Ask the average American what problems face the U.S. immigration system and you will likely hear responses that range from a lack of amnesty to a lack of enforcement and deportation. What you won’t hear is that immigrants in detention lack attorneys. The invisibility of this issue to the average American is not due to a lack of caring, this is simply not an issue that permeates the American zeitgeist or that is discussed by major media outlets. But for those immigrants facing deportation, access to counsel is crucial.
We now have, for the first time, hard data to help us discuss the lack of counsel for immigrants in deportation proceedings. The American Immigration Council (AIC) has released a first-of-its-kind report on the “scope and impact of attorney representation in U.S. immigration courts.”
Read the Report Here
The AIC’s findings are haunting: Just 14% of immigrants held by the government in detention between 2007 and 2012 had access to an attorney. In some areas of the country, the representation rate dropped to less than 5% of detained immigrants.
The AIC found, not surprisingly, that those immigrants in detention with counsel were much more likely to succeed in immigration court. Most striking, however, is that a detainee with counsel is 11 times more likely to even seek relief from deportation, such as asylum. Without counsel, immigrants in detention are not just losing their fight in immigration court – they are not putting up a fight.
The AIC report is a tremendous reminder of the value of the work of CAIR Coalition. We provide services to immigrants in detention in the Capital Region. We are the only non-profit solely focused on this issue. Click here to support us as we work to provide counsel to immigrants in detention in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, DC.
