Sessions issues Matter of A-B-, barring asylum for domestic violence survivors

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued Matter of A-B- on June 11, 2018, overturning a Board of Immigration Appeals precedent and ruling that domestic violence and gang violence survivors generally cannot qualify for asylum in the United States. Sessions invoked his statutory authority to certify immigration cases to himself and issue binding precedents, holding that claims based on "private violence" perpetrated by non-government actors fall outside the protected social groups recognized under asylum law. The decision reversed asylum granted to a Salvadoran domestic violence survivor, directly affecting tens of thousands of pending and future Central American asylum cases.