USC Gould Names Fellow

Allison Scott '14 to Advocate for ICE Reform

-By Gilien Silsby

Allison Scott ’14 has been awarded a one-year Immigration Clinic fellowship to investigate the provision of medical care at government immigration detention facilities.

Scott, who is working with Profs. Niels Frenzen and Elizabeth Henneke, will oversee the project, which will focus on improving medical treatment at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.

“We hope the study will lead to important reforms at ICE detention centers,” said Scott. “Documentation of the current conditions should shed light on this issue, which is often a neglected aspect of immigration detention."

The one-time fellowship is being funded by a 2013 reception honoring California State Bar President Luis Rodriguez. Los Angeles law firms Gibson Dunn; O’Melveny & Myers; Phillips Law Partners; Latham & Watkins; Sidley Austin; and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips sponsored the reception in the name of Rodriguez. 

Scott said the project has been designed with the following goals:

-      Secure appropriate treatment for detainees struggling to receive adequate care and provide materials for detainees to help them self-advocate.

-     Improve the policies and procedures for providing medical care at ICE detention facilities through coordination with national and local government agencies and other stakeholders.

-     Provide attorney practice guides, trainings and draft litigation materials to help legal teams advocate for their clients’ medical care.

-      Advance research on immigrant detention and on the provision of medical care in detention.

Scott conceived the project after working on behalf of an asylum-seeker from El Salvador, who nearly died in an ICE detention facility from an untreated bone infection. “Only through Allie’s advocacy was her client released and able to receive the treatment he so desperately needed,” Henneke said.

Added Scott, “I am determined to complete this project because I know that my client is not alone. I hope that these advocacy efforts will encourage reform.”