Peter Schey, who championed the rights of immigrants over many years as a Los Angeles lawyer and led the case that overturned Proposition 187, the controversial initiative to disclaim authorities providers to undocumented immigrants, died of problems from lymphoma Tuesday at age 77.
Schey, the founder and government director of the Middle for Human Rights and Constitutional Regulation, led class-action instances on behalf of immigrants involving entry to public training, medical care and the welfare of unaccompanied minors.
Born in South Africa to oldsters who fled Germany — his father was a Jewish anti-Nazi agitator — Schey moved to San Francisco as an adolescent together with his dad and mom once they packed up throughout apartheid. He attended UC Berkeley and the California Western College of Regulation in San Diego.
After acquiring his regulation diploma, Schey represented low-income immigrants on the Authorized Assist Society of San Diego. In 1978, he based the primary nationwide assist middle devoted to defending immigrant rights, now referred to as the Nationwide Immigrant Regulation Middle.
He was lead counsel in Plyler vs. Doe, a landmark 1982 Supreme Court docket choice which discovered that states can’t deny undocumented kids entry to free public training.
“I really feel moved once I encounter people who find themselves struggling ultimately that appears pointless, that appears to end result solely from the actions of some bureaucratic official or company,” Schey later instructed The Instances.
A decade later, in Flores vs. Reno, Schey fought for the institution of minimal nationwide requirements for the remedy of detained immigrant kids and limits to how lengthy they are often held. The case stays beneath the supervision of U.S. District Choose Dolly Gee within the Central District of California.
The Trump administration tried to ax the Flores settlement settlement, which permits attorneys to periodically examine detention services the place kids are held, however the transfer was blocked in federal court docket.
Schey’s group filed a scathing report in 2018 with testimony from greater than 200 dad and mom and kids held in California, Texas and different states who described cramped cells, chilly or frozen meals and an absence of fundamental hygiene merchandise.
Peter Schey speaks outdoors Metropolis Corridor throughout a 2018 information convention about President Trump’s termination of short-term protected standing for immigrants.
(Los Angeles Instances)
Schey additionally led the case in opposition to California’s 1994 regulation, Proposition 187, that sought to disclaim medical care, social providers and training to individuals suspected of missing lawful immigration standing. League of United Latin American Residents vs. Wilson stopped the regulation from ever taking impact, and mediation a number of years later formally voided it.
Prop. 187 was seen as a turning level in California politics, mobilizing Latinos to register to vote and contributing to a major enhance in Democrats profitable native and state elections. U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla is considered one of a number of California leaders who say their political awakening got here from their activism in opposition to Prop. 187.
“From efficiently serving to fend off California’s Proposition 187 to staunchly advocating for the rights of immigrant kids and households in authorities custody, Peter was a champion for immigrants,” Padilla mentioned in a press release. “An immigrant himself from South Africa, Peter helped guarantee equal entry to public training for immigrant kids and was a trailblazer for the constitutional rights of immigrants. His legacy will reside on in communities throughout California and our nation.”
In recent times, Schey turned a controversial determine amongst immigrant advocates. As COVID-19 unfold by way of detention services in 2020, he got here beneath fireplace from fellow attorneys who disagreed together with his place that detained dad and mom might select between remaining detained with their kids or permitting their kids to be launched with out them. The opposite attorneys, from RAICES Texas and Aldea — The Folks’s Justice Middle, known as the choice “sanctioned household separation.”
And The Instances reported in 2019 that Casa Libre, a shelter he began for homeless migrant youth close to MacArthur Park, failed to satisfy requirements for state-licensed group properties and uncared for the kids in its care.
“With Casa Libre, he simply obtained in over his head,” mentioned Schey’s ex-wife and good pal Melinda Chicken. “On the finish we lastly persuaded him to search out one other group to run it.”
Father Richard Estrada, who had labored with Schey since his days as a chaplain for Spanish audio system at a Los Angeles juvenile corridor, mentioned he disagreed with Schey’s method to sure issues, such because the shelter. Nonetheless, he mentioned, Schey was an inspirational, courageous man.
“We misplaced an icon of human rights,” Estrada mentioned Wednesday.
Schey was recognized with most cancers late final yr, in response to his mates and colleagues. Carlos Holguin, who had labored alongside him since 1977, mentioned Schey went by way of chemotherapy and his well being had improved till latest days.
Holguin mentioned that whereas the general public is aware of Schey for his authorized wins, mates knew him for smaller acts of kindness, such because the instances he fed and cleaned up a homeless man who hung round outdoors their workplace.
Schey was sophisticated too, Holguin mentioned — singularly pushed, a workaholic.
“I feel I’m the one one who managed to work with him for something greater than two or three years,” he mentioned, chuckling. “None of us is ideal. However I by no means questioned the goodness of his coronary heart.”
Whereas he’s recognized for his work on immigrant rights, Schey additionally took on authorized tasks on different points. Final yr, he went to Tanzania — his first time again to Africa since his household left — to advocate to the United Nations on behalf of Maasai herders displaced by big-game hunters. He caught COVID-19 upon his return in October. When the illness didn’t go away, he lastly noticed a physician.
Chicken mentioned she was with him in his remaining days as mates and former shoppers cycled out and in of the UCLA hospital room.
Additionally within the room was a 2-by-3-foot picture of their late daughter, Alexis, who died 10 years in the past at age 28. Her demise was the best tragedy of his life, Chicken mentioned.
Earlier than discovering out the most cancers had returned, in opposition to everybody’s recommendation, Schey had began working once more. He had additionally made time to have enjoyable, attending a Sly and the Household Stone tribute band present with Chicken a number of weeks in the past.
“When he first obtained sick in October, with all these tubes popping out of him, he mentioned to me: ‘I’ve been so fortunate,’” Chicken recalled. “He saved that perspective for the entire six months.”
Schey is survived by a sister, Nicky Arden, and two kids, Michael and Alyssa Schey.
