NEW YORK, Apr 7, 2010 (IPS) - Immigrants' rights activists are virtually unanimous in their endorsement of proposed legislation that would change decades of U.S. asylum practices. But proponents of the legislation fear it may never find its way out of the U.S. Senate to the president's desk.
Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 back in March. The objective of the bill is to "affirm the U.S. commitment to provide refuge to individuals fleeing persecution in their homelands."
It helps restore protection to deserving individuals fleeing persecution and torture, who have been denied refuge under increasingly restrictive immigration laws and court decisions.
The bill protects women and girls fleeing gender-based harms - such as forced marriage, female genital cutting, honour killings and domestic violence - children seeking asylum on their own, traumatised or isolated refugees who are unable to file an application for asylum within one year of arrival to the U.S., and other vulnerable victims of persecution.
Read more at IPS
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