PRO BONO SPOTLIGHT
Morrison & Foerster Attorneys
Help End Indigenous Woman’s
Two-Decade Nightmare of Abuse
 Isabel
(not her real name) is an indigenous Quechua woman from Peru who
suffered two decades of unrelenting abuse at the hands of her common-law
spouse. In April 2006, Isabel was granted asylum by the Immigration
Court in San Francisco, as a result of the excellent representation
that she received from Pamela K. Dobie and Anthony Solana, Jr,
her pro bono team from Morrison & Foerster.
Isabel’s story
provides a window into a world in which women live in conditions
of desperation and violence. Born into a family of nine children,
Isabel reflected that “As both a woman
and a Quechua Indian, I held a very low social position in Peru.” At
a young age she was sent to live and work for her aunt and uncle
as a domestic servant, because her own parents could not afford
to raise her. While living with her relatives, Isabel faced the
constant threat of sexual abuse, from both her uncle and his sons.
Unable to stand the abuse any longer, she returned home. In order
to help support her family, she began working as a domestic servant
for another family. Isabel was 16 years old when she fell in love
with Manuel, the eldest son in the family, and became pregnant
with his child.
For the sake of her unborn child, Isabel tried to
make the relationship with Manuel work. But Manuel refused to marry
her or to tell his parents about the pregnancy. Instead, he began
physically abusing Isabel. Because she is indigenous and poor,
when Manuel’s
family did learn of the pregnancy, they were utterly opposed to
a marriage between the two. After Isabel refused to have an abortion,
she was tricked into going to a doctor’s office and then
forced by Manuel’s mother into having one against her will.
Later, when she became pregnant once more with Manuel’s child,
Isabel fled to another part of Peru, found work, and gave birth
to her first child.
Eventually, Manuel and Isabel reunited, and
his parents permitted them to live in the family home, where they
had a second son. It was during this time that Isabel suffered
a barrage of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse from Manuel.
Isabel stated that Manuel treated her “purely as a sexual
object.” He brutalized
and abused her with his hands and with weapons; he became particularly
enraged whenever she dared to question his drinking or his philandering.
Manuel refused to let Isabel use contraception, and instead repeatedly
forced her to abort when she became pregnant. Isabel explained, “He
said that if he allowed me to use birth control, then I would be
free to have sex with other men.”
Isabel attempted to escape
on numerous occasions. But Manuel always tracked her down, brought
her home, and threatened to kill her if she left him. Twice she
went to the police, only to be told that they would not get involved.
Her own brother, a police officer, refused to intervene.
Driven
by desperation, Isabel slowly saved enough money to escape to the
United States through Mexico. She had no choice but to leave her
children behind in the hope that they would be reunited once she
was safe.
Isabel made her way to the San Francisco Bay Area,
and she was eventually able to bring her younger son to join her.
Seeking legal protection, she went to the Asylum Program at the
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (LCCR), which assigned her case
to pro bono counsel with Morrison & Foerster. Anthony Solana,
Jr. immediately contacted CGRS, which mentors all of LCCR’s
gender cases.
CGRS advised
the Morrison & Foerster team and shared copies
of briefs and country conditions materials from other recent Peruvian
domestic violence (DV) asylum cases. Anthony Solana located a professor
who is one of the preeminent experts on domestic violence in Peru,
whose testimony supported Isabel’s claim. CGRS provided ongoing
advice and assistance as the case was prepared, including sharing
updated country research and a copy of UC Berkeley Law School Professor
Nancy Lemon’s affidavit on the gendered nature of domestic
violence. The Morrison & Foerster team was also assigned a
mentor attorney, Kari Hong, whose assistance was instrumental in
the outcome of the case.
Anthony, a fluent Spanish speaker, established
a close working relationship with Isabel, who obtained key documents,
such as her hospital records, police reports, and letters from
family and friends. The Morrison & Foerster team met several
times with Isabel to prepare her declaration, application, and
pre-hearing brief. They submitted approximately 50 exhibits, which
included reports from a psychologist, dentist (Isabel had lost
many of her teeth due to the beatings she endured), and country
conditions expert. Fortunately, both the opposing counsel and the
presiding immigration judge treated Isabel with dignity and respect
throughout the legal proceedings. The Morrison & Foerster team
effectively convinced both the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) attorney and the judge that Isabel’s claim was meritorious,
which eventually led to her gaining asylum.
Currently, Isabel lives and works in
the Bay Area. She reports that her son, now 11, is doing very well
in school and wants to become an international soccer star and
medical doctor. Isabel’s
success is particularly noteworthy because of the significant cultural
hurdles faced by indigenous women in navigating a complex foreign
legal system. However, notwithstanding the victory in her case,
domestic violence as a basis for asylum in the U.S. remains in
limbo, with the leading case of Rodi Alvarado still unresolved.
Many women are not as lucky as Isabel. Their cases have been denied
or grants of asylum have been appealed by the government, and they
must await a resolution of the stalemate in Washington, D.C., between
the DHS—which agrees that such cases do meet the legal definition
of a refugee—and the Department of Justice, which has yet
to take a positive position.
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