It's a reversal of orders from the Biden administration that allowed migrants to claim refuge from different types of threats at home.
Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly made decisions under President Trump's administration that will now make it more difficult for women fleeing domestic abuse to seek asylum in the U.S.
The orders have the potential to impact thousands of immigration cases nationwide and are the latest motion from the Trump administration to place further restrictions on asylum protections.
The move also reverses previous orders that were in place during President Joe Biden's administration as of 2021, which permitted migrants to claim refuge in the U.S. from several different types of threats in their countries of origin - including religious persecution and domestic violence.
Bondi, 59, intervened in a number of cases to alter the criteria for granting asylum in her role as the head of the immigration-court system, The Wall Street Journal reported.
In one such case, a Honduran woman sought asylum based on belonging to several groups she claimed were targeted in Honduras, including "Honduran women unable to leave a relationship" and "Honduran women who have demonstrated resistance to Honduran society's acceptance of male domination." She argued that local law enforcement was unable or unwilling to protect members of said groups.
While the Board of Immigration Appeals has final say in the case and Bondi cannot directly rule, the attorney general has authority to intervene in any of the board's cases and overruled a previously permissible legal standard from the Biden administration's policy.
Bondi also instructed the board to reinstate the previous criteria that Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued in a 2018 case referred to as Matter of A-B-, per WSJ. Sessions was Trump's first Attorney General during his first term in office.
In the opinion this week, Bondi wrote, "Although there may be circumstances when a government's failure to control private conduct itself amounts to persecution" the 2018 opinion was "entirely correct to treat those circumstances as few and far between."
The decision comes following months of mass deportations, and pressures to close Alligator Alcatraz, an Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility located in the Florida Everglades.
A judge from the Southern District of Florida ruled that state officials have 60 days to shut down and dismantle the detention facility on Aug. 22. Additionally, Florida's Miccosukee Tribe claimed the facility impacted its access to the surrounding area and posed risks to the tribe's food and water supply.
On Thursday, Sept. 4, a three-judge federal panel in Atlanta voted 2-1 to put an indefinite hold on the Aug. 22 ruling, pending an appeal, per The Associated Press. This means the facility will continue to hold detainees.