https://yubanet.com/usa/new-government-study-attempts-to-undermine-legal-orientation-program-for-detained-immigrants/
New Government Study Attempts to Undermine Legal Orientation Program for Detained Immigrants
Sept. 7, 2018 –
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released “Phase I” of its review of the federally-funded Legal Orientation Program (LOP) this week. The review came after Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempted to end the program in April but was forced to reverse that decision after receiving significant bipartisan pushback from Congress.
The LOP, which is managed by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) within the Justice Department, offers legal education as well as referrals for free and low-cost legal counsel to noncitizens in immigration detention. The LOP was started in 2003 under President George W. Bush after a pilot study found that the LOP “helped DOJ ensure that all respondents had a clear understanding of their procedural rights, led to cases being completed more quickly, and increased availability of representation [to detainees] with potential meritorious claims to relief.”
While it is not a substitute for legal counsel, the LOP does provide important information to individuals in detention about their rights and the removal process. There have been multiple studies conducted on the LOP by the federal government, nonprofit organizations, and outside third parties that reaffirm its usefulness. Every study has shown the LOP decreases the average length of time a person is in immigration detention, saving the government up to millions of dollars annually.
However, this new study released by DOJ attempts to undermine all previous evaluations of the program.
The study is the first phase of a three-phase review to be completed by the end of October 2018. Among other findings, it alleges that LOP participants spend more time in detention, costing the government more money; that LOP participants are less likely to get attorneys; and that their cases take longer to resolve.
The report presents these findings and overall numbers to show its methodology but unfortunately does not make their underlying data available for analysis.
The Vera Institute of Justice (Vera), the nonprofit organization who contracts with EOIR to run the LOP program, says this new study has “insurmountable methodological flaws in EOIR’s analysis.”
At DOJ’s request, Vera has completed and will submit its own study next week. Vera reports that it has “starkly different findings that prove the efficiencies” of the program—which would be in line with all studies of the LOP conducted over the last 16 years.
Given the Attorney General’s earlier attempts to unilaterally end the LOP, one could assume that the ultimate goal of these government studies is to justify ending the program. When evaluating the program, it will be important for Congress to take a critical look at these new DOJ studies and review them alongside the totality of evidence in support of the program. Without government-provided counsel, LOP is a critical resource for detained immigrants to receive due process in a complex immigration court system.
ImmigrationImpact.com is a project of the American Immigration Council.
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America’s Immigration Courts (run by EOIR in the Department of Justice) are failing: disappearing Due Process, horrible morale, incredible backlogs, little automation, and constant legal errors highlighted by the Article III Federal Courts. The highly acclaimed Legal Orientation Program (“LOP”), which helps detained migrants understand their rights and obtain self-help materials, is one of the few bright spots among the carnage. The LOP actually has strong bipartisan support.
So, why would a failing agency “mess with success?” In April 2018, the Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”) a radical right-wing restrictionist group with strong ties to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, raised questions about the value of the LOP. In the process, CIS made the absurd suggestion that overwhelmed and stressed out Immigration Judges could better perform the LOP’s functions. I certainly found this untrue.
Not surprisingly, shortly after the CIS article appeared, Sessions pressured EOIR into “suspending” the LOP pending a cost-benefit analysis. Only the bipartisan outrage in Congress forced Sessions to back down and “temporarily reinstate” the program. Obviously, the pre-ordained decision by Sessions to can the program because it helped migrants and supported Due Process needed some more work.
Now, the EOIR apparatchiks have obliged Sessions by presenting a skewed analysis that conflicts with every other analysis of the LOP. The study also equates shorter hearings and faster deportations of detained individuals, therefore supposedly saving the Government millions of detention dollars, with better results. But, Due Process is supposed to be about fair process, not just results the Government favors.
To give the obvious analogy, I’m sure that the vast majority of criminal defendants are ultimately convicted of something. But, that doesn’t mean that investing in the process of conducting fair trials, rather than racing everyone through the system without a fair chance to put in a defense, is constitutionally permitted.
PWS
09-09-18