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Revered nun seeks new ways to help Sister Liliane Alam, a tireless advocate for women and children immigrants and someone not many people can say "no" to, will leave El Paso later this summer. Alam, the executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, said she wanted to spend a few months with her aging mother in her native Beirut before looking for a post in which she could use her language skills to promote human rights. "Six years to run an organization is a good time. But you use all your resources, you need new blood, fresh ideas," she said. Last year, Las Americas provided free legal representation for 748 unaccompanied immigrant children, many of them housed in a special detention center in Canutillo. Las Americas' staff of nine employees, including two lawyers, also handles about 50 political asylum cases a year and visa petitions for battered women often referred by the group's volunteer outreach workers. Last week, Las Americas worked around the clock to obtain the release of a Mexican woman from immigration detention after her husband died in a car crash and she became the sole caretaker for their eight children. Alam, a Franciscan Missionaries of Mary nun, came to El Paso to take the reins of Las Americas in 2002 after an anti-immigrant backlash severely hampered fundraising and the group was $30,000 in debt. Today, the group is no longer in debt, owns the building that houses its offices at 1500 E. Yandell and is known internationally. "She revived Las Americas," said Rebeca B. Robledo, Las Americas board director and an immigration lawyer in El Paso. "She sends out grant applications every week. She's just constantly moving and researching grants." Las Americas is looking for a new executive director. Alam said she would leave in August. Alam's gift is not limited to grant writing. When she asks, people give time, money and office furniture and open their home to immigrant children in need. "I speak to the heart and when you touch the heart, nobody can say no," Alam said. Alicia Cardona, a Las Cruces grandmother, agreed to play foster mother to a 17-year-old Salvadoran girl in 2003. Cardona now considers the girl, Dunia Barahona, her granddaughter and said Alam made a perfect match. "I didn't want to at first," she said, laughing. "But Sister Liliane said that if she was married, she would have wanted a daughter like Dunia. So that really made me think that girl was special." Alam, 59, studied economics at the Université Saint Joseph in Beirut, then became a nun and taught economics for 10 years. Then, her order sent her to do humanitarian work in Egypt, Morocco and other countries. Alam speaks English, French, Arabic, Italian and Spanish. She said she learned to get along with everybody from her late brother, who was the Lebanese ambassador in Paris. Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131. Migrant advocate moves on
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