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July 16, 2009

U.S. Offers Limited Asylum Path for Abused Women
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And the Obama administration has given an opening for foreign women
victimized by domestic and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United
States. The New York Times reports the White House has provided narrow
guidelines under which women could now be granted asylum in abuse cases.
The administration outlined its new position in a court filing in the
immigration case of a Mexican woman who had been raped and held hostage
by her husband. The new policy follows a more than decade-long legal
battle over granting asylum to abused women.