Lisa Brodyaga, legal giant, dies at 81
Lisa Brodyaga, the leading defender of refugees’ rights in U.S. courts for the past 40 years, died Thursday at her home, the Refugio del Río Grande, near San Benito, Texas. She was 81. Her death was confirmed by her longtime friend, Pio Celestino.
An attorney of fierce determination, yet a farm girl at heart, Brodyaga founded the first pro bono law office to represent refugees in U.S. immigration prisons. Her death was universally mourned by defenders of refugees’ and immigrants’ rights.
“That’s terrible news. I’m so sorry for Lisa and for the countless people she has helped over decades of selfless advocacy,” said Carlos César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, professor of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at Ohio State University College of Law, and author of “Crimmigration,” a legal textbook and blog.
“There are few people as committed and ferocious as Lisa Brodyaga,” García Hernández said, upon learning she was in hospice. “Whether we know her name or not, immigration lawyers across the United States walk in her shadow and benefit from her creative, brilliant litigation.”
Lisa founded Proyecto Libertad in 1981, to represent refugees imprisoned at the blandly named Bayview Service and Processing Center, the enormous immigration prison outside Los Fresnos, Texas, commonly known as the corralón, or big corral.
https://www.courthousenews.com/lisa-brodyaga-legal-giant-dies-at-80/
