ATLANTA – Immigrants facing deportation have less access to a lawyer in Georgia than in almost any other state.
That is the result of a recent report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a non-partisan research organization of Syracuse University.
According to the data of the Immigration Court collected by TRAC, more than 40,400 deportation cases were pending in Georgia at the end of May 2021, of which only around 15,500 were represented by lawyers. This means that the probability of being represented in high-risk deportation cases is around 39%. Only four other states had lower representation rates, with three of them – North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama – also in the southeast. None of the states with lower representation rates than Georgia has a larger backlog of deportation cases: The Peach State ranks 8th nationwide of the total pending deportation cases.
The low chance of representation for immigrants from Georgia is in part due to the fact that the state is widespread imprisonment of immigrants. According to a 2016 report by the American Immigration Council, incarcerated immigrants were the least likely to seek legal counsel, with a representation rate of only 14% (compared to around 65% for non-incarcerated immigrants). On July 22, Georgia was home to the fourth largest population of ICE prisoners in the country, according to data compiled by TRAC.
Geography is also a factor. Of the state’s three immigration courts, two are in Atlanta, but the third is in the facilities of the Stewart Detention Center in the remote small town of Lumpkin, where numbers of immigrants are detained.
Lawyers say the Stewart Court location, more than 100 miles south of Atlanta, has historically prevented lawyers from taking cases there. According to the American Immigration Council report, only 6% of Stewart detainees had access to a lawyer from 2007 to 2012, the latest data available. That is less than half the national immigrant detention rate.
Among the attorneys on site at Stewart’s Immigration Court is Matt Boles, who lives full time in Lumpkin. Boles is an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Southeast Immigrant Freedom Initiative, a program launched in 2017 to provide pro bono legal representation to immigrants in the deep south. He says that representation rates in Georgia are low in part because there are not enough pro bono services in the state to meet existing demand.
In July, the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which manages the immigration judicial system, updated its list of pro bono legal services available in Georgia. Only three providers are included in the document.
“It just shows that there is unfortunately a lack of such resources,” said Boles.
Palmer Lawrence heads the legal department of Atlanta-based Asian Americans Advancing Justice, which offers, among other things, both free and affordable deportation defense. She says her four lawyers get dozens of calls every week.
“We just can’t represent everyone,” she said. “Such deportation defenses are really very time-consuming. In principle, there are not enough lawyers who specialize in this area of law, and those who do it have to bill their time.”
In the absence of pro bono representation, many immigrants and their families struggle to find the necessary funds to hire a private lawyer. This cost barrier has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession, which has disproportionately affected the employment status of immigrant workers.
“When we talk to potential clients, they say, ‘Well, you know, I think my family used to be able to pay a lawyer. But now that person is on vacation, or has lost their job, or their hours have been cut sharply, “” Boles said. “So maybe 18 months ago they could have afforded a lawyer this time around. That is certainly not the case now. “
Unlike criminal defendants, immigrants are not entitled to a government-appointed attorney unless they can afford private representation.
Access to legal aid has an overwhelming impact on the ability of immigrants to stay in the United States
According to a 2018 report by the non-partisan think tank Vera Institute of Justice, between 2007 and 2012 only 5% of immigration cases that ended in victory were conducted without a lawyer, while 95% of successful cases were represented.
“It is almost impossible to win deportation cases without the help of a lawyer,” the report’s authors noted.
At Stewart Court, representation rates among the lowest in the country contribute to the highest deportation rates. According to the Ministry of Justice, less than 2% of the immigrants there won their cases in the 2015 financial year.
Amilcar Valencia is the managing director of El Refugio, a non-profit organization that supports immigrant detainees and their families. He says that a select few can seek meaningful representation in immigration courts – if they are fully bilingual and well-versed enough to study the laws governing the “notoriously complex” US immigration system, as the Vera Institute puts it.
“But the reality is that not everyone can do it,” said Valencia. “If you don’t have a lawyer, you’re at the mercy of ICE.”
Laurent agrees.
“I would say even most lawyers who don’t specialize in immigration don’t understand the nuances. It takes a lot of technical expertise,” she said. “It is almost impossible for a person to represent themselves and actually be successful without some kind of support.”
And while representation in court is not always successful, Valencia notes that working with a lawyer also has mental health benefits.
“Even if you know you have a lot of things against you when you have a representative, you are up to date with what is going on in your case, you know what to expect,” he said. “It affects your sanity, your morale.”
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(Lautaro Grinspan is a member of the Report for America Corps, which covers the immigrant communities in the Atlanta metropolitan area.)
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