Brave women let down by the federal government, again

FALLS CHURCH, VA  - Today the Board of Immigration Appeals issued a major, precedential opinion that sets U.S. asylum law back thirty years (29 I&N Dec. 145 (BIA 2025)). The decision in Matter of K-E-S-G- will make it exponentially harder for women and girls fleeing gender-based violence to obtain safety in the United States. And it all started with a case originating in the Cleveland Immigration Court during the first Trump administration, argued by Maya Lugasy with Brown Immigration Law.  According to a press release issued by the Tahirih Justice Center, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS), and Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic:

Matter of K-E-S-G- is the case of a Salvadoran woman, Ms. S.G., who fled to the United States after being stalked and threatened by powerful gang members, from whom the police refused to protect her. The Justice Department under the [Trump] administration’s first term had a pattern of weaponizing individual asylum cases like Ms. S.G.’s to restrict protections for women and families more broadly. 

Now, according to the Board of Immigration Appeals, one's "sex or sex and nationality, standing alone," can no longer define one's inclusion in a "particular social group." This is important because the definition of a "particular social group" can determine whether someone qualifies for asylum based on identity-based persecution. According to the court, stacked with Trump loyalists, defining women as a "particular social group" is "overbroad and insufficiently particular to be cognizable."They are saying this to women. Who are victims of gender-based violence. Because they are women. In order to deport them back to the abusers they fled in the countries that failed to protect them.Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, "This is a devastating decision for women and girls who have been failed by other countries and governments. Now they can add the United States to that list."Women around the world once believed the United States of America was a place where they would be treated as full human beings. Where they could be safe, get educations, pursue careers, and be treated with respect and dignity. Now, they will be thrown back to the wolves they fled. "Women do so much for our communities and families. The people who have made it here already survived so much. They are strong and brave, and they only want what everyone does — to live in a safe place and take care our families. The shame lies with the fact that our government chooses to send them back to harm, instead of exhibiting a fraction of their courage and humanity."It bears noting that both the U.S. Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals are not independent judicial bodies. They serve under the direction of the Department of Justice and Attorney General. The political nature of these courts is a clear reason why decisions like this can be made in the first place.Read more about the dysfunctional nature and unfair standards of these courts in the Ohio Immigrant Alliance's report, "The System Works As Designed: Immigration Law, Courts, and Consequences."