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Legal aid — and particularly the law library — are of vital help to detainees, attorneys said. According to ISLA data, more than 80 percent of detainees in the Oakdale Immigration Court had no legal representation during fiscal year 2018, running from October through September. That means the law library is often their only resource in crafting a defense, or simply providing the appropriate paperwork to stave off immediate deportation.
Legal representation makes a significant difference, too. Of the 89 percent of detainees Oakdale’s court ordered removed, 7.4 percent had representation, according to the data, derived from Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which gathers information from federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act. Conversely, more than half of the detainees who voluntarily leave, get permanent relief or are released from custody have legal representation, according to those statistics.
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