Wordless Wednesday: Justice

In a recent press release from the Committee on the Judiciary, we learn that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) denied a Mali woman's application for asylum and withholding of removal even though the woman had experienced female genital mutilation (FGM) as a child and feared further abuse in a forced marriage.

The BIA determined that because the FGM had already taken place, the woman could not prove a future fear of persecution if she returned home. The Board also failed to see the threat of forced marriage as a form of persecution.

In January, Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law, wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey requesting that he overturn the BIA's decision. Earlier this week, Mukasey vacated the decision and remanded it to the court for further proceedings.

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