Co-Sponsored by Women’s Center, Child Advocacy Studies, Department of Legal Studies, Department of Political Science Diversity Center, Organization of Latin American Students (OLAS), and Students Helping Detention Centers

Join us for a dynamic panel discussion on the impact of detention centers on the women and children housed within. The policies of family separation and detention of asylum speakers have been publicized and politicized. In this panel, we will discuss what that trauma actually means for the real people it effects every day. What can it mean for a child to be separated from parents at a young age? Why would mothers and families risk separation at the border? From what are they fleeing? How can our immigration laws and policies be changed in ways that are more meaningful and humane?

Deborah Anthony is a professor of Legal Studies at the University of Illinois Springfield. She previously practiced law representing low-income clients in the areas of domestic violence, divorce, housing, employment, civil rights, and discrimination.  She conducts research in modern and historical gender law and politics, constitutional law, family law, employment discrimination, and the legality of the current practices of the U.S. Border Patrol. In her work with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, she visited multiple Border Patrol detention centers and interviewed children detained there to assess whether they are being treated humanely and according to existing legal requirements. She has traveled to Texas on several occasions to represent women and children asylum seekers in privately-owned detention centers.

Betsy Goulet is a Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the UIS Child Advocacy Studies Program (CAST) in the College of Public Affairs and Administration. For over thirty years, Dr. Goulet has worked in child protection, serving as the founding director of the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center and working as the Children’s Policy Advisor to the Illinois Attorney General. She also started the State Chapter of Children’s Advocacy Centers in Illinois and served as the organization’s first president.

Tiffany Nielson, Ph.D., LPC is an Assistant Professor in the Human Development Counseling Department and co-coordinates the marriage, couple, and family concentration. She teaches courses in topics including child and adult abuse and trauma, family dynamics, couple counseling, and child and adolescent counseling. She has clinical experience in working with child survivors of sexual abuse and their families, adults, and couple counseling.