie

It would certainly be cheaper to hire advocates and montors even paid at American wages than to open the door to all the women in the country of Guatemala. If large numbers come here the men including the abusers would come with them. Every male girlfriend or spouse abuser is also someones son or brother. The suggestion of the court can not be taken seriously.

Giving special asylum to women would be discrimination based on sex.

Dixie

why should we be taking care of the rest of the world when we can not even take care of our own citizens?