Letter from Asylum Network to Attorney General Mukasey Regarding Female Genital Cutting

The US Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) recently ended a long-standing policy allowing asylum in the United States for women and girls subjected to the ritual of female genital cutting (FGC). Ignoring the long-term and harmful health consequences of FGC, the BIA held, in essence, that FGC does not constitute a continuing form of persecution because a woman can only be cut once.

On March 6, 2008, more than 100 members of PHR's Asylum Network sent the following letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, urging him to exercise his authority to review the BIA's decision, and to reaffirm the importance of asylum to the long-term health and well-being of these refugee women and girls.

(Tell your members of Congress to urge the Attorney General to review the decision in "Matter of A-T.")