Trump administration overturns asylum protections

US attorney general Jeff Sessions has announced the removal of asylum protection for victims of domestic violence and gang violence seeking shelter in the United States.

The move could have “wide-ranging impacts on immigrants seeking refuge in the United States from violence in their home countries,” CNBC says.

“The mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing certain crimes – such as domestic violence or gang violence – or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim,” Sessions said.

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Sessions’ ruling has vacated a 2016 decision by the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which ruled said that a woman who was raped and beaten by her former husband in El Salvador was eligible for protection in the US.

“The ruling is the latest instance of Sessions taking full advantage of his authority over the immigration courts,” CNN says, adding that Sessions is effectively a “one-person Supreme Court” within that system.

The Washington Post reports that Sessions made the ruling in a bid to “help reduce the growing backlog of 700,000 [immigration] court cases”, a number that has more than tripled since 2009.

“We have not acted hastily, but carefully. In my judgment, this is a correct interpretation of the law,” Sessions said in a statement.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that the Trump administration has “just condemned countless vulnerable, innocent women to a lifetime of violence and even death, just to score political points with their base. This act of staggering cruelty insults our nation’s values.”