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.
