NY Immigration Judges: 14% of Legal Representation Is ‘Grossly Inadequate’

Immigrants appearing in New York immigration courts are getting inadequate representation nearly half the time, according to a new report that surveyed the judges hearing the cases.

Judges rated 33 percent of the legal representation as less than adequate and an additional 14 percent as “grossly inadequate,” according to the survey and a story on the findings (PDF) by the New York Times. Thirty-one of 33 judges on the New York Immigration Court responded to the July 2011 survey, which asked about the quality of legal representation in the past year.

“The epicenter of the quality problem is the private bar,” the report says, “which accounts for 91 percent of all representation and, according to the immigration judges surveyed, is of significantly lower quality than pro bono, nonprofit, and law school clinic providers.”

The report also said the percentage of immigrants who had lawyers was ‘abysmally low.” In New York City, 60 percent of detained immigrants did not have counsel by the time their cases were completed.

Judge Robert Katzmann of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals convened a group that studied the problem. He told the Times he believes the poor representation is the fault of predatory lawyers who aren’t familiar with immigration law. Immigrants, he said, “are easy prey for ambulance-chasing-style lawyers who do not adhere to the highest standards of responsibility."