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Flama takes on the Minutemen and Vigilantes along the border armed with the rule of law

Carrying Passion to Far Corners, San Diego Activist Burns With the Flame of Justice Women's Bar to Honor Velasquez's Work

By Claude Walbert
Daily journal Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO - As a globetrotting speaker, Lilia Velasquez told a group in Afghanistan of the need for women's rights. In China at a United Nations forum on women, she spoke about refugees. In Iraq with a human rights delegation, she spoke on sanctions.

        Back home in San Diego, Velasquez donned a "Legal Observer" T-shirt one night in July and monitored armed Minutemen at the Mexican border as they watched for illegal-immigrant crossings.

        Now, California Women Lawyers will present the immigration-law attorney with the Fay Stender Award. It is given annually to a lawyer who legally represents and speaks out for women, unpopular causes and disadvantaged groups.

        "It's in recognition of the magnitude of her influence and activity," said Pearl G. Mann, president-elect of the women lawyers group. "It's in recognition of all she had to overcome, and all the time she makes for her causes."

        The group established the award in 1982 to honor Stender, a Bay Area attorney who spent much of her career fighting for prisoners' rights.

        Among past recipients are Margaret Crosby, ACLU staff attorney in San Francisco; Abby Leibman, executive director of the California Women's Law Center in Los Angeles; and Bonnie Rose Hough, supervising attorney for the Administrative Office of the Courts, who created the family law facilitator program and other justice programs for poor women.

        Velasquez, 52, had to overcome a lot as a child. She lived until age 5 in Coyuquillo Norte, a village near the Pacific Ocean in the Mexican state of Guerrero. Her mother, separated from her husband, moved frequently around Mexico as she rebuilt her life. When Velasquez was 15, she began working in a Tijuana factory.

        After her mother married a U.S. citizen, Velasquez moved to San Diego. A counselor told her she was too old to be a high school student, so she enrolled in a community college, even though she spoke no English.

        Five years later, in 1978, she graduated from what is now San Diego State University with a degree in social work. Her law degree from California Western School of Law came three years later. By then, she had married a homicide investigator and had her first child.

        In 1985, she opened a solo immigration-law office, where over the years she has built a reputation as a lawyer willing to take on tough cases.
        In one, she secured a visa for a Mexican teenager who had been forced into prostitution. She also got a court to allow the girl's baby to be returned to her from Mexico. U.S. v. Reina, 01MG2539 (2001).

        The American Civil Liberties Union had asked Velasquez to represent the girl, Reina, who was tricked by a sex ring into believing that she could safely leave her son in Mexico while she took a baby-sitting job in the United States.
        Velasquez won Reina's visa after a federal prosecution of the ring failed because witnesses refused to testify. She also persuaded Mexican authorities to overlook their laws and return the baby to his mother.

        In 2002, Velasquez won an unusual decision in U.S. Immigration Court holding that a woman could be a true refugee even if she was fleeing domestic violence. In the matter of Iliana, A79 799 818.

        The woman, Iliana, was about to be deported to her native Costa Rica. She had fled after years of beatings and rapes by a man she had met at work when she was 15. She tried to escape by hiding in remote parts of Costa Rica, but the man found her, and the violence grew worse.

        Iliana acknowledged that she tried to enter the United States without the proper legal papers. But Velasquez won asylum for Iliana, arguing that women who resist domestic violence in Costa Rica get little help from police.

        The decision, widely publicized in Costa Rica, focused the spotlight on domestic violence in that country and caused national shame, Velasquez said.
        Velasquez has become a popular speaker on human rights, women's rights and immigration rights in nations wrestling with those as new legal issues. In addition to Iraq, Afghanistan and China, Velasquez's talks have been staged in Bolivia, Colombia, Greece, Nepal and Canada.

        She also has instructed governments on how to convert their judicial systems to the adversarial styles used in the United States, Great Britain and other Western countries.
        In the latter role, she promoted herself in Latin America as la Flama de Justicia - "the flame of justice,"
        When speaking as a member of Proyecto Acceso, a judicial reform project based at San Diego's California Western School of Law, she wore a flaming red jumpsuit to symbolize the courage she said the nations needed to change their legal systems.
        Her work was recognized by Cal Western Dean Steven R. Smith. In a letter nominating Velasquez for the Stender award, Smith said her efforts helping Chile "move from an inquisitorial system to an adversarial system have been very effective."
        Jorge Vargas, a professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, called Velasquez "the pride of the Latino community."

        Velasquez said her stint as a legal observer of the highly publicized Minutemen event was purposely scheduled on a night when no television crews were expected.
        And she didn't wear her trademark red jumpsuit, she said - just warm clothing, accompanied by a camera strapped around her neck and a notepad at the ready.
        Velasquez had no confrontations with the Minutemen.

        James Chase, who organized the group's California border watch, said he didn't encounter Velasquez but if he had they probably would have gotten along well.
        "I'm neither a racist nor do I have anything against lawyers," Chase said.
        His grandfather was a lawyer, he said, and his son hopes to become one.

        California Women Lawyers, a Sacramento-based independent bar association that advocates for feminist legislation, will present the award to Velasquez on Sept. 8 in San Diego. The ceremony will come during the concurrent conferences of the Judicial Council, California Judges Association and the State Bar of California.