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Both the Obama and Trump administrations implemented versions of an expedited “rocket docket” to handle the growing number of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Trump administration, in particular, stripped away due-process protections, and well over 90% of cases ended in a deportation order, according to analysis by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.
Advocates say the current system has more safeguards for migrant families and isn’t placing them in detention facilities, but the accelerated pace still makes it tough for asylum seekers like López to find legal representation.
People in the federal immigration court system do not have the right to a court-appointed lawyer if they can’t find their own, unlike defendants in criminal court. Last year, a third of all immigrants in asylum cases did not have representation, according to data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a research center at Syracuse University.
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