Last week, the Supreme Court granted the Trump administration’s request to review a Ninth Circuit decision that declared the U.S. government’s prior turnback policy as unlawful. Under this policy, which the government calls “metering,” border officers physically blocked people from seeking asylum at ports of entry along the southern border, turning them back to Mexico.
The Council, along with co-counsel, represent the plaintiff Al Otro Lado, a nonprofit legal services organization that serves indigent deportees, migrants, and refugees in Los Angeles and Tijuana, along with individual asylum seekers who experienced the U.S. government’s unlawful conduct firsthand.
Read more: SCOTUS to Hear Case on Turnbacks of Asylum Seekers
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Immigration court hearings should provide immigrants with a meaningful opportunity to contest their deportation. However, immigrants are facing more obstacles than ever to fairly present their cases—from immense pressure from President Trump on enforcement agencies to meet deportation quotas, to the elimination of meaningful enforcement priorities, to the massive expansion of immigrant detention centers.
Amid these barriers, however, one factor stands out as a powerful and consistent influence on outcomes: legal representation.
The Council’s new special report uses immigration court data from fiscal year (FY) 2019 through FY 2024—accessible in a new interactive data tool—to examine the role of legal representation in shaping outcomes in immigration court proceedings.
Read more: Where Can You Win in Immigration Court? The Impact of Lawyers, Detention, Geography, and Policy
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