A Salute to the Bravery of Escaping Domestic Violence

I want to salute the bravery it takes for a woman to take the affirmative steps necessary to escape domestic violence. 

You'll pardon me if I'm a little emotional as I write this today.  I just spent two days helping women who escaped from domestic abuse in Central America present their stories to Asylum Officers in the hope that they can gain the protection of U.S. law.  The stories have gotten me angry, and I need a constructive way to express that anger.

Sure, there's the obvious targets of my anger:  The SOBs who thinks nothing of treating their women like punching bags, or worse yet, like punching bags who had better have food on the table when I walk into the house drunk or stoned at 3:00am.  The men who feel it necessary to hold a machete tho their woman's throat to show them who's boss.  Who feel it necessary to use the most vile and foul language to constantly terrorize and tear down their women.  Who do all of this without regard to the fact that their children are in the room, watching and learning.

I'm also angry at the machismo culture that pervades much of Central America.  The culture that says a woman's identity is tied to that of her man, that says she is nothing without her man, that treats her as nothing more than property.  It's a culture where girls are trapped by decisions they make at 15 or 16, when they choose a man to be with, only later to find out his violent side when it's too late.  Of course, that's assuming the teenage girl hasn't been abducted by some SOB who thinks nothing of stalking and kidnapping in order to find a woman to tend to his needs.  It's a culture where families won't intervene in a "domestic dispute," because, well, this is the man you chose to be with.  It's a culture that adopts laws that say the right things, after all, we don't want to run afoul of the United Nations.  But, when it comes time to enforce those laws, the police are nowhere to be found.  Or, the police listen to a report of domestic abuse, only to do nothing.  Or maybe, they will arrest the guy, only to release him the next morning, angry enough to go back to his woman to teach her a lesson for making him spend a night in jail.  A culture that traps a woman, making it next to impossible for her to strike it out on her own, to make her own living without being dependent on a man.

But I'm also angry at the snot-nosed kid sitting behind the desk, who can't be more than thirty at the most, making my clients live their stories over and over again.  Worse yet, when human memory isn't perfect (as it rarely is), picking apart miniscule little holes, throwing the woman off their tracks as they try to tell their stories.  Using tiny misstatements as reason to doubt credibility.  Picking on those misstatements instead of taking in the clear emotional pain that is clearly being expressed at the mere mention of their ex-partner's name.  Using the fact that the these women do feel trapped, and for that reason did not come forward earlier, as further reason to doubt their stories.  Failing to realize that just as emotionally painful it is to retell the story in front of a total stranger, it is also painful to share that story with loved ones.  failing to understand that their very attitude is one of the reasons victims of domestic abuse don't come forward or try to escape.

I'm angry because someone has trained this snot-nosed kid to be this way.  Someone has trained him to suspect everyone seeking asylum in this country as just being a liar looking to stay in the United States the easy way.  Someone has trained him to be cold-hearted and skeptical.

I'm angry because just as the Board of Immigration Appeals releases a precedential decision that makes it clear that women who are trapped in abusive relationships that they cannot leave can indeed seek the protection of U.S. asylum law, critics, like those at the Daily Caller and Brietbart, who see it as nothing more than a way to open the flood gates to people who would flout our immigration law for the purpose of obtaining federal benefits.  Critics who would probably think nothing of telling me that all I've done is to assist those illegals in an effort to obtain amnesty.

And yet, it is in the face of all this that women like my clients had the courage to leave and seek protection.  They risked their lives leaving violent men, men who often continue to seek them out and threaten harm.  They risked their lives on the trip north, often knowing that the very Coyotes who are helping get into the promised land are going to rape them before leaving them off at the Rio Grande.  They face their fears over and over, telling their stories to their friends, their families, their lawyers, all before reaching the skeptics in the U.S. Government.

