Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
October 24, 2001
A federal appeals court yesterday set aside its ruling that a battered woman from Mexico was eligible for asylum -- the nation's only decision granting refuge to a victim of domestic violence -- and ordered a new hearing at the Bush administration's request.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a majority of its 24 participating judges voted to refer the case of Rosalda Aguirre-Cervantes to an 11-judge panel for a rehearing.
In March, a three-judge panel of the court had barred deportation of the 19- year-old woman and ruled that victims of severe abuse who flee violent families, in countries that offer them little protection, are eligible for asylum in the United States.
The case could set standards for asylum for women and children who claim abuse by someone in their family or household -- battering by a parent or spouse, or so-called honor killings by relatives who say a woman's conduct has disgraced the family.
Such cases pose difficulties because asylum is legally reserved for those who face persecution for one of five reasons: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a "social group."
In President Bill Clinton's final months in office, Attorney General Janet Reno proposed regulations that would have included battered women as a "social group" in some circumstances, but her successor, John Ashcroft, has withdrawn the regulations for further study.
According to court records, Aguirre-Cervantes fled her home in Michoacan three years ago after a lifetime of beatings by her father, who also regularly beat his wife and their other children. She was arrested in Los Angeles.
The appeals court panel had ruled that one's immediate family can be a social group.
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