Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Irene Weiser" <>]

This is an URGENT action alert from www.StopFamilyViolence.org
<http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/>  
Please take action and forward as quickly and broadly as possible!

This week, the Department of Justice is hosting a two-day conference in
Washington DC to highlight the administration's efforts on behalf of abused
women. Yet how can they celebrate when Rodi Alverado has been waiting 4
years to see if Attorney General Ashcroft will grant her asylum or send her
back to Guatemala where she faces certain death? 

For ten years, Ms. Alvarado was brutally beaten by her husband in Guatemala.
Her husband raped her repeatedly, attempted to abort their second child by
kicking her in the spine, dislocated her jaw, tried to cut her hands off
with a machete, kicked her in the genitals, and broke windows with her head.
Ms. Alvarado sought assistance from the Guatemalan police and the courts but
was refused official protection. Desperate, she fled to the United States in
search of safety. 

For the past eight years, Ms. Alvarado has been engaged in another kind of
fight - a fight to stay in the United States by a grant of asylum. The
results of her case will set a national precedent for granting asylum not
just to Ms. Alvarado - but for all women fleeing from gender-based
persecutions such as stoning, honor killing, military gang rapes and sexual
trafficking. 

In February 2003 Attorney General Ashcroft certified the case to himself,
indicating that he alone would act as judge; he has yet to issue his
decision. In February 2004, the Department Of Homeland Security advised
Attorney General Ashcroft to grant asylum to Ms. Alverado - yet still he has
taken no action.

For the next 2 days, the Department of Justice is hosting a two-day
conference to highlight the administration's efforts on behalf of abused
women. 

Visit http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/sfvo/asylum.html to send a message
to Attorney General Ashcroft to urge him to announce at this forum the
decision we have all been waiting for. Tell Attorney General Ashcroft to Let
Rodi Alverado Stay! 

To really get our message across, please also CALL the department of Justice
at 202-514-2001. The message is short and simple.  Tell whoever answers the
phone your name, city, state and then say "I'm calling to urge Attorney
General Ashcroft to take immediate action to grant asylum to Rodi Alverado."


Thanks for your quick action on this issue and for forwarding this message
to others.
Our strength is in our numbers!

Together, we can... http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org
<http://www.stopfamilyviolence.orgirene/> 
Irene Weiser