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Fifty-One Percent
51%

Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin on "Private Violence"

By Jesse King
Published February 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM EST
Carol Cleaveland, Michele Waslin, and New York University Press.
Carol Cleaveland Headshot, Michele Waslin Headshot, and Book Cover.

On this week’s 51%, we speak with Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, author of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum. As President Trump effectively shuts down processing at the southern border and ramps up deportations, asylum seekers in the U.S. are left in a precarious position, especially women fleeing domestic and gender-based violence. Through interviews and eyewitness accounts of closed court proceedings, Cleaveland and Waslin demonstrate how difficult it is for these women to seek shelter in the U.S., and why “gender-based violence” is still not considered grounds for asylum — even before the second Trump Administration.

Guests: Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, authors of Private Violence: Latin American Women and the Struggle for Asylum

 
This episode discusses domestic violence and sexual assault. If you or someone you love has been impacted by these issues, help is available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/6 at 1-800-799-SAFE or by texting "START" to 88788. RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline is available at 1-800-656-4673.

51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio in Albany, New York. Jesse King is our producer and host. Our associate producer is Madeleine Reynolds, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. 

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51% Asylum Seekerslatinwomen
Jesse King
Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
See stories by Jesse King
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