Discretionary Asylum: A Protection Remedy for Refugees under the Refugee Act of 1980
![handle is hein.journals/vajint28 and id is 11 raw text is: Discretionary Asylum: A Protection
Remedy for Refugees Under the
Refugee Act of 1980
DEBORAH E. ANKER*
The Refugee Act of 1980,1 in addition to reaffirming and
strengthening the long-standing U.S. practice of providing assis-
tance and admissions programs for refugees abroad,2 for the first
time enacted into law a substantial commitment to protection for
* Lecturer on Law and Field Work Clinical Instructor, Harvard Law School Brandeis
University, B.A.; Harvard University, MAT; Northeastern University School of Law, J.D.;
Harvard Law School, LL.M. The author is indebted to the following individuals who either
commented on earlier drafts of this article or participated with her in symposia: T. Alexan-
der Aleinikoff, Gary Bello, Caroline Patty Blum, Charles Friedrich, Terry J. Helbush, Gil-
bert Jaeger, Walter Kalin, Daniel Kesselbrenner, Ira J. Kurzban, Stephen Legomsky, Goran
Melander, James A.R. Nafziger, Gerald L. Neuman, Lory D. Rosenberg, Todd D. Ra-off,
Maurice A. Roberts, Lewis D. Sargentich, John Scanlan. The author wishes in particular to
thank David Lopez, a third year student at Harvard Law School, for his assistance and
David A. Martin, not only for his comments, but for providing a forum for the development
of the analysis presented in this Article at the Ninth Sokol Colloquium on International
Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, Apr. 5, 1986. The author is responsible for
the views and analysis presented in this Article.
1. Refugee Act of 1980, Pub. L. No. 96-212, 94 Stat. 102 (codified as amended in scattered
sections of 8 U.S.C.) [hereinafter Refugee Act of 1980 or Refugee Act]. The Refugee Act
amended the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, Pub. L. No. 82-414, 66 Stat. 163
(codified as amended at 8 U.S.C.) [hereinafter INA].
2. The current provisions for the admission of refugees from abroad are contained in sec-
tion 207 of the INA, 8 U.S.C. § 1157 (1982). The Refugee Act of 1980 was the first compre-
hensive effort to rationalize and regulate overseas assistance and admissions programs for
refugees. See generally Anker & Posner, The Forty Year Crisis: A Legislative History of the
Refugee Act of 1980, 19 San Diego L. Rev. 9, 11-19, 30-62 (1981); Scanlan, Regulating Refu-
gee Flow- Legal Alternatives and Obligations Under the Refugee Act of 1980, 56 Notre
Dame Law. 618, 619-20 (1981); Note, Political Bias in United States Refugee Policy Since
the Refugee Act of 1980, 1 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 495, 499-505, 515-17 (1986). For a discussion of
the Refugee Act's overseas admissions as contrasted to asylum procedures, see infra notes
155-71 and accompanying text.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/vajint28&div=8&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Discretionary Asylum: A Protection Remedy for Refugees under the Refugee Act of 1980
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