Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum

by Carol Cleaveland, Michele Waslin

288 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Lynn Tramonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

We hear about asylum in the news all the time, but we don't get this level of information or access. Cleaveland and Waslin connect the lived experiences of women who fled violent homes and/or communities in Central America and came to the United States, thinking we would be a source of protection when the police couldn't save them. Instead, they are put through a Kafka-esque immigration court system, often separated from their children and other loved ones for years and by hundreds of miles. Based on what the authors share, it's clear that U.S. asylum system is compounding people's traumas, leaving them in an indefinite limbo. Policymakers must ready this book, because we can and must do better.