New report proposes reforms for immigration court system

A report commissioned by the American Bar Association has found that the current system to determine whether non-citizens should be deported fails to ensure adequate due process for immigrant defendants. The report provides proposals for restructuring the system.

The nearly 500-page document, Reforming the Immigration System: Proposals to Promote Independence, Fairness, Efficiency, and Professionalism in the Adjudication of Removal Cases, was prepared by the law firm Arnold & Porter pro bono for the ABA. Though the full report is not available electronically, the ABA released an Executive Summary yesterday. The study’s authors say it is the most comprehensive review of the immigration adjudication system to date, examining both immigration court and Department of Homeland Security policies. 

The report recommends sweeping changes to promote greater fairness and efficiency. Recommendations include hiring 100 new immigration judges, restructuring immigration court to make it more independent from the Department of Justice, and establishing a right to counsel at government expense for immigrants who may have valid claims to stay in the country but cannot afford a lawyer.

The report also touches on the high proportion of immigrants who navigate the system without an attorney. According to the report, more than half of immigrants facing deportation do not have lawyers. That figure jumps to 84% for those immigrants in detention.

The question of how to increase representation of defendants in immigration court is the subject of the final installment of our three part series airing today. The first two stories can be found here and here.

The ABA has said it hopes the report will inform the national conversation on immigration reform.