Jane Fonda has made an impassioned plea to Attorney General Jeff Sessions for mercy in the case of a Salvadoran immigrant who was beaten and raped by her husband and could now be deported.
"At a time when violence against women and girls is a global crisis, a decision denying protection to women who flee gender violence, including domestic violence, would be a grave mistake," the Oscar-winning actress and activist said Thursday in a New York Times opinion piece, co-written with asylum-law expert Karen Musalo.
"This is a moment of truth of our country. Will we remain a beacon of hope for women worldwide whose lives are on the line because of domestic violence, and whose governments cannot or will not protect them? The answer, it seems, is in the attorney general’s hands."
The woman in question, according to Fonda, was beaten, kicked and threatened with death and raped over a 15-year period. She obtained a divorce and fled to the U.S. after being told by her ex that he and his friends were going to "put her in a body bag and dump her in the river."
The federal Board of Immigration granted her asylum, but Fonda says that in March, "Sessions suddenly and inexplicably stepped into this seemingly settled matter" for a reconsideration.
"To be clear, we do not yet know what Mr. Sessions will decide. But in the context of the Trump administration’s antipathy toward asylum seekers, and Mr. Sessions’s statements and actions with regard to immigrant women, his decision to assign himself jurisdiction does not bode well," Fonda said.
Fonda, who received Academy Awards for her performances in "Klute" and "Coming Home," is out with a new film on Friday called "Book Club," a PG-13 comedy co-starring Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen, Richard Dreyfuss, Wallace Shawn, Andy Garcia and Craig T. Nelson.
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