San Diego - More than five months into the Trump
administration's "Remain in Mexico" program, not a single
asylum-seeker has been granted refuge in the United States as
migrants struggle to find legal representation, according to a new
report.
The report published Monday by the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse - or TRAC - at Syracuse University reviewed immigration
court records from January to the end of June. Researchers found that
of the 1,155 Remain in Mexico cases that have been decided, only 14
of them had legal representation - that is just 1.2 percent.
"Clearly, the record thus far is that very few asylum-seekers forced
to remain in Mexico have been able to secure representation for their
upcoming immigration court proceedings," the report states.
In immigration court, the government is not required to provide
applicants with free legal counsel. Migrants have the right to an
attorney as long as they can afford to hire one or find one willing
to take their cases for free.
Legal representation greatly increases someone's chances of being
granted asylum. Data shows that applicants represented by attorneys
are five times more likely to receive asylum than applicants without,
according to TRAC.
Under the Remain in Mexico policy - officially known as Migrant
Protection Protocols, or MPP - asylum-seekers who show a credible
fear of persecution in their home countries are sent to Mexico to
await asylum proceedings in the U.S.
Previously, asylum-seekers who passed the credible fear interview
were allowed to wait in the United States, usually in a detention
facility or with family members.
San Diego based-immigration attorneys weren't surprised by the lack
of legal representation available to asylum-seekers.
"There is a daily desperate call for attorneys to help," said
immigration lawyer Andrew Nietor. "There are various Listservs and
Facebook groups that attorneys who take on asylum cases belong to and
it's now a daily plea. 'Can someone take an MPP case? Is anyone
available to help?'"
In San Diego, most of the lawyers representing asylum-seekers in the
Remain in Mexico program work for nonprofits like Jewish Family
Service, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial
Counties or Al Otro Lado.
For private immigration attorneys like Nietor, the logistical hurdles
or representing someone who lives in another country are too much to
overcome.
Asylum cases are some of the most time consuming and complex cases in
immigration court. Typically, an attorney meets with a client several
times because they need to build trust, corroborate the persecution
by reaching out to other family members, and ask for police or
medical records from the home country.
"By their nature, asylum cases involve very personal stories of
persecution, abuse, often torture and rape," Nietor said. "So it's
not the sort of conversation somebody should have from a public phone
in a homeless shelter to a faceless attorney in another country."
Additionally, meeting one client in Tijuana would take an entire day
when factoring in the travel time, he added.
The lack of legal representation in Remain in Mexico appears to be
having an impact on the outcome of those cases.
Since Remain in Mexico was introduced in January, not a single
asylum-seeker has been granted asylum. It should be noted that only
1,155 Remain in Mexico cases have been decided, and there are more
than 12,900 cases pending.
Of the 1,155 cases that have been decided, 285 have resulted in
removal orders - meaning the applicant is ordered to be deported.
The vast majority of those removal orders have been granted in
absentia because the applicant did not show up to court. Only 21
Remain in Mexico cases have resulted in removal orders because of the
merits of the asylum claim. None of those cases had legal
representation, according to TRAC.
The other cases were closed because of a variety of reasons,
including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers not
properly notifying applicants of a court hearing, data shows.