In the United States, one of the countries with the brightest and highest number of lawyers, thousands of immigrants are placed behind bars with no legal right to a court-appointed lawyer as they fight deportation.
Studies show that immigrants with representation in court are three to four times more likely to win their cases. However, in the United States only about 35 percent of immigrants have any kind of lawyer present.
In New York, this has increased the number of appeals to the Second Circuit Court by immigrants to 39 percent. This is almost half of its caseload.
The Varick Street Detention Center in New York, which is a part of the Deparment of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has two judges handling from 500 to 800 immigrant cases each. They have an additional 950 cases pending.
Due to this overflow of cases, the detention center has been forced to mix non-criminal immigrants with legal immigrants with criminal track records that make them deportable.
Meanwhile, as the increasingly antagonistic politics of immigration become more present — particularly in a presidential election year — and thousands of layoffs in law firms, it is becoming increasingly difficult for firms to take pro bono work.
Law firms that do pro bono work for immigrants are turning to alumni groups and retired associates to volunteer.
Would requiring legal representation for immigrants who face deportation give them citizen's rights?
What are the economic repercussions?
Is turning the cases over to appeal courts and detention centers effective for the U.S.' legal system? For the immigrants themselves?
How humane is it to deprive a group of people of legal representation?
Posts in Uncovering Immigration appear on Wednesdays.
