Sexual Abuse Victims Can Now Receive US Asylum In Reverse Of Bush Policy

nytimes.com:

The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic beatings and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States. The action reverses a Bush administration stance on an issue at the center of a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[cliffhammond]

Does this mean that Laura Bush can move back to Washington?

[LeeCalif]

Listen for the barrage of misogony vomiting from the mouths of the right over this.

[jmpurser]

It's going to take a lot of work to heal the damage done to this nation and by this nation over the last 8 years. This is a pretty small step. But a pretty good one.

[PlaceboStudman]

+1 for Obama

Now let's see if they will do anything to improve the conditions for women (and men) who are facing physical and sexual abuse on a daily basis in THIS country.

[davidwayneosedach]

Is this only for women? Or, for abused men too? How many millions will get in under this?

[LeeCalif]

Signed,

Compassionate Conservative

[brandnewstuff]

really looks like picture from Bush TSP program.. home grown abusers

[Darwin256]

How about torture victims?

Oh wait, those guys are terrorists.

[Tammy28]

I don't know how to feel about this.

It's a good thing and it makes me proud to be an American.

Will this open the flood gates of women coming here?
What about sucide "woman" bombers who would pose to be such a victim in order to come here?

Maybe Pres. Bush scare tactic affected me afterall! 8 years of hearing such nonsense and foolishness has had a small affect.

[StacyGA]

Perhaps you should try and let go of the unreasonable paranoia. It still not too late since you ackowledge it for what it is - "nonsense and foolishness". BTW - you should fear nothing and no one; just live your life and don't worry about it.

[HPdevotee]

Thanks for your honesty. I mean, how can we all heal from the Cheney/Bush madness if we aren't open about it?
Here's my take on your question...

The women who seek asylum will have to 'prove' their abuse and it's in the proving part where the government will weed out the questionable women. Seeking asylum is a much different process than say, applying for a visa the standards are much more stringent. I know because my family sought political asylum from Cuba. All that said, no system is perfect, there may be one who slips through but given that 1000's of women's lives will be saved (on this I have no doubt) then as a free and open country we have to live our values and their consequences. Bush tried to usher in a quasi-theocratic rule and made a mockery of our values. President Obama, imo, is beginning to restore our open Republic and it's up to our elected officials to minimize the risks as much as humanly possible but there is no way to totally eliminate them in a free society.

[amalfedup]

Maybe you should remember that like any other creature on Earth humans migrate thus they should be given the right to seek asylum for survival.

[sanity2008]

This is the correct thing to do, show compassion for people who have and will endure some of the worst suffering at the hands of opressors.

[jbrantow]

Score another win for a reversal on one of GW Bush's "compassio­nate/conse­rvative" policies.

[peacekitten]

thank god. even though we ourselves still have a long way to go in the way to handle abusers, at least these women will have a good chance here to live in peace. if anyone deserves asylum, it's these women and their children. what they suffer, no one should ever have to endure.

for all that many of us have rightfully protested t0rture, in the places these women come from, it's perfectly legal to do it to them simply because they are women.

thank you, president obama. this is a long overdue act of mercy that will now give hope to a group of often forgotten victims. there is no doubt you have saved some lives today.

[Gretel1or2]

President Bush-O-Bama, Where IS THE CHANGE I voted for?


(hint....S)

[Camm s]

Don't act like you voted for him.

[PWM]

Another pretend democrat.

[brandnewstuff]

Well that is good news then again American is a habor of it's own abuse by men and a State like Texas has the worse LAWS for women.

Undoing much of Bush will take even Supreme Court powers glad the hearing is Over..

[peacekitten]

abuse of women is something VP Biden has also done a lot of good work on.

in indiana, there were no laws against the abuse of women until the 1990s.

at least here, abusers stand a good chance of going to jail, and there are networks to hide women from their abusers.

[Alethea]

If anyone needs asylum it's women like these.

I say let the floodgates open. It's the right thing to do.

P.S. why in the world did Bush hesitate on this? Who in their right mind thinks that a woman like L.R. DOESN'T need protecting? And here I was thinking that Bush would no longer surprise me with his cruel stupidity now that he's out of office. And yet.......... the man still manages to do it somehow.

[larissa68]

"why in the world did Bush hesitate on this? "

Because they were women and they were already born?

[judiNJ]

I have always thought that GW really did not "like" women, or maybe he didn't really have much "interest" in them. He never seemed to be interested in Laura, either. There was a real lack in that man, he was a "Mans' Man" and I could envision him hanging out at the local bar with the boys every night instead of spending time with his family.

[Arleen1]

This case and others like it makes me pause to consider what exactly was the Bush administration able to do about domestic and humanitarian concerns. I need to check myself and my total dislike for anything Bush. He must have been able to accomplish something good. Maybe I don't want to find it. I just prefer thinking the most ill and vile thoughts about him.