In PRIVATE VIOLENCE: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum (NYU Press, 2024) authors Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin present the stories of dozens of women from Central America and Mexico that exemplify the desperate need for reform to the American asylum process. The women profiled in this book are fleeing abuse inside their homes, or from gangs in their communities, and have applied for asylum in the United States. However, they face many obstacles along the way, and confront an asylum system that wasn't created to protect them. PRIVATE VIOLENCE meticulously builds the case that women seeking asylum in the United States due to domestic or gang violence should be acknowledged and protected.
Carol Cleaveland is a professor of social work at George Mason University. Michele Waslin is the assistant director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.
This event is co-sponsored by the Immigration History Research Center and the Binger Center for New Americans at the University of Minnesota, and by The Advocates for Human Rights.
Books will be available for purchase at the event.