111 Iowa L. Rev. 1 (2025)
Abstract
In this Article, we analyze almost 8 million deportation cases to provide a comprehensive understanding of the state of access to counsel for immigrants in removal proceedings. Our findings, which revisit and extend our 2015 national study on representation in U.S. immigration court, reveal considerable strides toward improved access to counsel over the past decade. While only 37% of immigrants in completed removal cases found counsel in our initial study (from 2007 to 2012), just over half found counsel (52%) in the subsequent years (from 2013 to 2024), including 62% of unaccompanied children. Making use of a never-before-analyzed administrative database, we document that the number of legal representatives practicing in immigration courts has nearly doubled since 2006, fueled by a more active deportation defense bar, increased pro bono interest in immigration representation, and nonprofit funding from private philanthropy and government. There are now higher representation rates in small cities and in detained immigration courts, and almost two-thirds (64%) of immigrants who found counsel succeeded in avoiding deportation, such as with a grant of asylum or termination of their case.
Despite these advances, our revisiting project makes clear that there is still a severe crisis in accessing counsel in U.S. immigration courts. Showing serious signs of strain, the representation rate for nondetained immigration courts declined from 66% in our initial study to only 57%. Similarly, representation among the ballooning number of pending cases decreased from 47% in 2012 to only 31% in 2024. Deportation defense practitioners are now stretched to the breaking point: In fiscal year 2024, only 16,976 representatives provided counsel for just over 1.4 million immigrants facing removal, leaving almost 2.9 million immigrants unrepresented. When combined with recent developments at the federal level—such as cuts in funding for representation programs, pressure placed on law firm pro bono programs to decline immigration court representation, and a stepped-up deportation campaign—the looming representation deficit may soon eclipse the headway made in the last decade.