On March 6, employees of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, better known as ICE, swooped down on a leather-goods factory in New Bedford and arrested approximately 360 immigrants working there.
The government raid on Michael Bianco Inc. — which, in a twist of irony, had a federal contract to make military backpacks — infuriated immigrant advocates. More than 175 of the factory workers were quickly shuffled off to Fort Devens, a decommissioned Army base in Ayer, and then flown to Texas because, federal officials claimed, there were not enough beds at the base.
"If ever there is an example or a reason for a new immigration bill, and anybody wants to know why, come to New Bedford," U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts said in a letter of complaint fired off to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
By the next day, Greater Boston Legal Services, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Political Asylum/Immigration Refugee Project and other civil-rights organizations, had stepped forward to assist the detainees. Among those in the forefront of the legal-aid effort were Nancy J. Kelly, managing attorney of GBLS' Immigration Unit, and John Willshire-Carrera, senior attorney in the unit.
By early June, of the 361 workers arrested three months earlier, more than half had been released because they were ill or because they were their children's sole caregivers. ICE officials told The Boston Globe on June 12 that 42 had been deported and 137 remained in custody, most of them in detention centers in Texas.
A half-year later, Kelly and Willshire-Carrera, who are married to each other, remain on the front lines of the battle on behalf of the immigrant workers and show no signs of giving up the fight for their clients' legal rights.
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Q. Several legal-services agencies offered to represent the detainees in the New Bedford raid back in March. What did GBLS' involvement consist of?
KELLY: It was an incredible communal effort. On the very first day, a group of mostly GBLS attorneys went out; the next day 15 went out — many people from here, and not just from the Immigration Unit. And then people from other legal-services organizations as well. So the first few days, it was going out and interviewing people and trying to get a handle on what was happening to people. Meanwhile, we were also trying to look at the question, once they started shipping people out of state ... of trying to stop that process and to look at how people were being treated in detention.
Q. Was there overlap, or were the duties of each of these agencies clearly defined?
KELLY: There was a lot of overlap. This was a situation where people worked very closely together. GBLS has been involved in individual representation in the class-action suit — the larger [federal] suit. ... So it's been a lot of agencies working closely together.
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: And we can't forget [Boston attorney] Harvey Kaplan. As a private attorney, he put in a huge amount of pro bono time working on the federal case. And we did a number of appeals of people who were detained in Texas, and we went down to Texas, and he was involved in that as well.
Q. This was hardly a one-on-one lawyer-client situation. How did you allocate your time and attention to your clients?
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: What ended up happening was there was a lot of different things that had to be done, and there were a lot of different people who came into the picture. ... First day, we devoted our time to dealing with individuals. Second and third day, Nance and I broke off and started pulling together the lawsuits. ... From then on in, on one hand you have the big picture; you do the big case; you're getting all the documentation and evidence and writing the briefs. And on other hand, you're dealing with the individuals, who are either detained or people who are being let out, and doing bond hearings; and you're also going forward on claims. We've been involved in all those levels.
KELLY: With the federal case, we've been trying to look at the group as a whole but, at the same time, trying to keep our eye on the individual cases, because one of the big issues in this case is that those individual cases have been proceeding for people. So while there's the federal suit, if the individual removal cases are proceeding and the individuals are being deported, you're going to have no clients left in the class. So it's been a real effort among a lot of people to try and keep this whole thing in balance.
Q. How did you bridge the gap between Massachusetts and Texas?
KELLY: What we did is we started making phone calls. Over that first weekend, we were trying desperately to find those people who were being detained in Texas, and, at the same time, we were trying to get in touch with people who were detained in Massachusetts. So we called everybody we could think of and used our connections, through the American Immigration Lawyers Association, to try to reach people who were doing immigration law down there [in Texas].
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: When people get sent to the detention centers, in Texas they're really processing centers. And it's impossible for people to call out, and it's really hard to figure out who's there and how to get in touch with them. And on top of it, there are lawyers in that area who do this work, but they're very few.
KELLY: And you're dealing with the same law, but it's a completely impossible situation. ... For many of the people who were detained, Spanish isn't even their first language. And then you're in a situation where [you have to ask]: How could you conduct a hearing from this kind of distance? ... Many of the judges wouldn't even allow telephonic hearings. So it's really an impossible situation to try to represent somebody in that circumstance.
Q. The whole world, quite literally, seemed to be watching these events as they unfolded. Did that make your task any easier, with offers of volunteer assistance, or more difficult, having to defend your decisions to represent undocumented immigrants?
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: What was interesting was that, because of the efforts of people in New Bedford, it quickly became a story about people and their kids, and I think people really rose up to the occasion. ... But also I think, in reality, if you deal with this community, you realize that they are honest, hard-working people. So I think a lot of people, as they got into it, realized that it was really just a story about human beings and tragedy. And that is what I think made our work so much easier because, in fact, we were dealing with real human issues.
KELLY: And I think this was a period where there's been so much lately in the media [and where] immigrants have been demonized. There's been a way of dehumanizing people, and this was a moment where this group of people was really seen as being part of our community. When we went down on the first weekend and were in the church in New Bedford, all these organizations were there trying to do what they could do. ... The thing that was amazing was all these people came out and did very simple things, like they brought Pampers and food, and tried to do whatever they could to help.
