 |
|
Olga Badilla, a Los Angeles immigration attorney, represents more than a dozen LGBT asylum seekers sent to Louisiana. Usually when she’s representing clients outside of California, she can rely on local advocacy groups or lawyers to meet with the clients. “In this case, there’s nothing,” she says, given how few immigration attorneys and advocates there are in northern and central Louisiana. Immigration judges in Los Angeles approve 30 percent of asylum claims, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, and Badilla had been shocked to hear about Louisiana attorneys who are resigned to losing almost all their cases before filing appeals. “From someone who practices in Los Angeles,” Badilla says, “it’s horrifying.”
|
|
|
|
