Alima Traore

I think that the immigration courts are continuing down a bad road with Matter of A-T-, which was argued by my dear colleague and sometime co-counsel Ron Richey.

Alima Traore (Ms. "A-T-") was subjected to female genital cutting (FGC) as a child and she fears being forced to marry her cousin should she be deported to her home country, Mali. Once in the U.S., she applied for asylum.

In September, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), the highest immigration court in the country, denied her request for protection, ruling that unlike forced sterilization (which it had previously recognized as a permanent, ongoing harm), FGC only happens to a woman once. Therefore, it would not pose an "ongoing harm," making her ineligible for asylum. Contrary to international law, the court also rejected her forced marriage claim, characterizing the practice as harmless family tradition rather than persecution.

The Board's decision in Alima's case marks a significant and alarming departure from previous advances made for women's rights and it has already begun having a devastating impact on women's asylum claims based on past FGC. A powerful column that appeared in The New York Times describes Alima's case.

A bipartisan sign-on effort, sponsored by Representative Steve Rothman (D-NJ) and Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), is underway in the House of Representatives to request that the Attorney General, who has the authority to review BIA decisions, certify the case to himself in order to reconsider the outrageous denial of protection to Alima Traore. The more representatives that sign on, the greater the pressure will be on the Attorney General to review the case.

To see if your representative in the House has already signed on, review the current list. If he or she has not yet signed on, contact him/her by calling the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 or sending an email by copying and pasting the following link into the address bar on your web browser: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

Tell your representative that:

The BIA's decision in Matter of A-T- is a significant departure from the U.S.'s commitment to protect women's rights across the globe
The BIA's reasoning in the this case misconstrues the nature of FGC as simply a one-time act, rather than recognizing the severe ongoing medical and psychological harm that it causes, as well as its purpose to further subjugate women in society
The BIA failed to recognize forced marriage as persecution, signaling a general hostility toward and ignorance of women's human rights
The U.S. has a proud history of protecting the rights of women who are forced to flee grave human rights violations in their home countries. We must not allow the U.S. to turn its back on the courageous women who simply want to have their fundamental rights to autonomy and bodily integrity recognized
They should sign onto the letter to the Attorney General requesting that he certify Matter of A-T- by contacting Shelly Stoneman in Congressman Rothman's office at: shelly.stoneman@mail.house.gov or (202) 225-5061.

My thanks to The Hastings Center for this alert.