Biography
Margo Cowan directed the Manzo Area Council, a Tucson community organization that assisted undocumented immigrants. Federal agents raided the council in April 1976 and seized hundreds of confidential client files. A grand jury later indicted Cowan on perjury and twenty-five felony counts involving assistance to undocumented immigrants. A national community campaign sought dismissal, and the prosecution was dropped after Jimmy Carter became president. The February 25, 1977 Militant reported that immigration authorities arrested the four Manzo social workers after raids on the council’s client families, but it did not give Cowan’s exact arrest day or establish how long she was held. No booking record or custodial sentence has been established. Cowan later became an immigration-rights and public-defense attorney in Arizona.