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An overwhelming majority of migrant families received no legal representation during US immigration court proceedings, meaning they were more likely to be deported, and to be subject to faster proceedings, a new data analysis has revealed.
Researchers at Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (Trac) found that since a 2014 surge in border crossingsby migrant families, 38,601 immigration cases involving migrant families have been closed throughout the federal immigration court system. Seventy percent of these families had no legal representation to defend them from deportation.
The analysis revealed that 43.4% of these unrepresented families were deported at their initial court hearing, compared with just 4% of families who secured representation.
Central American migrants desperate to reach US risk new dangers at sea.
Overall, unrepresented families spent an average of just 60 days in the court system, whereas those with legal representatives spent 286 days before the courts.
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