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The Obama Administration’S Policy Change Grants Asylum To Battered Women: Female Genital Mutilation Opens The Door For All Victims Of Domestic Violence, David Z. Ma

David Z Ma

ABSTRACT Throughout his Presidential campaign in 2008 and at his inauguration on January 20, 2009, President Obama repeatedly promised the American people one absolute: change. Change would come in many forms, and on April 13, 2009, change came to immigration law and to victims of domestic violence. President Obama’s administration filed a supplemental appeal brief outlining its policies for victims of domestic violence seeking asylum in the U.S. This policy completely reversed the Bush administration’s position on the issue. Yet, how did this change come about? In the preceding decade before President Obama took office, the Board of Immigration Appeals …