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Ms. Alvarado was brutally beaten by her husband for a decade while the Guatemalan police and courts ignored her repeated attempts to get help. When she ran away, her husband found her and beat her until she was unconscious. Desperate, she fled to the United States in search of safety.

Persons fleeing dangerous situation in their countries arrive daily in the Uniteds States. These asylum seekers lack legal status for entering the country. To receive an opportunity to seek a grant of asylum (a legal protective status), they must prove a "credible fear of persecution." Because of the difficulty in proving this fear, many asylum seekers are detained while their case is being processed.

In February 2004 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted a detailed brief urging that Ms. Alvarado be granted asylum and promising quick action on the regulatory proposal. The heart of DHS’s position is that these women’s cases do fit the standards of persecution set forth in U.S. asylum law.

It is up to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to make the final decision in Ms. Alvarado's case, and he could issue his decision any time now. LIRS, the ELCA, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies-which represents Rodi Alvarado-and our coalition of partners are very concerned that Mr. Ashcroft may issue a negative decision.

A woman from the Dominican Republic who fled severe domestic violence was ordered deported under the act’s summary expedited removal process. A rape survivor from Albania was deported to her country of persecution under the same process. Women who have fled forced marriage, rape, forced sterilization, domestic violence and other gender-related violence have been detained in jails, sometimes for lengthy periods of time without the opportunity to challenge their detention before a judge. Other women who sought asylum based on fears of honor killing-murder by family members in the name of family honor-and genital mutilation have had their asylum claims rejected when they missed the one-year filing deadline.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the ELCA and its partners continue to call upon the U.S. government to restore fairness to the asylum process so that vulnerable women refugees who have already endured severe persecution are not unfairly denied a safe haven in this country.