This content was published on 04 April 2024 – 06:02
Los Angeles, Apr 3 (EFE).- Lawyer and activist Peter Schey, who for decades defended the rights of immigrants and achieved protections for minors who crossed the border alone, died of complications from cancer at the age of 77 in Los Angeles. , relatives reported this Wednesday. Schey, founder and executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in 1980, died in the city where he led the toughest battles to defend immigrants. The lawyer facilitated substantial changes to the US immigration system, including the landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision known as Plyler v. Doe, which allowed several million immigrant children to attend public schools. He also managed to get the US Government to sign the so-called “Flores agreement”, which prevents children from being detained for long periods of time, guaranteeing them humane and safe conditions, and reunifying them with their relatives or sponsors in the US. The judicial agreement was in the crosshairs of the Administration of former President Donald Trump, who wanted to repeal it. Schey also won a victory in a lawsuit requiring that all arrested immigrants be informed of their right not to answer questions, to have a deportation hearing and to have an attorney. He was a fundamental piece in the fight against Proposition 187 approved in California in 1984, which criminalized immigrants and proposed denying undocumented people social, medical and public education services. Born in South Africa, Schey was educated at the University of California Berkeley and maintained close ties to California’s Hispanic community. He was a member of the board of directors of El Rescate, a pro-immigrant organization founded in 1981 that welcomed the Central American and Salvadoran diaspora. “The death of Peter Schey represents the loss of a great litigator of federal immigration law with high-profile cases on immigrant rights,” Salvador Sanabria, director of El Rescate, told EFE. “We cannot forget all his contribution, we owe him a lot,” added the activist. Schey was battling a lymphoma diagnosis in recent years. EFE amv/mrl/laa
2024-04-04 03:11:50
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