Alison Foley '04 Recognized For Defending Immigrants' Rights
By Kristen Howley
Alison Foley '04 - barely into her second year at RWU Law when the 9/11 attacks occurred - was dismayed as she watched the U.S. succumb to the panic, anger and fingerpointing that dominated public debate in the immediate aftermath of the assault. In many ways, she said, those uncertain days profoundly colored her subsequent career path.
Foley had entered law school intending to work in the civil- or human-rights arena. But as the Bush Administration pushed through tough new policies affecting immigrants and undocumented citizens, Foley decided she could help most by focusing on immigration law - after all, that seemed to be where "international human rights" had come home to roost.
"The anti-immigrant factions in the U.S. are very, very strong right now, and they have the ear of the American public," said Foley, whose tone is soft-spoken but passionate. "They are still using the same fear-mongering tactics that we saw used all throughout the Bush years, equating immigrants to terrorists and crying that they’re taking 'American jobs' - which is pure baloney at best, and racist at worst. Unfortunately, that kind of talk really grabs people in times of crisis.”
Following September 11, Foley said, U.S. officials perceived a "clear and present danger" to the U.S. - and Arab and Muslim immigrants put a face on an otherwise unidentifiable enemy. More recently, she added, anti-immigration activists have turned their focus to immigrants from Mexico, South and Central America. The shift has been especially apparent in southern New England, where some devastating raids have taken place in the last few years.
Problems Throughout the System
For example, in March 2007, an army of more than 300 homeland security officers descended upon Michael Bianco Inc. - a New Bedford leather manufacturer engaged mainly in producing military backpacks and survival vests for U.S. troops abroad - and arrested 361 undocumented workers, most of them young women from Guatemala and El Salvador, many with children waiting in daycare centers or staying with family members.
The workers were shackled together and forced onto buses for incarceration in Fort Devens, a military facility outside Boston. It is estimated that between 100 and 200 children were separated from their families that day; two years later, some still have not been reunited, said Foley, who represents several of the women. In some cases parents were deported, while their U.S.-born children were placed into foster care here.
"What happened in those cases was that family court judges improperly took the parents' immigration status into consideration in placing the children," Foley said, explaining that such status is not supposed to be a factor in determining whether it is in a child’s best interests to remain with his or her parents.
In another raid last July, 31 employees of two Rhode Island janitorial companies - all of them maintenance workers in the six state courthouses - were rounded up by immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities. Foley helped coordinate the defense for those workers, representing several of them personally. To date, 12 have been released on humanitarian grounds, while 19 others were sent to area detention facilities - including the Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, R.I., which gained notoriety in 2008 after 34- year-old Hiu Lui Ng, a Chinese national and N.Y.-based computer engineer, died while in the facility’s custody.
"The problems at Wyatt are the same problems that exist throughout the system," Foley said. "The public outcry was getting louder after Ng’s death, so there was an investigation into the facility, but the same problems exist in every center. And we’re still not addressing the system, only the facilities!"
She added, "These raids have devastating effects on the families involved, and they’re just not catching the people who are the real security risks." Will things improve under the new Administration? Foley isn't sure, citing a similar raid conducted at the end of February in Washington State - the first major raid carried out under the Obama Administration.
"We haven’t seen anything getting better yet," Foley said. "We’re all hoping that Obama is going to really pursue reforms, but we also know that the economy has taken over and that, without serious political will, it’s not going to happen because it’s such a touchy issue."
Lawyer of the Year
Foley's efforts won recognition earlier this year when she was named as one of three "Lawyers of the Year" by Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly. The newspaper cited her involvement "in cases that raise challenging legal issues and otherwise furthering the profession’s commitment to the rule of law and to justice in the state."
While "surprised and honored" by the award, Foley was mainly pleased by the opportunity it afforded to publicize the work that she and other immigration lawyers are doing around the country.
"I was never passionate about making a lot of money or winning big cases or making a name for myself," said Foley. "I really wanted to make a difference in people’s lives, and to be a little bit of a rebel - to speak out politically. If I win a personal injury case, it doesn’t undo the injury - but if I win an immigration case it makes a huge impact on someone's life. A whole new set of doors opens for them."
Foley jumped into the immigration scene with her first job out of law school at Progreso Latino, a non-profit dedicated to helping the Latino and immigrant communities in Rhode Island achieve greater self-sufficiency and self-determination.
"Once I got into it, my passion kept building," she said. "I began to understand how deep the injustice in the system runs."
She later opened a private practice focused on family and immigration law, but soon realized that her heart was in "the practice of law and not in keeping the books." Unable to take on the asylum cases she wanted and constrained by the need to make ends meet, she finally accepted a position as legal director for the immigrant victims representation project at Catholic Social Services in Fall River, Mass., where she works today.
"I’ve always had a strong service drive; it was instilled at a young age," Foley said. "My mom was always giving back and continues to be involved with countries in Central America. My dad was involved in politics and gave me my 'leftist leanings'."
She spends countless hours working on pro bono immigration cases and volunteers with La Red de Defensa, a Providence group that works to defend the rights of immigrants and the community. Foley believes that if she hadn’t gone into law, she would have chosen another human-interest field - and she credits RWU Law for getting her to where she is today.
"I came from a very poor, working-class family," Foley said. "I put myself through college by waitressing and working in restaurants, and the same for law school. I wouldn’t have been able to go to law school at all if it hadn’t been for RWU giving me a scholarship. And I loved Roger Williams; it was a great experience. I loved going to a small school where my professors knew who I was and cared about how I did."
While earning her J.D. from RWU Law, she was involved in several student groups and activities, and was founder and president of the Christian Law Society. According to Professor Carl Bogus, for whom Foley was a legal assistant, "Alison was a bright and determined student - determined not only to excel but to acquire the knowledge and skills that would enable her to make a positive difference in the world. It's wonderful to see that she's succeeding on both counts."
Asked to advise law students interested in her brand of immigration law, Foley - a single mother of two young children, who keeps a crib wedged into her office between her desk, client chairs and stacks of files for those late nights - says it’s a tough, emotionally demanding but ultimately fulfilling job that’s perfect for … well, someone just like her.
"I can say that you won't be rewarded in a typical way," she said. "I can provide for my family, of course, but the real reward is so much sweeter than money for me. I wouldn’t change a thing in my life - unless it was to have society put a higher value on what I do, or to put more hours in the day or days in the week. But I love my kids, and I love what I do."
