Under the 1996 bill appropriating money for the Legal Services Corporation, Congress prohibited the Corporation from providing funds to any person or entity that provides legal assistance to ineligible aliens. Under the LSC’s 1997 funding authorization, Congress amended the previous authorization to permit recipients of LSC funds to use non-LSC money to serve poor aliens who are victims of domestic abuse on matters directly related to the abuse. The LSC has now issued a final rule carrying out the amendment. The LSC defined the term “abuse” broadly to include not only clear acts of violence, such as rape or forceful detention, but also actions that may be considered abusive because they are part of an overall pattern of violence. The LSC’s rule states that any legal assistance provided under the rule be used to assist an abuse victim to escape from the abuse, ameliorate the current effects of the abuse or protect against future abuse.
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