“... and it was part of their religious belief. Therefore, their fleeing the jurisdiction of the United States was motivated by a religious conviction that had been made illegal, which makes them refugees in my understanding of the word.”
Would you also have considered the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Warren Jeffs a “refugee” if he had fled to Mexico to escape the polygamy and child rape laws of the State of Utah or bigamy charges in Texas?
No, because those laws had always been in effect for Warren Jeffs. They were not imposed upon him after the fact.