Press Release

Washington, D.C. – The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign denounces the Justice Department’s July 18 decision in Matter of K-E-S-G-, which attempts to eliminate life-saving protections for women and girls seeking safety in the United States. In K-E-S-G-, the Board of Immigration Appeals has declared that some women targeted for persecution and torture on the basis of their gender may no longer qualify for asylum. The ruling will serve as yet another weapon in the administration’s crusade to eviscerate due process and deny immigrants and people seeking safety their fair day in court, in service of its mass deportation agenda.

Matter of K-E-S-G- is the asylum case of a Salvadoran woman, Ms. S.G., who came to the United States seeking refuge from persecution in her home country. The Trump administration is attempting to use her case as a vehicle to wipe away decades of progress on refugee women’s rights, giving judges an excuse to reject women’s legal claims without considering them fairly. In practice, this move will result in women and girls being forced to return to countries where their lives are at risk.

The #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign and its members stand ready to defend the rights of all people seeking safety in the United States, including women and girls fleeing gender-based violence. 

To learn more about what this ruling means for our communities and how advocates are responding, register here to join our press briefing on Tuesday, July 22 at 1 pm ET/10 am PT.

“With the sweep of a pen, the administration is attempting to erase decades of progress and drag us back to an era where the persecution of women and girls was seen as inevitable and irrelevant to our refugee protection system,” said Blaine Bookey, Legal Director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) and co-counsel in Matter of K-E-S-G-. “But Trump’s Justice Department cannot distort the law to achieve its political ends. We will continue to fight for our client and for all women and girls who turn to the United States for refuge, who have a legal right to seek asylum and have their claims considered fairly under our laws.”

“The decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Matter of K-E-S-G- goes against long-accepted precedent in cases involving women seeking protection from domestic and sexual violence,” said Kursten Phelps, litigation counsel at the Tahirih Justice Center and co-counsel in Matter of K-E-S-G-. “The result could be traumatized women being forced to return to life-threatening situations. The Tahirih Justice Center will continue to fight for the rights of survivors like our client, Ms. S.G., to access legal protection and safety in this country.”

“This misguided decision is another unlawful attempt by this administration to eviscerate asylum law,” said Sabi Ardalan, Director of the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic and co-counsel in Matter of K-E-S-G-. “The U.S. asylum system protects women, like Ms. S.G., who are forced to flee their home countries because of gender-based violence. This decision does not and cannot undo the United States’ longstanding commitment to provide a safe haven for asylum seekers, like Ms. S.G.”

“Many of our clients, like Ms. S.G., have fled horrific, systemic abuse clearly motivated by their gender for which there is no protection offered by their governments,” said Farida Chehata Director of Refugee Representation at Human Rights First. “For decades, U.S. courts have granted asylum to survivors of gender-based violence based on their membership in a particular social group and this ruling attempts to upend that long established precedent. This latest assault on the rights of people seeking asylum will cause grave harm, particularly to vulnerable women and girls from all over the world, including places which are notoriously dangerous for many women and girls like Afghanistan, Eritrea, El Salvador, and elsewhere. We will continue fighting to ensure the safety of survivors of gender-based violence seeking refugee protection.” 

“This ruling is a direct attack on the fundamental human rights of women and girls fleeing in search of safety. By narrowing the legal definition of who qualifies for asylum under the Refugee Act and the Convention Against Torture, the Board of Immigration Appeals is willfully ignoring decades of established precedent and international obligations,” said Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance. “The Matter of K-E-S-G- decision weaponizes legal technicalities to deny women their right to seek protection—a move that not only violates due process but exposes countless lives to further abuse and death. Let us be clear: this is not about law and order. This is about codifying cruelty and advancing a mass deportation agenda at the expense of the most vulnerable. We reject this misogynistic, xenophobic ruling and demand its reversal. Seeking safety is a human right, not a political bargaining chip.”

“The Florence Project is dismayed by the Board of Immigration Appeals’ decision in the Matter of K-E-S-G-,” said Laura St. John, Florence Project Legal Director. “Annually, our organization serves hundreds of people who have been the victims of gender-based and sexual violence, and this decision puts them and thousands of others in similar situations in grave peril. It is unconscionable to attempt to take away asylum protections for women and girls when gender-based violence is so pervasive worldwide and so few protections exist. The Florence Project will continue to advocate tirelessly for women and girls who are victims of persecution on the basis of their gender.”