Stanford, Calif., November 6, 2014—The Northern California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice (NCCIJ) and the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Stanford Law School released a report, analyzing the effect of attorney representation in immigration removal proceedings before the San Francisco Immigration Court. 

Pangea Legal Services is a contributor to the report and one of the members of the NCCIJ collaborative. 

 

Report Finds Immigrants Represented by Attorneys Three Times More Likely to Win Deportation Cases

 

The report focuses on immigrants whom the federal government locks up while their deportation cases are pending in San Francisco Immigration Court. These Northern California immigrants can be locked up for months or even years. The federal government generally takes the position that immigrants facing deportation—even those who are detained—are not entitled to attorneys unless they can pay for them or find someone to represent them for free. The report analyzes data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, as well as a survey conducted by the Stanford clinic of all Northern California organizations that provide low- or no-cost representation to detained immigrants. The report concludes:

  • Detained immigrants with attorneys were three times more likely to win their deportation cases in San Francisco Immigration Court than those without attorneys.
  • Despite this fact, about two-thirds of detained immigrants have no legal representation at any point in their removal proceedings.
  • Many detained immigrants have family and community in Northern California. Over 50 percent of immigrants represented by the surveyed organizations had lived in the United States for at least 10 years or more, while 77 percent of the immigrants had family members living at home in the United States.

For more information, click here. 

 

CONTACT

Jayashri Srikantiah, Director, Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, Stanford Law School

(650) 724 2442 (w) or (415) 305 0794 (c)

Terry Nagel, Associate Director of Media Relations, Stanford Law School

(650) 723-2232 or (650) 678-7082

 

The following organizations are members of NCCIJ:

Alameda County Public Defender’s Office; API Legal Outreach; Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus; The Bar Association of San Francisco, Lawyer Referral and Information Service; Bay Area Legal Aid; Berkeley Law Policy Advocacy Clinic; California Immigrant Policy Center; Canal Alliance; Catholic Charities San Francisco; Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, U.C. Hastings College of Law; Central American Resource Center; Centro Legal de la Raza; Chinese for Affirmative Action; Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto; Dolores Street Community Services; East Bay Community Law Center; East Bay Sanctuary Covenant; Immigrant Legal Resource Center; Immigration Center for Women and Children; International Institute of the Bay Area; La Raza Centro Legal; La Raza Community Resource Center; Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area; Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County; Legal Services for Children; One Justice; Pangea Legal Services; San Francisco Public Defender’s Office; Social Justice Collaborative; Stanford Law School Immigrants’ Rights Clinic; Transgender Law Center; the University of California, Davis, School of Law, Immigration Clinic; and USF Immigration Clinic.