WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 26, 2018) — During a Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he will reinstate the Legal Orientation Program (LOP), which allows organizations such as the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition to provide legal assistance to detained immigrants and help them navigate the complex immigration process. This announcement came just two weeks after the Department of Justice (DOJ) through the Executive Office of Immigration (EOIR) abruptly suspended the program.
The reversal of the funding cut, though not guaranteed long term, is a victory for due process in our immigration court system. The suspension of the LOP would have terminated critical legal services to more than 50,000 people a year nationwide and more than 4,000 detained immigrants in the metropolitan Washington region that CAIR Coalition regularly sees every year.
The LOP program makes both legal and fiscal sense — court case processing times for detained LOP participants were an average 13 days shorter than those for detained persons not served by the LOP program, which, a 2012 DOJ study found, saves the government $17.8 million dollars a year. While the short-term battle to protect LOP funding has been won, securing its longevity is as pressing as ever.
Each year, thousands of people, including those who have fled countries at war, Dreamers, spouses of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and children, face deportation in a civil immigration court. About 86% of these detained immigrants go to court without legal representation. Stopping funding to these programs would cut detained immigrants off from access to their legal right to basic information and counsel.
“We will take the temporary victory today, but we will not rest until the LOP is no longer in danger of being terminated,” said Claudia Cubas, Litigation Director at CAIR Coalition.
CAIR Coalition and other organizations play the integral role of regularly visiting immigrant detention centers, providing individuals who are often unaware of their rights and next steps with information regarding the options available to them, and potentially connecting them to a pro-bono lawyer to help them get out of the detention facility.
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For more information, visit www.caircoalition.org.