So pardon me if today I am a little angry, angry at a system that requires women to be brave in order to flee domestic violent and seek refuge in a place like the Untied States.  A system that likely exacerbates the emotional and psychological damage that has already been done.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
(571) 551-6069 (ESP)
wkovatch@kovatchlegalservices.com

Asylum Law Changes May Be Coming

The U.S. Government may grant a person asylum if that person can show that he or she has a reasonable fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.  Reasonable fear has been defined by the Supreme Court as at least a 10% chance of the persecution occurring.  Currently, an asylum application must be filed within one year of the person entering the United States.  If asylum is granted, the asylee can apply for permanent residency, and then citizenship.

If a person has not filed an asylum petition within one year, that person could still be eligible for withholding of removal.  However, the standard is higher.  The person would have to show that he or she is more likely than not to face persecution.  Those granted withholding of removal are not later entitled to apply for permanent residency or citizenship.

If the immigration reform bill currently before the Senate becomes law, a major change to U.S. asylum will take place.  The one year deadline in which to file an asylum petition will be removed.  But that's not all.  All of those people who were granted withholding of removal solely because they did not meet the one year deadline will be eligible to have their status changed to that of an asylee.

Currently, the Government protects the one year deadline zealously in Immigration Court proceedings.  Removing the deadline would open this form of relief to numerous people who would otherwise be ineligible to remain in the safety of the United States.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

Asylum Granted to Honduran Victim of Domestic Abuse

Today, Arlington Immigration Court Judge Thomas Snow granted asylum to a woman from Honduras who was a victim of domestic abuse.  For a little over two years, the woman suffered physical, mental and economic abuse at the hands of her common law husband, who threatened to find her and kill her if she ever attempted to leave.  The woman was only able to escape when a neighbor intervened to pull the husband off of the woman as the husband was attempting to choke her after an argument over the husband’s mistress.  Taking the neighbor’s advice, the woman made the treacherous journey through Guatemala and Mexico to the United States.  Once in the United States, the woman was taken into custody by Border Patrol, and placed in removal proceedings.

As counsel to the woman, we submitted evidence demonstrating that Honduras is a deeply-rooted patriarchal society, where women get their identities first from their fathers and then from their husbands.  For a single woman living alone, access to credit and good jobs is virtually impossible.  As a result, women become dependent on their husbands, and are often treated like property and abused.  The State Department, in its annual human rights reports on Honduras, reports that rape and domestic abuse are significant problems in Honduras, as is femicide, or the murder of a woman by her significant other.  In 2008, the State Department cited statistics showing that 90% of femicides in Honduras went unpunished.

Victims of domestic abuse receive little help from governmental authorities.  According to Claudia Herrmansdorfer of the Center for Women’s Rights in Tegucigalpa, the police tend to treat domestic violence as an issue that should be resolved by the couple, and do not intervene.  Likewise, prosecutors tend not to bring cases of domestic violence to court.  This means that women in an abusive relationship in Honduras receive little, if any, protection from the government.

Asylum can be granted where an applicant can show that she fears that she will be persecuted if returned to her home country because of one of five protected categories:  (1) political opinion; (2) race; (3) religion; (4) nationality or (5) membership in a particular social group.  For victims of domestic abuse, the difficulty had been to fit the reason for the abuse into one of these five categories.  In 1999, the Board of Immigration Appeals rejected an asylum application where the applicant claimed to be part of a particular social group defined as “Guatemalan women intimately involved with abusive Guatemalan male companions who believe that women are to live under male dominance.”  In 2001, the Attorney General exercised his discretion to reverse the BIA’s decision, and remand it back to Board for reconsideration.  No published opinion has resulted from that remand.

The recent trend, however, has been to grant asylum to victims of domestic abuse.  In this case, both the Immigration Judge and the attorney for the Department with Homeland Security agreed with us that the woman was part of a particular social group defined as “Honduran women who are unable to leave their domestic relationship.”  Indeed, the DHS attorney did not oppose the asylum application, allowing the Immigration Court proceedings to run smoothly.  The woman was not required to recount her emotional tale of abuse in court, but was asked only to affirm the truthfulness of her asylum application under oath.  The DHS attorney also asked questions of the woman to make sure that no statutory bars to asylum, such as criminal and terrorist activities, applied in her case.

