Ashcroft will pass asylum case to successor

[struggle4progress]

Abused woman from Guatemala in limbo for years
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 22, 2005

A Guatemalan woman who fled to San Francisco in 1995 after a decade of brutality from her husband -- a case that Attorney General John Ashcroft had planned to use to set rules for battered women seeking political asylum -- will have to wait for action by Ashcroft's successor.

Ashcroft took over the case of Rodi Alvarado nearly two years ago after blocking Clinton administration rules that might have qualified her and many other women for asylum. But after accepting written arguments -- including a brief from a Bush administration agency that supported her asylum claim -- Ashcroft has returned the case to an immigration board to await new regulations, the Justice Department said Friday.

Alvarado's lawyer, Karen Musalo, said she was disappointed that the attorney general, who is preparing to step down, was leaving Alvarado in limbo. <snip>

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/22/BAGG7AUEKP1.DTL



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