United States

Federal Judge Strikes Down Trump Asylum Rules for Domestic and Gang Violence Victims

The Justice Department was ordered to return plaintiffs in the lawsuit who'd been deported and give them new interviews over whether they could credibly claim asylum

Justice Department policies that made it harder for immigrants to claim asylum if they were victims of domestic or gang violence were dismissed Wednesday by a federal judge who found they violated existing immigration laws, NBC News reported.

The policies were announced in June by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who said that fear of domestic abuse or gang violence was an unacceptable basis for granting asylum.

But U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., permanently blocked government "from continuing to apply those policies and from removing plaintiffs who are currently in the United States without first providing credible fear determinations consistent with the immigration laws."

Sullivan ordered the Justice Department to return plaintiffs in the lawsuit who'd been deported and give them new interviews over whether they could credibly claim asylum.

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