Having been granted asylum the woman may now live and work in the United States legally.  In one year, she may apply for permanent residency status, which could eventually lead to U.S. citizenship.

By:  William J. Kovatch, Jr.

(703) 837-8832

info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

Christians and Religious Minorities in Pakistan Face Persecution at the Hands of Pakistan's Blasphemy Law

Over the past few years, turmoil and assassinations have place in Pakistan, over the country's blasphemy law.  The law creates a possible death sentence to anyone who desecrates the name of Allah or the Prophet.  But, desecration can be broad.  It can include the mishandling of papers that happen to have the name of Allah or Mohamed printed on them.

The blasphemy law has been used as a tool by Islamic extremists in Pakistan to terrorize Christians and other religious minorities.  Politicians who oppose the law have been assassinated.  The murderer of one of the politicians, his own police body guard, was sentenced to death.  However, because the Muslim extremists considered the murderer a "hero or Islam," the judge was passed the sentence had to be whisked away to Saudi Arabia for his own protection.

I go into more detail on the situation of Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan in this article:

Religious Minorities in Pakistan Charged with Blasphemy Face Possible Death Sentences.

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832
info@kovatchimmigrationlaw.com

The Roma People of Hungary Face Bigotry and Persecution

The situation that the Roma people (Gypsies) of Hungary face today is truly frightening.  A political party, Jobbik, has been gaining power in paraliamantary and local elections, railing on the "crimes of the Gypsies."  Jobbik is associated with paramilitary groups that go into Roma neighborhoods, and "patrol" looking for supposed "crimes."

I go into more detail in an article here:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Hungarys-Roma-Face-Bigotry,-Persecution&id=7308447

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.
(703) 837-8832

Christian Family from Pakistan Wins Asylum

Today, the Arlington Asylum Office of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service granted a Pakistani family, who wish to remain anonymous, asylum. The husband and father, a practicing Catholic, found himself the target of a campaign by the Sunni Ittehad Council to kill him, allegedly for desecrating the name of Mohamed. The Sunni Ittehad Council distributed flyers and posters in the family’s neighborhood, calling on true believers of Islam to kill the father for committing blasphemy.

Recent political events in Pakistan concerning that country’s blasphemy law created a dangerous situation for the family, who felt the need to flee to the United States for safety. Pakistan’s blasphemy law imposes the death sentence for anyone who desecrates the name of Allah or Mohamed. The law has been used as a weapon by Muslim extremists to harass and persecute religious minorities in Pakistan. Some Pakistani politicians have expressed their opposition to the law.

In the last year or so, two politicians who opposed Pakistan’s blasphemy were assassinated. In March of 2011, Minister of Minority Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti, the only Christian member of the Pakistani Cabinet, was assassinated for his opposition to the blasphemy law. Another outspoken opponent of the blasphemy law, Salmen Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, was assassinated by his own police bodyguard, Mumtaz Qadri. Adding insult to injury, Taseer’s son, Shahbaz Taseer, was abducted in October of 2011. Qadri stood trial for the murder of Qadri. He was convicted and sentenced to death. Muslim extremists, however, considered Qadri to be a hero of Islam, and engaged in street protests across the country over his sentence. These Muslim extremists were so feared, that the Government of Pakistan sent Syed Pervaiz Ali Shah, the judge who issued the sentence in the Qadri case, to Saudi Arabia in order to protect him and his family from reprisals.

One group of Muslim extremists who organized protests of the Qadri sentence was the Sunni Ittehad Council. Ironically, the United States gave the Sunni Ittehad Council a grant in 2009 to organize a protest against the Taliban. Since that time, however, the group changed leadership, and began vocally supporting the continued existence of Pakistan’s blasphemy law.

