Untold numbers of victims of violence, including women abused by their partners, could be denied asylum and deported back to danger at home because of a new ruling Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued Monday.

Sessions, as head of the Department of Justice, oversees all immigration courts and has extraordinary power to overrule decisions of judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals and to set precedents. Unlike other courts, where judges are part of the judicial branch, immigration judges report to the attorney general, whose interpretation of the law and the views that shape it trump their own. He reminded the judges that hes the boss during an annual Executive Office of Immigration Review training on Monday, telling them it will be their duty, of course, to carry out his new order.

Now hes using his power to restrict who can receive asylum, arguing a current lack of clarity and decisions that hold out hope where a fair reading of the law gives none ... have cruelly hurt many people.

His solution to stop cruelly hurting people is to deny relief to more of them.

Sessions has made clear for years that he believes most asylum claims are invalid or straight-up fraudulent, and the administration is pushing for legal changes by Congress that would allow the government to turn away or quickly deport more people who claim they fear returning to their native countries. Sessions noted during his speech Monday that most asylum applicants are already deemed ineligible by the courts.

Now that percentage is certain to increase. Sessions issued an order on a case he referred to himself, called the Matter of A-B-, overturning the Board of Immigration Appeals decision that a Salvadoran woman should receive asylum based on abuse she suffered at the hands of her husband and the polices lack of action to stop it.

Sessions decision will have implications far beyond A-B- herself. Sessions also overturned a 2014 precedent from the Board of Immigration Appeals in a separate case that has been cited in numerous asylum cases of women who suffered domestic violence. Many of the immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking asylum are Central Americans fleeing violence, often from gangs or their partners. Theyre not all crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally; many go to ports of entry and ask for help, which is legal.

Under U.S. and international law, asylum is intended for people with a fear of persecution in their native country based on race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular social group. The 2014 Board of Immigration Appeals ruling referred to as A-R-C-G- allowed judges to consider women who suffered domestic violence and can show they were unable to get help or escape their abusers to be considered a particular social group.

Sessions rejected that ruling, presenting a narrower set of criteria for asylum that could exclude not just domestic violence victims, but also people who faced threats by gangs or other non-government forces. Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum, he wrote.

He wrote that asylum-seekers must demonstrate that they are in a particular social group that exists independently of the harm asserted in an application for asylum meaning it wouldnt apply to groups defined by their experience of violence. He also said that they must show that alleged harm is inflicted by the government of her home country or by persons that the government is unwilling or unable to control.

Overall, he called for a higher bar of proof for asylum than the one many judges have been using, which he indicated in his remarks is too low.

Asylum was never meant to alleviate all problems even all serious problems that people face every day all over the world, he said in his speech Monday morning.