NYTimes quotes Prof. Karen Musalo, Simona Agnolucci '06

UC Hastings Professor and director of the Center for Gender Refugee Studies Karen Musalo and UC Hastings alumnus Simona Agnolucci '06 were both involved in representing a closely watched domestic abuse case of a Mexican woman and her children requesting asylum in the United States. The Center for Gender Refugee Studies represented Ms. L.R. and Agnolucci represented her two children; all were granted asylum. The New York Times discusses the implications of the outcome of the case.

Asylum Granted to Mexican Woman in Case Setting Standard on Domestic Abuse
The New York Times
August 12, 2010 -- The Obama administration has granted asylum to a Mexican woman who was sexually abused and severely battered by her common-law husband. The decision, in a closely watched case, clarifies the exacting standard that domestic abuse victims must meet to win asylum.
Read the full story here.

Additional media coverage:


Mexican woman granted asylum for domestic abuse
San Francisco Chronicle
August 13, 2010 - - A Mexican woman who claimed she was beaten and raped for decades by her common-law husband has won the right to stay in the United States in a case that experts say makes clear that domestic violence is valid grounds for asylum.
Read the full story here.

Asylum from Domestic Abuse
KCBS Radio
August 13, 2010 - - Attorney Simona Agnolucci with the firm Howard Rice discusses a case involving a Mexican woman who reported abuse at the hands of her common-law husband
Listen to the interview here.


Toward Full Recognition of Domestic Violence as a Basis for Asylum
American Constitution Society Blog
August 20, 2010 - - On August 4, 2010, in a closely watched case, an immigration judge granted asylum to Ms. L.R., a woman from Mexico. The grant in Ms. L.R.'s case came on the heels of a grant of asylum in another high-profile case, that of the Guatemalan asylum seeker, Rody Alvarado. What both cases had in common is that the women asylum seekers had fled brutal violence and abuse at the hands of their male partners in a situation where neither the police nor the courts responded to repeated calls for protection
Read the full story here.