On Sunday, October 2, 2011, the husband and wife attended worship service at their church. On that same day, demonstrations were held across Pakistan protesting the Qadri sentence. The husband believes that some of the protestors laid in wait outside of his church, and chose to follow his car. After the husband withdrew money from an ATM, he and his wife went to a gas station, called a petrol station in Pakistan. It was there that two gunmen approached them, and hit the husband in the right hand, causing bruising. The men stole his money and his wallet, which contained his ATM card, his credit cards and a photocopy of his identification card. They grabbed the rosary beads which were hanging from the rear view mirrors, and said that Christians were not welcome here. They warned him not to report this incident to the police, and left.

Having lost his ATM card, credit cards and the photocopy of his identification card, the husband felt he had no choice but to report the incident to the police. He was most concerned with the loss of the photocopy of his identification card, fearing that now Muslim extremists had his personal identification information, which could be used to further target him. But, he also feared reporting the incident to the police. He knew that the Governor of Punjab had been assassinated by a police officer assigned to his security. He believed that Muslim extremists had connections within the police department, and that the police would let the extremists know that he reported the incident.

Less than two weeks later, the wife was driving from her mother’s house to the family’s home, with the couple’s teenage son in the car. The normal route home took her past a Mosque, where young Muslim where were sorting papers and placing them in piles. In Islam, whenever a paper has the name Allah or Mohamed written on it, it becomes holy and cannot be desecrated. Newspapers will often print Quranic verses, which means that they cannot be destroyed. The men were sorting papers with the name of Allah or the Prophet printed on them, so the papers would not be desecrated.

As she drove past the Mosque, the papers became disturbed. Some flew under her wheel. The men became angry, and started chasing the car, yelling that she had desecrated the name of the Prophet on purpose. They yelled that they were going to burn the car, and reached in to grab the teenage boy. Some men were carrying sticks, and smashed the rear passenger’s side window. Frightened, the wife stepped on the gas, and drove back to her mother’s house, where she called her husband. The husband left work and got there as soon as he could. He called the family home, where the couple’s teenage daughter was, and told her not to go outside until he came to pick her up.

The husband believed that the Muslim extremists now had everything they needed to charge him with blasphemy, and seek his death. They had his name and identifying information from the robbery. They had seen his car. Now that same car had driven by a Mosque and ran over papers with the names of Allah and the Prophet written on them. The husband also knew that under the Sharia, or Muslim law, it would only take two male Muslim witnesses to establish that he had committed blasphemy. Because of Pakistan’s blasphemy law, he feared that he and his family faced certain death. The family already had tourist visas to the United States. Using those visas, the family packed up what belongings they could, and came to the United States. The husband’s extended family in Virginia, which is where they went.

Days after arriving in Virginia, the family consulted with attorney William J. Kovatch, Jr. Kovatch specializes in immigration law. Kovatch recommended that the family apply for asylum, and agreed to represent them in the proceedings. The husband remained in contact with his neighbors back in Pakistan, who confirmed that his worst fears had come true. One of his neighbors, who worked as a security guard, stated that members of the Sunni Ittehad Council had come and asked where he was. When the guard said that the family had gone abroad, the men said that the husband was a blasphemer, that they would find him and that he would be killed for desecrating the name of the Prophet. The neighbor also stated that the Sunni Ittehad Council had distributed flyers in the neighborhood, accusing the husband of blasphemy and calling on all true believers to kill him. The flyers were on the letterhead of the Nizam-e-Mustafa Party, which translates into the party of the Law of Mohamed, or the Law of the Chosen One.

Later, the Sunni Ittehad Council hung posters up in the neighborhood, again accusing the husband of blasphemy against the Prophet and calling on true believers to kill him. These posters, however, were attached to a copy of the husband’s identification card, which bore his photograph. This appeared to confirm that the family had been the victim of a concerted effort of Muslim extremists, who shared the photocopy of the husband’s identification card with the Sunni Ittehad Council in order to perpetrate this campaign of terror against him.

