"Just 58.2 percent of San Francisco residents with pending immigration cases have their own attorney, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse or TRAC, a data institute out of Syracuse University that analyzed Department of Homeland Security court records. That's a far cry from the 86.4 percent of immigrants with legal representation in Sacramento County, which tops the list of 14 major California counties with 800,000 residents or more."
"A nationwide study from the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, which analyzed over 1.2 million deportation cases between 2007 and 2012, concluded that immigrants with an attorney were 15 times more likely to have a decision made in their favor than those without a lawyer. Those without an attorney only won in two percent of cases studied."
"Unlike criminal court, defendants in immigration court are not legally entitled to an attorney, even though the government is always represented. This disparity has consequences."
San Francisco immigration court faces a critical shortage of legal representation for immigrants, ranking second-worst among major California counties with only 58.2% of residents with pending cases having attorneys. This shortage stems from insufficient funding for legal service providers. Unlike criminal court, immigration defendants have no constitutional right to legal representation despite government always being represented. Research shows immigrants with attorneys are 15 times more likely to win their cases than those without, with unrepresented immigrants winning only 2% of cases. The Trump administration's complex immigration policies have intensified vulnerability for San Francisco immigrants, particularly asylum seekers facing detention and deportation risks without adequate legal counsel.
Read at Mission Local
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