Vikki Ortiz Healy reports:
“Immigrants in Chicago have seen a dramatic increase in legal representation since earlier this year, thanks in part to a fund established by the city, according to an independent study released this week by researchers at Syracuse University.
According to the report, the percentage of immigrants in Chicago who were represented in deportation hearings spiked from 30 percent in May to 57 percent in August.
“The more representation we have in court, the more we have a balanced system,” said Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center, a Chicago-based immigrant advocacy group that partnered with the city to help give legal counsel and services to thousands of immigrants threatened with deportation.
The Legal Defense Fund, approved by the Chicago City Council in January, uses $1.3 million in city funds to pay for immigrants’ legal services or to help them navigate other options to try to avoid deportation.
The fund has been used to hire attorneys at the National Immigrant Justice Center and also issue grants to 10 community organizations for outreach. So far, 1,560 Chicago residents have received free legal screenings, and immigrants have had representation in court for 766 cases. Advocates hope to offer legal representation in 1,000 cases and Know Your Rights training sessions to 20,000 people in the first year, according to officials at the center.
“Good legal advice … reduces the chances of (immigrants) being deported to a country where their lives may be in danger or of them being permanently separated from their families,” McCarthy said.
. . . .
The TRAC report showed that immigrants in all pending cases in Chicago and the collar counties had higher odds of representation than those in rural areas of the state — inconsistencies that mirror those in other states. In Cook County, immigrants were represented 72 percent of the time; 77 percent in DuPage County; 67 percent in Lake; 76 percent in Kane; 80 percent in Will; and 76 percent in McHenry. Meanwhile, immigrants in downstate Sangamon County were represented 34 percent of the time, and those in Morgan County were represented 39 percent of the time.
Because the data on legal representation is the first of its kind collected, researchers hope it will help both immigrant advocacy groups and the public understand how effective funds like the one in Chicago are over time, Long said.
“Chicago is part of a movement of trying to come up with methods to provide representation. The natural question is how effective is it? Being able to monitor that … we thought would be very useful,” she said.
Laura Mendoza, an immigration organizer for the Resurrection Project, said many immigrants she works with are grateful to learn there is a fund to help cover the cost of legal counsel. In some cases, immigrants facing deportation need documentation from a police station to prove they are victims of a crime who may qualify to stay. Lawyers and legal advocates walk them into the police stations to help get the needed paperwork.
“That could be incredibly intimidating. They may not speak the language; they may not know how things work,” Mendoza said. “They’re incredibly thankful that there is the ability to be able to get a legal consultation and to get some clarity on the questions that they have.”
Reem Odeh, a Chicago immigration attorney who owns her own firm, said she was glad to see more immigrants gaining access to attorneys because of the complexity of most cases.
“The laws for immigration are so Draconian, which means you forget one technicality or blow one deadline and you may not be able to reopen that case permanently,” Odeh said. “You drop the ball on one element and you could potentially destroy that person’s future for him and his entire family.”
***************************************
Representation in Immigration Court saves lives. Many of the individual human beings that restrictionists like to demean by calling “illegals” actually have a right to remain in the US in some status. And, all of them in the US are entitled to Due Process under our Constitution. Without lawyers, Due Process is unlikely to be achieved.
PWS
11-05-17