A Defense of Immigration Lawyers
Jennifer Minear, the Second Vice President for the American Immigration Lawyers Association for 2017-18 and a director at McCandlish Holton in Richmond, Virginia, offers a cogent defense of immigration laws in Think Immigration:
“Apparently, it is now fashionable to blame immigration lawyers for the ills of the U.S. immigration system. It started in October when Attorney General Jeff Sessions, railed against the “dirty immigration lawyers,” baselessly charging that they are exploiting loopholes (also known as “the law”) to game our so-called “generous” asylum system. More recently, law professor Benjamin Edwards opined [in a piece that relies on the arguments in his forthcoming law review article] along similar lines in the Wall Street Journal. Promoting an upcoming law review article in which he purportedly argues for mandatory disclosure of immigration lawyers’ wins and losses, Professor Edwards essentially argues that immigration lawyers who lose a large percentage of cases are either incompetent or “predatory” “scoundrels.””
Her sensible conclusion:
“the last thing we need right now is baseless attacks and mudslinging. We need solutions. We all need to work toward a system that follows the basic rules that our Constitution requires. A system that provides due process and equality before the law. A system that respects the role of lawyers and judges in reaching the correct decision through zealous representation and thoughtful deliberations based on all the facts. I don’t think that is an impossible dream. Let’s work together to make it a reality.”
KJ