TRAC Immigration: Too Few Immigration Attorneys: Average Representation Rates Fall from 65% To 30%

TRAC Immigration’s latest report finds that

“There is [a] shortage [of] too few immigration attorneys. As a result, the proportion of immigrants able to find an attorney to represent them in removal proceedings has dropped precipitously. Five years ago, noncitizens had found attorneys in 65 percent of all pending cases in the Court’s backlog. Today, this proportion has dropped to just 30 percent. Yet immigration attorneys are an important ingredient for assuring efficient, not just fair, court proceedings since attorneys play a vital role in alleviating a variety of administrative delays and facilitating a more functional legal process. If an immigrant cannot afford an attorney, the civil Immigration Court system does not provide one as the criminal courts do for indigent defendants.” (footnote omitted).

KJ