Big Win! Pam Bondi Slams the Gates on Asylum-Seekers Fleeing Domestic Violence

She‘s making Jeff Sessions proud.

By Danielle Han | September 4, 2025 | 6:13pm

Photo: Getty Images Politics Trump Administration

Big Win! Pam Bondi Slams the Gates on Asylum-Seekers Fleeing Domestic Violence

In June, when grilled during a Senate committee hearing over proposed budget cuts to the Department of Justice, including domestic violence support programs, Attorney General Pam Bondi pulled the I’m-an-ally card. “When I began as a prosecutor, I started in the domestic violence unit,” she stressed. “You have my word that we will do everything in our power to fight for victims of domestic violence throughout this country, as I have done my entire career.” Well, Bondi better update her résumé; as of Tuesday, that accolade’s completely defunct.

According to a report by the Washington Post, on Tuesday evening, Bondi directed the Board of Immigration Appeals, the nation’s highest court for reviewing such policy, to reconsider two immigration cases—and recommended the court tighten the standards for granting asylum status. In one of the proceedings, concerning a Honduran woman who fled domestic abuse, Bondi reportedly wrote: “Although there may be circumstances when a government’s failure to control private conduct itself amounts to persecution,” such instances are “few and far between.” (Funny, she’d also indicated the Epstein files were few and far between.)

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Family members, Bondi continued in her ruling, should show more evidence than just biological ties to prove they are part of a group targeted by gangs. (In the second case, a mother and child fled El Salvador a decade ago because of such fears.) The moves are a first for Bondi—who, until Tuesday, hadn’t yet used her power to challenge the decisions of immigration appeals courts. Good for her!

The rulings also undermine a Biden-era policy that had originally rolled back a Trump 1.0 rule—which prohibited victims of domestic abuse and gang violence from seeking asylum under U.S. law. The hateful policy had been initially implemented by Bondi’s predecessor, Jeff Sessions, who aimed to limit domestic violence victims from seeking asylum in the U.S. as early as 2020. But beyond bad ethics, these rulings go against international law. Currently, the United Nations defines refugees as “people who have fled their countries to escape conflict, violence, or persecution.”

“This is a brazen power grab by Trump’s Justice Department—an attempt to rewrite our laws to deny protection to women and families escaping deadly violence,” Karen Musalo, the Director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, said in a statement following the rulings on Wednesday. “Bondi’s [decision] attempts to turn back the clock on decades of hard-fought progress to recognize domestic and other forms of gendered violence as violations of women’s human rights.”

Team Trump is singing a different tune. “Attorney General Bondi’s decision closes loopholes opened by the previous Administration and reduces the ability of illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. for long periods of time on the basis of invalid asylum claims,” a DOJ spokesperson told WaPo. “This decision restores fidelity to the law and helps secure our border and make America safe again.” Jezebel has also reached out to the DOJ for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

While the two cases had originally appealed to circuit courts with the expectation that they could be considered under Biden-era policies, they are just a handful of the 3.7 million immigration cases being considered across the U.S. As such, Bondi’s rulings could have ugly ripple effects for thousands of similar proceedings. So much for fighting for victims, Pam.

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