Thanks to a $1.3 million legal fund approved by the Chicago City Council this past January, the percentage of immigrant families who have been able to access legal advice and gain court representation while fighting off deportation has surged:
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.
According to the Chicago Tribune, more than 1,500 Chicago immigrants have received free legal advice through the fund, and nearly 800 have gained counsel in court. Representation can make all the difference for an immigrant facing deportation. A 2016 study found that “an immigrant with a lawyer is seven times more likely than one without an attorney to win the right to stay in the U.S.”
As the Chicago Tribune notes, “unlike in criminal proceedings, the federal government is not required to provide legal counsel to those without the means to hire an attorney in immigration court.” This has resulted in toddlers having to go in front of an immigration judge alone. The American Immigration Council:
Detained immigrants, particularly those held in remote locations, face the additional obstacle of accessing counsel from behind bars. Yet, in every immigration case, the government is represented by a trained attorney who can argue for deportation, regardless of whether the immigrant is represented.
Anti-immigrant activists argue that undocumented immigrants shouldn’t be entitled to taxpayer-funded counsel. Undocumented immigrants may not be U.S. citizens, but they pay local and state taxes regardless, to the tune of $758.9 million in Illinois:
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.”
And, too many fall prey to notarios, or scam artists who swindle immigrants or hand out bad advice in a situation where there could be a path to stay legally in the U.S. “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,” said Reem Odeh, a local attorney who supports the fund. “You drop the ball on one element and you could potentially destroy that person’s future for him and his entire family.”