How the US asylum process fails to protect against claims of genderbased violenceThrough eyewitness accounts of closedcourt proceedings and powerful testimony from women who have sought asylum in the United States because of severe assaults and death threats by intimate partners andor gang members Private Violence examines how immigration laws and policies shape the lives of Latin American women who seek safety in the United States. Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin describe the womens histories prior to crossing the border and the legal strategies they use to convince Immigration Judges that rape and other forms of private violence should merit asylum despite laws built on Cold War era assumptions that persecution occurs in the public sphere by state actors.Private Violence provides muchneeded recommendations for incorporating a genderbased lens in the asylum process. The authors demonstrate how policy changes across Presidential administrations have made it difficult for survivors of private violence to qualify for asylum.