Court Ordered To Reconsider Asylum Case

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey rebuked a mid-level federal court yesterday, ruling that the court must reconsider the asylum case of a Mali woman who fears genital mutilation if sent home.

It is rare for the nation's top law enforcement officer to reject rulings issued by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals. In the past three years, the attorney general has weighed in on three immigration cases; U.S. immigration courts rule on about 40,000 cases each year.

The panel had spurned the Malian woman's request for asylum, in part because her genitals already have been mutilated.

"The board based its analysis on a false premise: that female genital mutilation is a onetime act that cannot be repeated on the same woman," Mukasey wrote in his order. "As several courts have recognized, female genital mutilation is indeed capable of repetition."

The 28-year-old woman said she could be forced to marry a cousin if she returned to Mali, and would be powerless to prevent tribal officials from mutilating the genitals of any daughters she might have in the future. The immigration appeals panel previously has ruled that fear of female genital mutilation is solid basis for granting asylum.

Mukasey's order does not automatically grant U.S. residency to the woman.