Immigration lawyer’s pro bono gains recognition from church
Chicago attorney Royal F. Berg received the Pax et Bonum Award on Oct. 1 from St. Peter’s Church in the Loop for his legal assistance to individuals caught up in immigration difficulties resulting from homeland security concerns. Previously honored by the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation, Berg graduated from The John Marshall Law School with the help of an Illinois Bar Foundation scholarship he received in 1983. Excerpts follow from his acceptance speech during the Pax et Bonum luncheon at the Palmer House Hilton. • • • I’d like to thank for Sisters of Mercy who are here. Every Friday we pray the rosary together outside the Broadview Immigration Detention Center. Fridays are deportation days for Chicago immigration. On Sept. 30, we went to the McHenry County Jail in Woodstock. It was the 11th anniversary of the enactment of the most anti-immigrant, anti-family law in the history of our country: the Illegal Immigration Reform and Control Act. We prayed outside that jail where many immigrants are held, and because of (the act) are not eligible for bond or release. McHenry County Jail is also where a young asylum seeker from Algeria, Hasiba Balbachir, was found dead in her cell last year. I owe my deepest debt to my clients, those men and women who over the last 23 years have given me the privilege of representing them and helping them negotiate the ever-changing labyrinth that is our immigration system Two of them are here today. You may have read about them, for both have had their stories featured in the local and national media. Tony Wasilewski became a U.S. citizen last month. A week before he was naturalized, he testified in Washington, D.C., before the House Immigration Subcommittee, about how his wife Janina had been deported this past June. Even though Janina had lived here 19 years and is the mother of their six-year-old son Brian, she could not get judicial review of the clearly erroneous decision denying her lawful residence in her case in federal court because of (the act). She now faces a 10-year bar to returning to the United States. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Control Act is a cruel and terrible law that must be repealed. Also here with us today is Aruna Vallabheni, a woman from India, who suffered for years at the hands of her violently abusive husband. She finally escaped and came to our country, and applied for asylum. She tried to find a lawyer, but was not able to do so. Her application was denied, and she was ordered deported. She retained me, and we won a new trial. Unfortunately, the case it not yet resolve d. We are fighting over whether our nation will do what other nations have done, and recognize domestic violence as a basis for political asylum… We are engaged in a great battle for the hearts and minds of America, over immigration and immigrants. Last May, hundreds of thousands marched down Jackson Boulevard, just a few clocks from here, asking for their chance at the American dream. We heard the outcry from the voice of division and hatred on cable news channels, and on talk radio: “This is amnesty; we can’t have amnesty.” And they won the battle, and the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill died in the Senate… What is amnesty but another word for mercy? My father taught me to appreciate Shakespeare. My favorite line from the great playwright has to do with mercy. Mercy, Shakespeare wrote, is twice blessed, benefiting both the recipient and the one bestowing mercy. If that is true, and I believe that it is, the inverse must be true as well. The withholding of mercy punishes both the person begging for it, and the one refusing it… We don’t need more jails. We don’t need more fences. We don’t need more deportations, and we don’t need more families being ripped apart. We need comprehensive, compassionate immigration reform, and we need it now. We need mercy and we need kindness. • • • For information about pro bono opportunities in immigration law, see the “Spotlight on pro bono” column in the November issue of the ISBA Bar News. |