Immigrants have a right to counsel, but the government generally does not appoint counsel to immigrants. As a result, immigrants must either find pro bono counsel or have the means to pay for a private attorney. We advocate for all immigrants to have access to counsel at no cost to themselves:
Policy Advocacy
Denial of Justice: The Biden Administration’s Dedicated Docket in the Boston Immigration Court (6/2023)
In 2021, the Biden administration established fast-tracked removal proceedings, known as the Dedicated Docket, targeting asylum-seeking families who recently arrived in the United States. This report analyzes the impact of the Dedicated Docket on asylum-seeking families in the Boston Immigration Court. The Boston Dedicated Docket is the largest in the country, with over 20,000 asylum seekers, many of whom are children, being denied a fair and meaningful opportunity to be heard. The report finds that asylum seekers assigned to the Boston Dedicated Docket face disproportionately negative case outcomes, high rates of removal without their day in court, and barriers to accessing counsel. It calls upon the Biden administration to terminate the Dedicated Docket.
Follow Up Regarding EOIR’s Response to Advocates Call to End the Dedicated Docket (06/2023)
HIRCP, in collaboration with immigration advocates, legal service providers, court observers, and allied organizations, issued a letter to the Biden administration following up on the letter previously submitted in October 2022 and renewing calls on the Biden administration to terminate the Dedicated Docket. The letter outlines continued concerns about miscarriages of justice for asylum seekers on the Dedicated Docket, including lack of access to legal representation, removing asylum seekers in absentia without giving them their day in court, hostile treatment by immigration judges, and lack of transparency and public access to the data.
HIRCP, in collaboration with immigration advocates, legal service providers, court observers, and allied organizations, issued a letter calling on the Biden administration to terminate the Dedicated Docket—a special docket in eleven cities that seeks to expedite removal proceedings for families who recently entered the United States and are not detained. The letter raises urgent concerns about the Dedicated Docket, including that judges have ordered many families removed in absentia when they failed to appear at their hearings through no fault of their own and families’ inability to obtain legal representation. The letter joins other advocates in calling on the Biden administration to terminate the Dedicated Docket, and includes recommendations for immediate action.
The National Qualified Representative Program (“NQRP”) is a government program that provides free lawyers for detained individuals with serious mental health issues in their removal proceedings. Individuals with serious mental health issues in Dedicated Docket removal proceedings currently are not entitled to NQRP protections because they are not detained. Therefore, this white paper proposes that the federal government expand the NQRP to Dedicated Docket removal proceedings so individuals who are not competent to represent themselves are not deported without counsel.
