Profiles in Resilience: Why Survivors of Domestic Violence and Gang Violence Qualify for International Protection

By Eleanor Hope Emery. et al.

Although protection for refugees is a longstanding U.S. legal commitment under federal and international law, immigration policy has become a deeply politicized topic in the United States in recent years. Domestic violence and violence by organized gangs represent a major cause of forced displacement for those arriving at the U.S. border. Yet these forms of persecution are viewed skeptically by some policymakers who favor restricting immigration in spite of U.S. legal obligations to ensure the right to seek asylum. Extensive data demonstrates that the increase in migration from Central America to the United States in the past decade has been triggered by physical and sexual violence, death threats, and other abuses by organized gangs, domestic abusers, and government authorities, resulting in high levels of physical and psychological trauma. The Trump administration dismissed these claims as “meritless” and asylum seekers as “fraudsters” who exploit the “loophole” of asylum, alleging that they are actually criminals. Former attorney general Jeff Sessions flouted decades of domestic and international legal precedent by issuing a blanket statement, in a single case, that domestic and gang violence survivors will generally not qualify for asylum. This decision had the immediate impact of increasing denials of Central American asylum claims, in line with the political g  

New York: Physicians for Human Rights, 2021. 54p.