Q. What is the situation now? Is everyone back from Texas? Has anyone been deported? Is anyone being detained?
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: At this point, of that whole group, about 200 are out. As it stands now, we know that about 110 or so have been deported, so there may be about another 40 or 50 who are still in the system somewhere. ... We're still getting a couple of people out here and there.
KELLY: For each person who was arrested, ultimately there was a case. So it's a question of trying to deal with the group as a whole, but also there's a story for each person.
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: Of the people who are out, everybody is going forward on their defenses before the judges, and our office is representing over 100 people at this point. Most of them have asylum; most of them have other forms of relief.
Q. As immigration lawyers, what lessons do you take from this case, and do you expect they can be applied in future cases as the controversy over illegal immigrants persists?
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: We've done this work for years, and we know that the government's job is to protect its borders. We know that. But one thing that we realized [is] that this is sort of a new period and that there are people in the government who are much more aggressive — not everybody in ICE, but there are certain elements in ICE that are much more aggressive about doing this work. And so we learned that a lot of people who were actually detained at Fort Devens and were sent away to Texas were really badly mistreated. So that was something that really struck us and has really given this work much more urgency because you realize people have really suffered.
KELLY: This is the first time that we've seen a raid on this scale. .... A 361-person raid is huge. We were not prepared for them not allowing people out of detention, period. And then the policy of just shipping people out of the state very, very quickly — in huge numbers — was something new for us. And so we have learned now to be prepared, to think ahead. I think a lot of immigration communities are thinking about that as well.
Q. As spouses, do you always work together in the office? Do you take your cases home to discuss them there?
KELLY: I think there are pros and cons to working together. On the one hand, you don't have the problem of your partner working late; you know one person has something they have to work on late, and the other person is waiting for them. On the other hand, what happens when you work together is that when one person has to work on something late, the other person stays and helps. So you tend, at least in our case, to probably put in more time than we would if we didn't work together.
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: We do try to find space where we do other things.
Q. This is hard work you do. What are the rewards?
KELLY: Oh, my God, I think the biggest reward is that we get to work with absolutely incredible clients. And a lot of our work involves people who have been through some very difficult times, but who are tremendous survivors, and who have come through those times and are in a position where they're really moving forward and are rebuilding their lives.
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: On top of that, the truth is we're really lucky; we've worked with some very great people. [And] in our unit, we have some incredible people. And the community in Boston of people who do human rights and immigration law is a very strong community. It's a home.
Q. Will you remain here, to do what you do, for the rest of your careers?
KELLY: It's hard to imagine doing anything else. We were talking about that just this morning.
WILLSHIRE-CARRERA: This is a very good place to work. ... It's a special place.
(Late last month, after this interview was conducted, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a May ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns dismissing the civil lawsuit on behalf of the immigrants arrested in the raid at the New Bedford factory. But the court stated that "our opinion should not be read as an unqualified endorsement of the way in which immigrations officials handled the matter."
In reaction to the ruling, Kelly said, "We're considering what our next step will be.")
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Kelly and Willshire-Carrera in focus …
NANCY KELLY
Age: 56
Education: Northeastern University School of Law (1984); Antioch Institute of Open Education, Cambridge, master’s in education (1978); University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1975)
Bar admission: 1984
Professional experience: Greater Boston Legal Services (1987-present); Oakdale Legal Assistance, Louisiana (1986-1987); Stern, Shapiro, Weissberg & Garin (intermittently, 1983-1986)
Professional affiliations: American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Lawyers Guild, Boston Bar Association
JOHN WILLSHIRE-CARRERA
Age: 56
Education: Northeastern University School of Law (1985); University of Massachusetts at Amherst, master’s in economics (1976); University of Massachusetts at Amherst (1973)
Bar admission: 1986
Professional experience: Greater Boston Legal Services (1988-present); National Coalition to Study Immigrant Children (1985-1988)
Professional affiliations: American Immigration Lawyers Association, National Lawyers Guild, Boston Bar Association
Highlights of their legal careers:
Kelly: “I think maybe New Bedford is. This has been a really amazing experience. One thing it’s done is it’s sort of brought life back to us.”
Willshire-Carrera: “It’s not like we were dead, but it’s given us a whole new appreciation for a lot of things.”
How they celebrate a big win:
Kelly: “We eat dinner.”
Willshire-Carrera: “Good food”
How they celebrate a big loss:
Kelly: “Same way”
One thing about each of them that might surprise other people:
Kelly: “Maybe it would surprise people that we’ve been together since freshman year of college.”
What has kept them in the practice of law:
Kelly: “It’s the fight. There’s a real good community of people who do this work, and you feel like you’re a part of this community, and you always have somebody you can call or you can turn to.”
Willshire-Carrera: “And also, I think it’s the type of thing where you touch people and you affect people’s lives. ... For example, if there’s a big victory, our clients bring us food. We have clients who once brought us a turkey, and it wasn’t even Thanksgiving. ... For the holidays, people come with all sorts of food from Iran, from India, and from here and from there. It’s an amazing sharing.”
December 31, 2007