“This was not an easy case to present,” said Kovatch. “Although we submitted a large stack of paper showing incidents in Pakistan where Christians faced persecution at the hands of Muslim extremists, it was difficult to get information out of Pakistan. When we submitted the application, we did not have copies of the flyers, and did not know about the posters.” In addition, although the wife and two children came to the Arlington Asylum Office with the husband on the day of his interview, the Asylum Officer declined to interview them.

At first, the Asylum Office issued a Notice of Intent to Deny, or a NOID. Among the reasons given by the NOID were that the first incident appeared to be motivated by an intent to rob, and not an intent to persecute, that the second incident did not involve the husband directly, but only his wife and son, and that there was no evidence that anyone was targeting the husband directly.

The NOID gave the husband additional time to address the concerns raised, and submit more evidence. By this time, the husband had obtained a copy of the flyers circulated in his neighborhood and had it translated. Kovatch submitted the flyer, along with a letter from a pastor from Pakistan testifying to the danger Christians faced in that country. Kovatch also submitted a letter brief, noting that the Asylum Office had applied an incorrect legal standard in the NOID. Among the arguments Kovatch made was that an asylum applicant was not required to show evidence of a direct threat against his life, if he can show a pattern of persecution against similarly situated people. Kovatch highlighted the evidence of persecution against other Christians in Pakistan. This evidence included the stories of the husband’s extended family members who had been granted asylum in the United States because of their religion. Kovatch submitted this package by overnight carrier days before the deadline to respond to the NOID.

A few days later, the husband obtained an affidavit from the security guard who told him how the Sunni Ittehad Council had come looking for him. Kovatch immediately submitted this to the Asylum Office, even though the deadline had passed. Then, the husband obtained photographs of the posters that bore his picture, and had the posters translated. Again, Kovatch immediately submitted this evidence to the Asylum Office.

 Just two weeks after submitting the last of the evidence, the family received a denial letter from the Asylum Office. The only reason given for the denial was that the information submitted “failed to overcome the grounds for denial as stated in the NOID.”

Normally, once an asylum application is denied, the applicant is referred to Immigration Court, where an Immigration Judge hears the evidence and makes an entirely new decision. When the family received the final denial, however, their permission to stay in the United States had not yet expired. Thus, with no reason to place the family in deportation proceedings, the Asylum Office did not refer the case to an Immigration Judge.

After consulting with other attorneys, Kovatch recommended that the family file a motion to reconsider the decision with the Asylum Office. The timing had to be right. It had to be submitted within thirty days of the final denial, and it had to be timed so that if the motion were denied, the family would be out of status, and thus referred to an Immigration Judge.

 Kovatch argued that the family’s due process rights had been violated because the final denial was summary in fashion, and failed to specifically address the new evidence submitted in response to the NOID. Kovatch made sure to attach all of the new evidence to the motion, and personally delivered it to the Asylum Office.

The husband was scheduled for a re-interview. The interview was with the same Asylum Officer who had previously heard the case. This time, the questions concentrated on the new evidence, and why the husband believed this was a coordinated effort among Muslim extremists. The Asylum Officer also heard from the wife, who testified emotionally about how she feared that she was going to lose her only son when her car was attacked.

Two weeks after the re-interview, the family and Kovatch went back to the Asylum Office to pick up the decision, which this time granted the family asylum. After one year, the family may apply to become permanent residents of the United States.

A year earlier, Kovatch won asylum for a woman from Nepal, who had converted from Hindu to Islam, and married a Muslim. Her father, who had beaten her, her mother and her sister in the past without police intervention, had threatened to kill her for what she had done. By winning asylum, Kovatch saved the woman from deportation. Kovatch is currently representing a woman from Western Africa, whose asylum claim is based on her fear that her daughter would face female genital mutilation if the woman were returned to her home country. That case is currently pending before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

(703) 837-8832