美国国家公共电台 NPR As More Migrants Are Denied Asylum, An Abuse Survivor Is Turned Away

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now, the government shutdown began with President Trump¹ vowing² to stop Central American migrants with a wall along the southern border. And almost a month later, there is still no agreement on that wall. But another effort to stop the flow of migrants is taking hold. Judges are increasingly denying them asylum³ under a new administration policy. NPR's Joel Rose has this report on one woman's case. And just a warning - some parts of her story are disturbing.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE⁴: When the young woman from Nicaragua got off the plane in South Florida, she hadn't seen her parents in more than a decade. She says they looked exactly like they did when they left their tiny Central American town to find work in the U.S. Her eyes light up as she describes their reunion at the airport.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) When I saw them, I ran to hug them. I felt a huge joy when I saw them again. And I knew that I was going to be here protected.

ROSE: We're not using the woman's name because her parents are undocumented, and she's trying to get asylum and stay in the U.S. She fled Nicaragua with her infant son to get away from the boy's abusive father. Finally in Florida, she felt like she had escaped his grasp.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) I felt safe here. I was far away.

ROSE: But she may not be allowed to stay in the U.S. for long. The young woman arrived at a moment when immigration is paralyzing American politics. The president wants to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and keep asylum-seekers on the other side of it. The young woman from Nicaragua has the dubious⁵ distinction of being one of the first to be denied asylum under a new Trump administration policy. Evelyn Colon⁶ (ph) is her lawyer.

EVELYN COLON: So this is the file, and the first thing is that we submit...

ROSE: Colon shows me a stack of papers more than 5 inches high. The file details years of sexual and physical abuse her client described to her. Had this woman's asylum hearing been held earlier by even a few weeks, Colon thinks she would have won.

COLON: I feel in my heart that had this case been before Matter of A-B-, we would have had a different outcome, even days before A-B-.

ROSE: What she's talking about here is a court ruling known as Matter of A-B-. It was issued last June by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who oversees⁷ immigration judges. It says, in most cases, migrants fleeing from domestic abuse or gang violence do not qualify for asylum. But Colon says some judges have begun denying all domestic violence cases.

COLON: I don't think they take the time to listen to the client, even in the hearing. They just have their script.

ROSE: In her hearing last June, the Nicaraguan woman told her immigration judge that her boyfriend got increasingly violent after she got pregnant. One day, she says, he showed up drunk and started banging on the door.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) I was scared because he was screaming very loud, and he was banging on the door saying, open it. You're my woman. You have to open. He kicked the door so many times that the door fell.

ROSE: The woman says her boyfriend raped⁸ her that night. She was seven months pregnant. She believes that's why her son was born prematurely⁹ a month later. Her immigration judge said he found her to be very sympathetic. Still, he denied her request for asylum, citing the new ruling from Jeff Sessions. Mark Metcalf knows how gut-wrenching these cases can be. He used to be an immigration judge in Miami.

MARK METCALF: It's a very difficult analysis. It is not easy for the judges. I've been there. I know. It's not easy to say no to people.

ROSE: In order to get asylum in the U.S., you have to show that you've been persecuted¹⁰ because of your race, religion or other characteristics. And Metcalf, who is now a prosecutor¹¹ in Kentucky, says just being the victim of a crime doesn't qualify.

METCALF: I've had to look a person in the eye and tell them I believe you were telling me the truth. I just don't believe your claim is rewarded with asylum based on the facts that you've given to me today.

ROSE: After the ruling from Sessions last year, judges have increasingly denied asylum claims. Now they reject nearly 70 percent of all claims. But many immigration lawyers say Sessions was wrong. They say some migrants fleeing gangs and domestic violence should get asylum because their own governments did nothing to protect them. That's why the woman from Nicaragua should be allowed to stay here, argues Karen Musalo. She directs the Center for Gender¹² & Refugee Studies in San Francisco.

KAREN MUSALO: She suffered horrendous¹³ abuse. She went to the police really to no avail and tried to escape him. That's really the classic facts of a case that should have been granted.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Speaking Spanish).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Spanish).

ROSE: Back in Florida, the Nicaraguan woman picks up her son from a neighbor's apartment. He's 3 years old now, an outgoing little kid with a "Paw Patrol" backpack. Soon after he was born, she says, her boyfriend started to hit him, too.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) That's when I decided¹⁴ to go to the police.

ROSE: But the police in Nicaragua never arrested the boyfriend or even talked to him, she says. And the boyfriend, he was furious.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Through interpreter) He told me that I was never going to leave him, that I was going to be with him forever because I was his property.

ROSE: That's when she took her son and fled to the U.S. She's appealing the judge's decision in her asylum case. I asked what she'll do if she loses the appeal. She said she doesn't know, but she can't go back to Nicaragua. Joel Rose, NPR News.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 vowing   

起誓，发誓（vow的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild its collapsed bridge. 布什总统承诺将帮助明尼阿波利斯重建坍塌的大桥。
• President Bush is vowing to help Minneapolis rebuild this collapse bridge. 布什总统发誓要帮助明尼阿波利斯重建起这座坍塌的桥梁。

3 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

6 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

7 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

8 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

9 prematurely   

adv.过早地，贸然地

参考例句：

• She was born prematurely with poorly developed lungs. 她早产，肺部未发育健全。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His hair was prematurely white, but his busy eyebrows were still jet-black. 他的头发已经白了，不过两道浓眉还是乌黑乌黑的。 来自辞典例句

10 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。

11 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

12 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

13 horrendous   

adj.可怕的，令人惊惧的

参考例句：

• He described it as the most horrendous experience of his life.他形容这是自己一生中最可怕的经历。
• The mining industry in China has a horrendous safety record.中国的煤矿工业具有令人不安的安全记录。

14 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。